Taipei: Hotel QUOTE

We found the Hotel QUOTE online and booked four nights in a ‘T’ room – and it was such a fantastic hotel, that I have to write this blog post about it.

Location: The location is perfect, very close to MRT station Nanjing Road East (and the Evergreen bus from the airport stops there), surrounded by shops and restaurants. If you go in a cab, tell taxi driver to drive to Momo departmental store, and the hotel is right next to it (it’s also diagonally opposite The Taipei Arena).

Design & Atmosphere: Very sleek and modern design. Dark colours throughout the whole hotel, many candles downstairs in the evenings, and many lights in the rooms. But be aware, the lights can be dim in the rooms – there are some strong lights over the bed and desk area, but in other areas of the room and hotel, it can be a little dim.

We loved the old-fashioned house phone on every floor, as this picture of Patrick shows:

Lounge: 24 hours lounge on the second floor with two computers to check your emails, newspapers/magazines and lots of different snacks. Coffee, tea, water, juice, fruit drinks, fresh fruit, cookies, nuts, seeds, chocolates, gummy bears, jelly candy etc. – you name it, they have it and you can try it. You can eat and drink as much as you like, it’s included in your room rate.

Breakfast: In the same room as the lounge, which can get crowded. There are not that many seats, and breakfast is rather small. Some warm dishes including eggs, miso soup, dim sum, congee and fried vegetables plus some cold cuts, salads, fruit, cereals and yoghurt. There is also bread, jam and butter, so you can either eat Asian or European/Western breakfast. The choice is not massive, but again, it’s all fresh, nicely presented and included in your room rate.

Rooms: Some are small sized, but the ‘T’ room is spacious enough with a large bed and a desk running alongside one of the walls.

The rooms come with free Wi-Fi (you can get more logins so you can use more gadgets if you ask the reception – the guys are really helpful), a Nespresso coffee machine, a mini bar with free water, soft drinks, beer and snacks, a DVD-player and a Hi-Fi set (you can plug in iPods and iPhones to listen to your own music). There was one tiny window, but without a view (just the neighbouring house) and it is covered with a thick curtain. So the room is without natural light, which some travellers might find challenging, but we did not mind this so much.

Bathroom: An open bathroom – there is a curtain to separate the bathroom from the bedroom, but apart from that the water sink and bathtub are in the same room.

The toilet and rain shower are separate, but behind glass doors – so you should travel with someone you know and like, not with a business colleague!

Toilet: We were surprised by the gadgets in the room, but the biggest surprise was the Japanese toilet. Not only did the lid open when you moved closely to the seat, but the seat is also heated and there is a range of cleaning and drying programmes that you can use. We’ve never had tried a Japanese toilet before, and we tried out all the different settings – we’d love to get one for home too!

Staff: Very friendly and helpful. Spoke really good English (which was rare, lots of people in Taiwan struggled to speak English with us) – and we even met someone who spoke German! Brilliant, all very helpful in ordering taxis, providing us with directions and tips to visit places in town. Great stuff!

Hotel QUOTE (4 stars)
No. 333, Nanjing East Road (Section 3 – that’s to the East of Nanjing Road East MTR station)
Songshan District
Taipei 105
Taiwan
Tel. +886-2-2175-5589 for reservations
Tel. +886-2-2175-5588 for other queries