WESTGATE Hotel — Hotel in Taipei

This is my second time staying at Westgate (first time was in summer 2019). My teen daughters and I recently stayed 3 nights in early July 2024 in a grand suite - 2 single beds and 1 sofa bed. The sofa bed was surprisingly quite comfortable! There was plenty of space in our room with a nice complimentary mini bar. The hotel breakfast has a nice variety of food choices and was tasty. The hotel is in a prime location in Ximending - very close to the MRT station and in the middle of many trendy stores and eateries (yet very quiet inside the hotel) - great for teens. Staying in Ximending is also very convenient for exploring the rest of Taipei (felt central to where we wanted to go), so the location is great in many respects.

The service of hotel staff (reception and housekeeping) is top-notch. I remember hotel staff being very nice during our last stay, and we experienced that again this time. They greet you happily whenever you enter or leave and readily offer assistance. We asked for a restaurant recommendation (with some specific requests), and Felicity was very thoughtful in helping us - not only did we end up at a great restaurant (Kao Chi), she suggested we explore a popular neighborhood that was nearby afterward. On our last day, we were able to leave our luggage for storage at the hotel after check-out (11 am) as our flight wasn't until the evening. When we returned to pick up our luggage, I realized I couldn't find my keys (car, house, and luggage keys) - I knew I had them that morning to unlock and lock the luggage so they had to be somewhere in the hotel. One hotel staff member (I wish I had gotten her name!) was very helpful in checking to see if housekeeping found them; then she went to the room to double-check; and we all (more staff got involved!) crawled around the lobby to check the area where the luggage had been stored during the day - no keys. The staff was worried we couldn't find my keys (I figured it was not too terrible since no one would have use for my keys in Taiwan though). Finally, I said they might be in the locked luggage, but we were having no luck picking the lock. The hotel staff was able to break the lock for me, and the keys were inside the luggage!! The hotel staff was INVESTED in helping me find my keys! Everyone was relieved. I really appreciated their sincere concern and effort in helping me locate my keys. Clearly it was ready for me to go home and rest!

There are many positives to staying at the Westgate, but truly the service is outstanding - staff are attentive, gracious, and helpful. Thank you for a very pleasant stay in a lovely space and...

Actually, I'm at a dilemna whether I should give 1 star for service or 5 stars, so I'm rating it as 3 stars for service and 4 stars overall.

5 stars for the service bec the reception and housekeeping and all at the front line were excellent.

1 star bec the hotel suddenly charged the full amount to my credit card a month before my check-in date without any prior notification, when I was supposed to have 14 days prior free cancellation and also pay upon check-in. This, I find unacceptable and after emailing the hotel, the response was also unacceptable. My booking was done direct with the hotel via email. The confirmation clearly stated the terms and conditiions of the free cancellation and payment terms.

The sudden charge without notification gave me a shock as the amount was not small and I initially thought it was a scam. I emailed the hotel and the reply was that bec the dates I booked was a "special date" (which I don't see why it suddenly became a special) and so they charge 30 days in advance and are non-refundable. I replied with a 2nd email and the hotel totally ignored that and did not give any response. Fortunately, I had no intention to cancel my bookings.

We complained to the reception upon check-in and I would say the 2 ladies who handled my case showed they took this issue seriously. Only gripe was that after they investigated, they said back-end reservations claimed they had called be before that, but that was totally untrue, and my emails to them and phone records proofed so. The reception apologised profusely and said escalted to their manager etc. Later on gave us a small box of pineapple tarts and 4 packs of hand-warmers as restitution. Nothing much but the receptionists attitude were good. So we left it as that.

Other than the above which really got us frustrated and had a bad initial experience and made us apprehensive about this hotel (we thought this could be a "shady" hotel), the other things were all great.

I should add that we booked a cozy queen room and a premier king room. Strangely, other than the bed size, the cozy room was more spacious and had better layout and toilet/shower than the more expensive premier king room. If you are not a couple, do not book the premier king room, bec after shower, you can't dry or dress yourself in the shower or toilet area, but would have to do it...

First trip back to Westgate Hotel after 3 years covid hiatus. We booked four rooms and will be staying for 4 nights. But, it was so disappointing that we had an unpleasant experience on day 1 of breakfast!

Our 71 year old dad, who is staying in room 1008 went down for breakfast alone first. He registered when going into the restaurant, but after sitting down at the table with his food, another staff (presumably a senior staff as he was in jacket and tie but we did not saw his name) came over saying that his table does not have the 'occupied' sign, and asked for his room number to verify that he is a guest of the hotel.

Firstly, his tone to an elderly hotel guest is certainly not appropriate, especially coming from a senior staff of the hotel and in the service industry!

Secondly, our dad already registered and provided his room number at the entrance, that's why he was shown into the restaurant! Isn't it the staff responsibility and oversight for failing to put an occupied sign on the table? Why is there a need to verify with our elderly dad twice whether he is indeed a hotel guest?

A while later, another staff by the name of George (we saw his name tag this time round) came over. To be fair, George did try to do some service recovery. But, as a commotion has already been created, our dad felt so embarrassed and he walked out of the restaurant without having breakfast at the hotel.

We had been supporting and staying at Westgate Hotel every year during pre covid times. We had actually experienced a similar incident 3 years ago pre covid, where the attitude of the manager/staff was terrible. Despite this, we chose to return to Westgate again this year after covid, but it's very unfortunate that the service standard is severely lacking.

Given the premium price point of Westgate Hotel vs other hotels around the Ximending area, the room is also becoming quite dated and not well maintained with the beds/pillows becoming soft.

With this recurrence of our bad experience, Westgate will no longer be our family's top choice of...