Wow Happy Taipei

It is about five minutes to the subway station. Our room is quiet, even next to a highway entry. The bed is comfortable with nice sheets and pillows. The shower and bathtub are excellent. They provide a good set of shampoo and conditioner. The room size and layout are very nice. Breakfast is ok. We are happy with their coffee. The hotel price is reasonable.

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So, WoWHappy in Zhongzheng. Oddly, I had already stayed at another location of this chain in Da'an district during a previous visit, two years ago. I did not make the connection, mostly because here on Booking the name is fully in Chinese. At least from when visiting from my country. But there are certain similarities - and had I known, I'd probably have booked elsewhere. Overall, my stay was okay, really. The staff were quite friendly and helpful, the room was quite large and the bed plenty comfortable. For breakfast, the hotel has a cooperation with a Louisa café, a local coffee chain. For a voucher you can get one of a choice of four breakfast options, with a few drink options. It's rather limited and probably more appreciated by Americans, but it'll be welcome for those who don't dare brave local breakfast options. If you want something else, the coffeeshop has other options and it's not expensive. Just don't include the breakfast in that case. The room had excellent airconditioning, meaning the summer humidity and heat were not an issue. Slept quite well here. The giant bath was not needed for me, but I suppose some families or groups will appreciate it. I used the separate shower, which featured a rain shower as well as handheld and had plenty of warmth and water pressure. There is a lot of storage space, although for hanging clothes and coats the single wardrobe might be small - pleny of drawers and cupboards though.

So the less good stuff... what really hit me was the smell of the room when I first opened the door. Humid, moist, somewhat mouldy. Not something you want when you're staying somewhere for nearly a week. I kept the aircon on the entire week - present or not - and it abated a little, but even by the end of the week was quite noticeable. I'm more sensitive than most to smells, but this was not hard to detect. There was actual mould on the shower ceiling. Next - and this was the case at the Da'an location too - the toilet. The toilet apparently gets easily clogged, there's a warning on the wall that causing it to clog comes with a NTD 5000 fine (about 137 euros, or 158 dollars at time of writing). Not a happy thought when trying to do one's business. Toilet and tissue paper must be disposed of in a trash can. It feels somewhat icky. I've been to quite a few hotels in Taipei and many feature Japanese style toilets with a built-in bidet, which would make particular sense if paper is such a problem - but this hotel doesn't have them. The room size and layout: I picked this place because of its larger than average room, as I spend a lot of time working in it. However, the way it's setup is very inefficient. The large bed is right in the middle, with a smallish couch and side table along one side, and a tiny working desk on a raised plateau further along that side. About 1/3 of the surface area is used for the bath tub and surrounding tiles. The wash basin is not inside the giant bathing area, but in the room proper - and does not come with a mirror. There are mirrors, one hidden away in an alcove with the towels, the other next to the bed. But for shaving or make-up this is less than ideal. Then there's the room safe - this is tiny, too small to even hold a small laptop. A basic iPad might just fit, I didn't measure it. Lastly the WiFi speed was awful (though Booking said it was very fast) - 15 Mbit down, 5 Mbit up.

Nice and easy check in. Lovely room with great view.

I missed a coffee maker. The breakfast at the cafeteria is a joke. Even an espresso isnt covered

Dirty windows, no amenities provided, furniture completely outdated and heavily worn. Breakfast is basically a voucher to a nearby coffee shop with extremely limited choices.