Review: Grand Hyatt Taipei
The island nation of Taiwan is fascinating to me, however I never really thought of myself ever visiting it until Delta announced their inaugural service to Taipei. Being on the first flight to Taipei was a great honor and absolutely an #avgeek aspiration to be on an inaugural flight.
I wanted to do this trip right and see as much as possible, deciding to stay in New Taipei was the perfect location to be centrally located and right on transit systems.
Booking
I booked my four night stay on a cash rate of about $23,630TWD, which equals to just shy of $800USD. It seemed well worth it for the location and the last minute booking that I was able to secure.
Also, I had no idea that Computex, a large electronics show, was happening the last day that I arrived just across the street. So the fact that I had such a reasonable cash booking option was great.
If you'd like to pay with World of Hyatt points, the property is an Award Category 3, meaning you can redeem anywhere between 9,000 and 12,000 points on the property.
Location
The Grand Hyatt Taipei is located right next to Taipei 101, the largest skyscraper on the island, and currently the 11th tallest building in the world. For those coming for tourist purposes the location is perfect.
Around the hotel, you have easy access to the transit system, the convection center is right next to the hotel, and you have Taipei 101 which not only has a mall in the base, but there are tours to an observation gallery at the very top.
Check-In
The lobby of the Grand Hyatt Taipei, for lack of a better word, grand. The space is huge with an open center area extending 3 stories up to glass windows letting in lots of natural light.
The lobby area also has a café along with a lot of generous seating if you're waiting or just wanting to hang out.
The most interesting bit is the check-in desks. You would expect them to be grand and exceptional, like the space. However, Hyatt has decided to push those desks to one side of the grand lobby and hide them away.
The check-in experience was pleasant, due to the time of day that I arrived it was quiet, and they were able to help me immediately and had an upgraded room available. I did not get a suite, but they found a room with a good view of downtown, which I was perfectly ok with.
After getting checked in and heading towards the elevators, I saw something fairly peculiar. The hotel employs a fake security guard in the corner, supposedly to warn off potential thieves that security is always watching. It's important to know, there are also real security guards patrolling around the lobby.
The Room
The single king bedroom had more than enough room with a great view out the front of the hotel and a good vantage point of Taipei 101. Stepping into the room, you have a row of storage on the left-hand side that hides away the closest, fridge, coffee/tea area, and room safe. On the right-hand side the bathroom takes up the rest of the entryway.
The brilliant marble bathroom was exquisite looking. With marble all around the bathroom, there was a step in shower as well as a full bath with jets. I was most happy with the shower as not only did it have a rainfall shower head but a handheld attachment if you needed it.
The bedroom area was also lovely, featuring a king bed, side tables, a comfy couch, desk to work at, and a dining table. I put them all to good work as I not only had to take some meetings while I was in Taipei, I ordered room service at least once because of how busy I got.
On one last note, I am always disappointed with the amenities provided in the bathrooms at most hotels. Usually it's a soap bar, maybe some lotion, but usually that's it. This is not the case with the Grand Hyatt Taipei, the amenity box on the sink was filled to the brim with practically anything you would need from shaving kits, combs, toothbrushes, and sanitary kits. It's an underrated perk, but certainly well apperciated.
Food
The hotel features a few dining places, including the club lounge on the top floor and a full service place to eat on the second floor. The second floor restaurant is used all throughout the day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hotel guests get a 15% discount for eating there, and they have a breakfast special for hotel guests.
Because I was busy most of the days, I never did end up eating there but ordered room service. Presumably it's the same food that comes from that restaurant and it all was fairly tasty.
Service
Service was hit or miss during my time at the Grand Hyatt Taipei, the check-in staff was lovely and even helped me get set up a taxi to the airport at the end of my stay. I was pleasantly surprised with the fruit welcome gift in my room. It tasted like one of the many varieties of mango that the island produces.
However, housekeeping was another story. For a four night stay, I typically ask for housekeeping to replace the towels and bedding after the second night. On day three, I was out most of the day on a tour, so it would presumably be easy for housekeeping to come in and clean the room.
The room has a button to request housekeeping that I pressed prior to leaving in the morning. Around 5PM, I returned to find that the room wasn't made up, and I called the front desk to come clean the room and make it up. I took it as an opportunity to walk across the street to the Taipei 101 mall and do some shopping.
Returning around 8PM, the room looked made up however I noticed that instead of the bedding being replaced housekeeping instead just made up the bed. And most of the linens had just been refolded, except for the bath towels, which thankfully had been replaced.
This is not something I would expect from a Grand Hyatt.
Final Thoughts
Apart from the housekeeping disappointment, my time at the Grand Hyatt Taipei was the perfect experience to enjoy the city. Its prime location is very desirable, and ease of access between two subway stops and multiple bus stops is perfect to get around town. With Taipei's main convention center attached to the hotel, it's a no-brainer which hotel to stay at. It also looks to be pretty popular with corporations around the world, Pizza Hut was having a conference at the hotel as I was leaving.
I hope that the housekeeping debacle was just an isolated incident of an otherwise great stay in Taiwan.
