Palais de Chine Hotel — Hotel in Taipei

More suitable for business travelers, please consider other options for general travel...It's next to Taipei Station, so it's easy to find, but if you're a luggage passenger, it's a torture at Taipei Main Station...1F is the information desk for luggage storage and some information. Check-in is on 6F, and the breakfast buffet is also on 6F. Supplement: The hotel is an environmentally friendly hotel, and toothpaste is provided. You can collect it yourself. If you need it, you can also consult the front desk. The process doesn't take too long. Once it's done, just swipe the very basic room card into the elevator to go to the room on the corresponding floor.Room part: Ordinary guest room on the 9th floor. The bathtub/bathroom/toilet is directly next to the door (it is a trade-off between the view of Taipei Station and the room decoration). Behind the makeup mirror/wash basin is the bed, with a comfortable mattress. , I personally think the pillows are on the soft side. If you like firmer pillows, you need to communicate with the front desk. Glass bottle water, delicious. I didn’t even touch the drinks in the refrigerator. The air-conditioning control panel is on the wall of the refrigerator, which is a failure in the decoration, mainly because it is too far away...The TV does not provide YT/Disney/Network built-in apps. You can only connect your mobile phone to the TV via wifi and then transmit the picture. The sound delay is not too loud, and most entertainment is OK! The cool thing is that the room temperature/brightness can be adjusted through the controller and TV, which at least makes up for the shortcomings of the air-conditioning control panel being far away. The control panel on the table: The alarm clock has unmatched volume in the world and can definitely help you catch up with the breakfast time that ends at 10 o'clock. Light adjustment and temperature control are the focus of this panel. I have not used other functions. If you dare to open the windows fully, you can be the first guest in the breakfast restaurant, really.Bath/tub, top-in-top, but it takes a little getting used to the rhythm of the faucet switching temperatures.The toilet is very nice, but not too outstanding because flush toilets are very common in hotels in Taiwan.Disadvantages of the room: The sink is too shallow and the water cannot be turned on even slightly.If you stay for 2 days or more, cleaning will be done before and after breakfast at about 10 o'clock every day. If not necessary, please turn on Do Not Disturb or say it verbally.Breakfast: Please order cinnamon rolls, please please please order cinnamon rolls! !Breakfast is available from 630am to 10am. Next to the checkin on 6F, please report your room number. There will be a CODE on the table, which provides mobile ordering: egg processing methods (medium/full/ohm) and the top food of this restaurant---cinnamon rolls. Oh my gosh, this cinnamon roll is just like the West cannot live without Jerusalem, and Junpin cannot live without this cinnamon roll. If I haven’t eaten enough of this cinnamon roll, I feel like I have never lived in Junpin. Of course, I won’t introduce cinnamon rolls here. , not food copywriting.The variety of meals is not very rich, but at least it takes care of most needs: meat/vegetables (salads, fruits)/bread/scrambled eggs/cold noodles/rice/steamed buns. In terms of self-service, the more delicious ones are cold noodles. If you need it, you can ask the chef to heat the soup for a while, and then you can take it to the hot pot beef section at the back to add beef soup and ingredients.Beverages: Coffee is not recommended, tea bags are okay, but I didn’t drink cold drinks, but you can just take whatever you like and see what I do.There was movenpick ice cream, but I didn't eat it because the cinnamon rolls tasted better than the ice cream.In terms of service, it is a bit slow to collect the dishes, but it is not bad. It is more practical to enjoy the first meal after waking up.(The picture is of cinnamon rolls. Anyway, my recommendation is to order it, but I didn’t seem to pay attention to the notes when ordering on my mobile phone: I ordered Shaojiang and it’s...

Like another recent review below, I am similarly baffled as to how this is a 5-star hotel. I am currently half-way through my stay between 8/22 - 9/2 and it's been abysmal.

First I was placed in 714. That room has a crazy number of issues. Upon opening the front door, you can get a strong whiff of mildew. My jet-lagged mind chalked it up to Taiwan being an extremely humid country. The shower drained extremely slowly. Only when I was relocated to another room down the hall did I realize that the drain in 714 was actually clogged.

You may be wondering WHY I was relocated down the hall. The reason: I found bugs on MY BED.

See the vid (on mobile only) attached for the unwanted guests I discovered on the night of 8/26. I don't know what it is, other than that, thankfully, they are NOT bed bugs. 3 were spotted on my bed and 1 on the desk.

Upon notifying the front desk, they were apologetic and I was initially told that they would be "upgrading" me to another "better" room (words in quotes are theirs, not mine). Thus, I was mildly surprised to see the EXACT same layout when I walked into my relocated room. So far I have not spotted another one, but my sense of comfort has completely shattered and I'm checking the damn sheets for a good 30m before I lay down now.

I'm not sure what sort of measures they took to investigate and sanitize 714, but as of writing this, the "do not disturb" light is back on in that room-- a strong indicator that another guest has likely been placed there less than 48h after I reported the issue.

