Taipei CityInn Hotel (新驛旅店)

jys — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:38:55 +0000

I thought booking for hotels in Taiwan is the same as other countries, which means we can simply find a few hotel booking websites, compare the rates and booked from there but clearly I was wrong. I went to search for hotels at a few hotel booking websites and found out that the rate is quite high. Besides that, they only offer a few famous hotels, not much choices. After some research on the Internet (posting in forums and etc) only i know normally ppl will book directly from the hotel itself, rather than go through these hotel booking websites.

After getting all the information needed, the rate, the service, the locations, I’ve shortlisted a few. But when I checked the rooms availability, I was shocked as all hotels were fully booked. Luckily one of the travel experts in the forum introduce me to the City Inn. Without wasting much time, I emailed the hotel (most of the hotel website got no online booking, have to email them or call them) to ask for the rooms availability and got reply the next day.

There are two room types available, Cityinn Suite(one queen size bed), NT$2600 and Twin Room(two single beds), NT$3200. We are entitled for 40% discount for both rooms (grand opening discount, no idea until when). After looking at the rate, I decided to get the cheapest room, which is the Cityinn Suite. However, there are no Cityinn Suite available on the first night, therefore I will need to get the twin room. We got no other choice but to agree to change room, so first night in twin room, and the rest will be in the Cityinn Suite. After we agreed to book these rooms, we faxed them the credit card authorization form to let them charged on our credit card. By right, they will only charged on the first night, but since we booked two different types of rooms, they treated it as two bookings. That is why they charged one night for twin room, and another night for Cityinn Suite.

CityInn Hotel(新驛旅店) is situated at a very good location. It’s 5 minutes walk from the Taipei Main Station (bus station, railway station, MRT), 5 minutes walk to Shinkong Mitsukoshi (新光三越), a lot of shops and restaurants nearby, a superb location. The Guo Guang Bus we took from airport will dropped us at the Taipei Main Station, opposite Shinkong Mitsukoshi(新光三越). After we crossed the street, we took the wrong turn! If we turned right, we can see our hotel within 5 minutes, but instead, we turned left. So we ended up wasted quite some time before we find our hotel. ~sigh

In Taipei, most of their hotels (this type of hotel, consider 3 star..) are in between shop lots. so this is our hotel..

CityInn Hotel(新驛旅店)

main entrance

Actually I wanted to take the picture of the hotel in the morning but every time I forgot. I only remember when we’re heading back to the hotel at night. :p

We were greeted by the friendly and polite hotel staff. There are always 2 or 3 staff at the counter. After filling in some simple information, we got our room keys. Our room is located at the 2nd floor.

The corridor

Twin Room
Sun – Thurs NTD1920 per night (after 40% discount)
Fri & Sat NTD2080 per night (after 40% discount)

I paid with credit card and I got a better rate (exchange rate 11.75 at the money changer, 11.15 when used credit card), so the twin room is about RM 214 per night.

2 single beds
the room is clean but it’s really small!!

see that small little chair? so cute!!

once you open the door, you can jump straight into the bed!! hehe..

I don’t quite like the shower space design, it’s in octagon. So hard to move around..

the basin and hair dryer

toilet bowl. luckily everything is very clean.

small little wardrobe for you to hang a few clothes.

free snacks and drinks. the jasmine tea is nice, coffee not nice. :p

After we settle down, we headed out to have our supper. We went to one of the shop opposite the hotel, food is nice, 10 dumplings for only nt 45 (RM 5.30), where can you get that in Malaysia??

We did not unpack our luggage as we’re going to move to the Cityinn Suite the next day. On the very next day, before we went out, we placed our luggage at the counter. We will only check in when we were back at night.

Cityinn Suite
Sun – Thurs NTD 1560 (RM 174) per night (after 40% discount)
Fri & Sat NTD1690 (RM 188) per night (after 40% discount)

queen size bed, this rooms looks bigger. don’t understand why that twin room is more expensive!

shower space.. this is in rectangular, toilet also bigger than the twin room!

Overall I feel this hotel is quite good. Location wise, very good, near to the railway station, MRT and bus station. Price wise.. ok too.. It’s very convenient, easy to get food, and there’s a convenient store beside the hotel. The room is quite small but I don’t really mind cos I won’t spend a lot of time in the hotel room. The staff there are all very polite and friendly and most importantly their rooms are very clean. So you can really consider this hotel if you need to find an affordable, convenient and clean hotel when you go to Taipei next time.

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Our hotel, the YMCA International Hotel

jys — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:05:05 +0000

I’m quite fussy when comes to hotel. I’m very afraid of dirty hotels and I do not want to stay in hostel or motel and i do not wish to spend that much on Hotel. Hehe, very troublesome right? My trip was on July but I already start researching about hotels since April. First I plan where to stay, then I started to do research on all the hotels around the area. I read reviews, post on forums, look for the pictures of the hotel, check the price and etc. Finally I narrow down to two hotels, the Stanford Hotel and the YMCA International Hotel.

Both hotels are very near to each other but YMCA are nearer to the MTR station. There are good reviews on both hotel. After narrow it down to two hotels, I start to find websites to book the hotel. I’ve found some websites which offers really good rates but their reviews are BAD. I do not want to have problems with my accommodation so I decided to find a site which offers good rate and has good reputation. At last, I decided to book from Agoda.com.

I chose to book the YMCA International Hotel @ Yao Ma Tei, Deluxe Promotion Room Without Breakfast for 4 nights (25 to 29 July) and altogether I need to pay USD 348.24 (about RM 280 per night). It is a 3 star hotel. Did I regret choosing this hotel? No, I did not. In fact, I was very happy with the hotel!

We took the MRT from Tsim Sha Tsui to Yao Ma Tei but we took the wrong exit. A is nearer but we exit at D. Luckily after asking for direction from the ppl there, we manage to find the hotel. But wait, our hotel is YMCA International Hotel but how come the name of this hotel becomes The Cityview?? There’s a 7-11 opposite the hotel so we decided to double confirm with the staff there. The staff stare at us and said, nor, opposite is YMCA lor!!

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Taipei CityInn Hotel (新驛旅店)

Our hotel, the YMCA International Hotel