Hotels: Puri Hotel Ximen

Hotels: Puri Hotel Ximen

Introduction

There are many places and countries to visit in the world. For the people living in Asia however, one place that they will visit in their lives is probably Taiwan. Taiwan is actually quite a big place and when you go for tour fairs, there are many choices of whole island tours of Taiwan that can be from 6 days or more or tours for smaller sections of Taiwan that can be for 4 days or more. For those who are not interested in the hurried itinerary of a tour group especially if they are going with friends, you can always op for a simple holiday in one of the many main cities of Taiwan.

One of these cities is Taipei which would be the area of interest in this review. Along the way i will list down some of the considerations that i made in choosing this hotel and see if these are the same considerations you have

Details of hotel
Name: Puri Hotel Ximen
Location: 108, Taiwan, Taipei City, Wanhua District, Ximending
Number of Stars: 3.5 stars
Room of review: Standard Twin
Highlights of Hotel: Close to shopping area, restaurants and MRT station
Date of review: End Feb 2013

This is the hotel entrance

Comfort 3.5/5

This is the bed room

As you can see, the room is REASONABLY sized, with two good beds... actually the begs are fantasy.. its the kind of bed which is very very soft.. those you sink into. Also the provided blankets are extremely thick and feels kind of fluffy.

Everything is very very well placed so there is more then enough room to move about the place but you probably won't be able to fit more then 2 extra friends into this room if you wanted to.

Note that not all rooms have windows, but to be honest given the location of this hotel, your window will have little of a view. None the less for those who are slightly claustrophobic this might be a consideration for you, to request for a window at least.

The toilet which is pictured further below is pretty well spaced and you wont feel TOO squeezy inside although the shower and toilet bowl are pretty close to each other and the water can flow from one end to another. At least the decor is nice.

There are no extra pillows or blankets given in the room itself. The aircon is pretty good and strong but since it only functions when there is a key card inserted, you should make sure you have one key card in all the time. Thankfully, the hotel actually provides you with two key cards so you can actually leave the place and have all your switches and air conditioning powered up.

The lift also seems kind of old and fortunately we were on the first floor. We did see some people waiting for the lift so its quite likely that if you were on the other floors, you might take just that bit longer to get out of the place thanks to the slow lift.

As the hotel is small, there is actually some sound seeping through from other rooms although it was never significant for us that it hindered us from sleeping. Just for your information here.


Service 3.5/5

Services provided by this hotel includes, water replacement daily, bathroom replacement, daily cleaning of the rooms.

The staff are also pretty friendly looking, and on our last day, they were recommending methods on how to get back to the airport early in the morning. They might not be too conversant in English though. It is good also that at night the receptionists are guys, so you might feel a bit safer. The guys also look really nice and friendly so I wouldn't worry about them.

Still, there are areas for improvement like to help you open the door (although the door is tap once and it will open automatically), and also maybe bringing you to the room itself and introducing you to the amenities of the room. Will tell you more later.

All in all, they seem "ready to serve" but it is more of those where you can ask them for anything and everything, but they will not aggressively volunteer their services. They are also not really aware or aggressive on giving recommendations on where or what to eat.. they did recommend a famous oyster bee hoon to us which means they are somewhat aware, but in the morning when we asked where we could do breakfast, we were directed to some place which only had one open shop.. So this can be someway they improve, maybe have a map inhouse that can help tourists find their bearings and eat some of the recommended food here.

Amenities 3/5

This is the shower

Lets talk about the shower amenities first! Shampoo and soap are all provided as well as toothbrushes, shaver and shower cap. There are also towels for both face and body and a floor mat. Its interesting that the mirror is heated so it will actually not fog up, which is a very interesting consideration they made.

There is tea and cups provided with a kettle for those who like their tea in the room. They also have a safe and a mini fridge.. problem is they did not really come and tell us how to start up the fridge and remember earlier how i said that the key is needed for the electricity? Yep.. that means that if you are using the fridge, you must have one key inside the slot at all times. Its also those kind of 6 pack fridge as opposed to a bar fridge so you should expect to only put only some drinks inside. The instructions to the safe was also not entirely clear and we actually had problems getting it to work for us. Of course you can just ask the staff member.

There is no cooking or microwave here... probably cause this is taiwan and if you want anything, you can really just go outside and buy... unless its 1+ am.. in that case your only choice is the nearby macdonald as everything else is closed.

There is also no explicit closet here but they provide you with 4 hangers at the mirror for you to hang your stuff. After dumping all our luggage on the floor there was still enough space to walk around so I would say its still ok. They also provide a desk with a chair for you to do any work or writing.

Location 4/5

The whole reason this place was chosen was because of location location location... Its location is so fantastic, after leaving this exit, you probably just need to walk about 80-100 steps and you are there. Note that you need to turn right into a smaller alley and the hotel will be on the left. It is slightly blocked by the billboard signs so you WONT be able to see the hotel's name till you walk slightly into the small road.

But anyway back to location, this hotel is one stop away from Taipei Main station and from the main station you can go almost everywhere. Hotsprings at Beitou, yep. Pingxi rail, yep. Airport via High speed rail or public bus, yep. Night markets are also pretty convenient although this hotel is nearer to Shida night market as opposed to Shilin although Shida is said to be the 2nd biggest night market... Nonetheless lets not forget the fact that you are actually right next to Ximending which also has a movie theatre along the area. Thanks to the strong rail network however, you can pretty much be where ever u wanna be in max 1 hour.

Basically, living near a shopping area has this benefit. Do all your eating and touring for the entire day towards evening, come back at 10 plus.. OH too early?? Just go out of your hotel and walk the streets for awhile and get some snacks. Tada. Full use of your time. If you stayed in the more traditional main area hotels you probably wont be able to justify leaving your room at 1030 and since you need to be back before the public transport stops, you might only have maybe 30-40 minutes of extra shopping time.

There also seems to be a bar area behind the red house at Ximending so this info is for those interested. Finally, this hotel is really almost directly opposite the Ximen police station so you may have a bit more peace of mind when staying here.

Cost Efficiency 3.5/5

I seen the price for this hotel range from 80 to about 100 SGD per night. My room was 100 dollars per night and it tends to get overbooked pretty quickly. It was full on the Friday we were there. Given the more modern decor and since it doesn't look or feel old, it is pretty above average kind of cost efficiency especially when you think about the convenience that the location brings.


Comfort: 3.5 (Fabulous especially if you are those who want just a place to sleep, but its above average for the common user also.)
Services: 3.5 (Has room for improvements but at least the staff are doing some work)
Amenities: 3 (The basic amenities are provided but some amenities like the safe and fridge are mini versions)
Location: 4 (This is the main advantage of this hotel and should be the major reason you choose this hotel, everything to visit is convenient from here)

Cost Efficiency: 3.5 (I personally felt i paid slightly above what i was comfortable with [was expecting just about 80 sgd] none the less i could justify this by the good location)

Overall: 3.5 (If it was slightly cheaper, this hotel would be a definite get for me. None the less its not a place for big families though as the rooms are really well arranged to maximize the space already so there is no running place for kids, but for couples and solo travelers its a decent place to stay and you won't regret staying here especially when you leave your room to begin your tour and when you come back home, you realize that you have a shopping area at your backyard.)