Note: they did not offer ANY sort of laundry services to help me isolate the issue and prevent the spread. No bags to seal my clothing. Their literal solution was to just move me to another room. The end.

Let's skip to today, 3am on 8/29, when I've experienced that final straw. The fire alarm went off 3 times between 2-3am. After the second time, I went downstairs to the front desk (because, surprise, the line was busy-- likely from other customers complaining). The lady at the counter apologized and told me that the fire department has been contacted and the alarm had been cut-off.

Hilariously, right on cue, the alarm GOES OFF AGAIN IMMEDIATELY after she tells me that.

I emphasized repeatedly, that between the fire alarm, the bs I was just fed about how the alarm was cut, and the bug issue, there needs to be accountability and compensation. All she could do was apologize and emphasize that her supervisor "will get back to me in the morning." I pressed her on when the supervisor will get in, since I'll be busy running errands and I'd rather have this dealt with.

She caved told me that there's actually a supervisor on duty at this moment, but for some reason, it's has to be the one in the morning that reaches out to me.

Whatever. It's 3am. Between all the bullshit, I'm just done. I'll deal with this in the morning when I march downstairs bleary-eyed.

There is a balance between aesthetics and functionality; the latter is not an excuse to skimp on the former. The rooms are dark, but it doesn't evoke a moody French baroque feeling. If you can't see things, then the cleaning staff likely cannot either. There is mold where the shelving meets the wall by the sink, on the silicon where the shower wall meets the flooring, etc.

I've stayed at all-inclusive luxury hotels in Costa Rica & Mexico where the humidity was on par with Taiwan's, yet SOMEHOW, I never encountered a bug issue-- likely because those were true 5-star hotels with price tags of $600-1000 USD per night. This one was barely $200/night, so I guess the old adage of "you get what you paid for" is true.

Other more (more) minor things they missed on: Thermostat LOCKED to 22°C (~71.5°F for the freedom unit users); this is a first for a 5-star hotel. This is a cost-cutting measure because what is the point of being eco-friendly when your towels can't be hang-dried for re-use? The mixer cartridge in the sink is disproportionately dispensing more hot water than cold Zero introduction to dining and amenities in the building...

Since we were in Taipei for almost 2 weeks, I wanted to book a good, centrally located hotel as our base to explore the city. ||Because we were staying for 9 nights, I was given the option for a discounted upgrade to the Deluxe Suite King on the 16th floor (Room 1621). I decided to take it since coming from the states, we have a lot of luggage’s. The front desk lobby service was always courteous and cordial, along with the staff on the first floor helping us with luggages and hailing taxis. The room itself had great sound proofing walls. I cannot hear neighboring rooms or any traffic sounds outside. Our room also had two balcony spaces which is a great option for much needed fresh air. ||This hotel is famous for its restaurants and breakfast buffet. Breakfast buffet was included in our room rate so we ended up eating there for 9 days. It’s not as mind-blowing as I imagined, but there are a lot of choices. I enjoyed the self-service shabu meat station, that was a standout to me. You can also order eggs and omelets from the QR code assigned to your table, which I also thought was a nice tough. ||I can’t give a review of the Le Salon Lounge because our upgrade did not include complimentary access (I think the lady said I can pay $600NT by the hour). Since there are so many other activities in Taipei, I didn’t partake in this option. ||While customer service was excellent, there are some cons and other consideration points that I’d like to highlight. ||Cons:|The location. While advertised as being steps away from Taipei Main Station’s MRT, in reality the walk is actually 5-10 minutes. From the outside, it looks deceivingly close together, but to get to the MRT you’ll need to exit the hotel, make an immediate right to walk through QSquare mall to the very end (like all the way to the bus ticketing area), take an escalator down, make a couple other turns and go into the tunnels of Taipei Main Station to get to either the red line or blue line. The main station itself has madly confusing arrows and directional signs. Coupled with dealing with the huge masses at rush hour, it was quite a long walk and not a good experience getting anywhere with larger bags. ||Another option to reach the MRT is to exit the hotel and cross the pedestrian bridge to Taipei Main Station. This is the more straightforward path, but you’ll be exposed to the weather along with a few unhoused folks living on the bridge. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Taipei hotels located conveniently steps away from an MRT station, but I am upset with myself for not doing my research correctly before booking. |Unfortunately, this alone will give me pause before considering staying here again. ||Another con – the dim lighting mentioned by numerous other reviewers. I get they are going for a certain ambiance, with all the dim lighting and dark wood to mimic European vibes. It’s not executed well. In agreement with others, I found my room 1621 to be too dark. Especially at night, even turning on all lights to the brightest capacity, I was still straining my eyes to see properly. Not surprisingly, I felt my eyesight worsen during my stay. So, if you suffer from bad eyesight, this is a key consideration point. ||In summary, if you plan on taking the taxi most of the time, and you enjoy the ambiance and mood set by low dim lighting, this might be a great option. On the flip side, if you're staying for more than a week and taking advantage of the MRT and enjoy bright and light spaces, I’d consider weighing other options before...