Sigh.
Not the review I wanted to write...
The check-in time of 9pm makes no sense and is an unnecessary burden on hot n tired guests.
Means, paying for a day but only getting 3 hrs of the room.
Essentially, many aspects of my stay were defined by one word:
dilapidated.
It hides in euphemisms like, 'traditional' and 'backpacker.'
The stairs up to the top floor start out OK but then you enter a final stairwell that presents exposed brickwork, wiring, pipes and amateurish repairs to seal off the outside environment.
I stopped taking off my shoes downstairs to change into plastic slipers, due the safety. It's wet throughout when it rains, as it did.
As described by the host, the room I paid for had no windows, except for the adjacent bathroom. Fine.
However, the heat and stuffiness are OVERWHELMING, with the fan provided grossly inadequate to task.
The a/c seems to have been, again, installed on the cheap, as the area around it was covered by plastic paneling painted in a single coat of black paint, through which light semi-shone. Just dodgy workmanship. And with the rain, came water down the side of the bed.
The entrance to the rooftop above the room, seemed to be partly a storage space and I had to overstep shards of glasses to enter the main space.
What could be a retreat from the room, just seemed forgotten about.
I get that this room is marketed to people like me on a budget but no toilet paper in the bathroom and no towels (fresh or otherwise) is just careless.
Further, the bar downstairs only opens to greet new guests. No new guest...no bar.
And if the rooms are for the budget traveller, the beer and spirits are clearly not.
Why would I pay 250 - 350 Taiwanese dollars (min) for a single drink, when I'm staying in a room with no windows and is painted ENTIRELY BLACK..?
So, though I booked for extended period, I left days earlier. No one seemed to notice.
This is my first negative review.