The Tango Taipei Jiantan — Hotel in Taipei

After spending 11 days here, I would give 2 stars based on everything.

Positive: Some staff were helpful and friendly, such as cleaning lady, the gentleman who opened the door for me after checkout. Unfortunately, not all of them. The response to living condition requests was swift. I called reception for aircon filter issue on 25th night, a notice appeared in the elevator on 26th regarding the job arranged on 27th. Impressive.

To be improved: Noise. The train line is next to rooms with mountain views. Charged items. I was surprised during checkout when the receptionist told me there was a charge for using the landline. Although I was not charged because my call was not successfully connected, I strongly recommend 'what will be charged extra' and 'how they will be charged' are made crystal-clear to customers during checkin. Reception service. On 18th November, I ordered dinner through an app and the reception agreed to accept the delivery for me. However, no one called me through landline after they received my delivery. 5 minutes later I went to the reception and found my order was left on the counter. Not informing customers after accepting the delivery for them is beyond my understanding. Signage and due care. The building layout confuses guests the room I booked with the staff-only room next to it, it happened once. I strongly recommend using additional signage for clear indication. Furthermore, on 22nd between 12:01AM and 12:07AM, I heard someone knock on my door. The receptionist told me they checked CCTV, it was a staff exiting the staff room and accidentally touched my door. They should take additional care in this kind of situation under their building layout. Information disclosure. I found the hotel through the platform 'Booking' and booked the room for 13 days, I was not asked to sign any agreement with or pay anything to the platform, the communication of my booking was then directly between me and the hotel. I paid the hotel full amount during checkin. Due to unforeseen reasons, I had to end my holiday earlier. I informed a staff on 23rd night, he told me they couldn’t do anything because I booked through the platform. I checked my booking emails but couldn’t find relevant terms, and all the links in the platform I found were directed to the hotel. On 24th night I went to reception with my laptop, explained I was always directed to the hotel regarding 'early check out' situation, and asked a staff if she was able to find relevant information in my booking on the hotel end. The other staff with a ponytail standing next to her said 'no refund can be made' in a defensive way, which amusingly was not what I asked. I made it clear, as long as these terms were declared in my booking then it would be totally fine. The first staff then said this was the agreement between me and the platform, not the hotel, and gave me the platform number, which couldn’t be connected to at all. I showed them the platform's webpage that directly related to my situation, clearly guided me to the hotel. Then the staff who I spoke to on 23rd night appeared and told me if I booked through the hotel, they would put the two days I couldn’t use into credit; but they couldn’t do that for platform booking. I'm not upset that the hotel refused credit solution, I'm upset that insufficient information was given before checkin and the hotel tried to shift responsibility to the platform, in order to cover the fact that their coordination was unclear and customers were not well informed regarding unexpected situations. Why not include what they said in the booking confirmation email? Who knows what happens in the future can compromise travel plans? If customers were made aware in advance, they would have booked less days and extended if needed. I don’t care how the hotel works with the platform, this information could have and should have been disclosed earlier. Does the hotel believe their ‘problem-solving’ attitude will make customers spend another 11 days there and recommend them to others?...

Updated review: star rating increased to 3. This is based on our interactions with one person at Tango. We have spoken with Howard Kang at the front desk. He is an excellent representative of this hotel. Fantastic service and very courteous. Everybody should strive to offer the same level of service that he offers.

Original review: Let me start my lengthy review by clearly explaining the primary reason I have rated 2 stars: We booked this hotel strictly because it was listed as having a swimming pool on hotels dot com. The price is easily $50CAD more than similar hotels in the area, which reflects that it has a pool. When we arrived we learned that the pool was out of service due to insect extermination. However looking closer at the pool area, the "swimming pool" is not a swimming pool at all. It's only a couple of feet deep and it would be impossible to swim in. This really is a dishonest and deceptive way of claiming your hotel has a pool, allowing their hotel to show up in search results that have been specifically filtered to have a pool. In a meager attempt to make this up to us, the manager offered us free breakfast and a glass of wine each. She also offered to upgrade our room which we declined, since we shortened our stay by 3 days. The breakfast was also pretty bad since several of the items brought to our table had fish in them (soup and appetizers) without any mention of this. I can't eat seafood and didn't know it had any until tasting it in my food. This really ruined my meal. The other items were decent and the presentation was actually pretty nice. The hotel rooms themselves are actually quite nice and the room is very modern and the features are well thought out. Also the staff are very friendly, helpful and courteous. If not for the hotel ownership's intentional dishonesty about the pool and the restaurant's lack of disclosure about the fish in the food, this would have been a 4 star experience. If the price was also $50 less this would definitely be a 5 star hotel...

The property was clean. The rooms seemed to be in good condition, but there were subtle signs of disrepair and overall lack of upkeep as we stayed in the property longer.

Many things in the room were broken/non-functional. For example, one of the desk lamps was not functioning, but still left in the room unplugged and wrapped up, indicating the staff knew it didn’t work. The outlets were so loose that it made it impossible for charging blocks to stay in unless they were left completely untouched. The WiFi was truly horrible, so I do not recommend anyone coming for work to stay here. The sliding doors to the bathroom were loose at the bottom and completely ineffective at staying open or closed.

Most importantly, the sterility of the property extended to the attitude of the staff, who seemed unhappy and treated guests (including others staying at the property) with a coldness I haven’t experienced elsewhere. They blankly stared as we struggled through the front doors with our bags when we arrived and left the hotel without providing simple services like helping the door stay open. Whenever we asked for help we were also treated with an unnerving coldness from the staff, such as when we asked about places to eat in the neighborhood. When we asked for a roll of toilet paper, it was not delivered. When we asked again, the staff delivering the toilet paper to the room was clearly agitated. Overall, the staff here made it feel like we were unwelcome guests arriving unannounced. I’m not sure if it’s a morale issue, but the staff here was one of the worst at hospitality I have ever seen.

I don’t understand how this property has the positive reviews that it has. Maybe it was a change in management or some other issue, but I will likely never stay at this property again given the awkwardness/coldness of the staff and the many hidden issues...