This is a review for the private room with private bathroom at Hostel 109 hosted by Yang109. Find out why later on.
Room D is a private room with ensuite. The bed, bedding material and blanket feel like those from a 5-star hotel. The AC is powerful and the WiFi is speedy. It has an elephant shaped ottoman. Weirdly enough the room has a step in it, which I nearly tripped once or twice. So watch out. The room has a wall-to-wall window facing the street and is on the second floor. Second floor in terms of AUS and elwhere in the west but here the Taiwanese refer to it as 3F. So you can hear the traffic down below. Buses and trucks, whenever they turn they make this beep beep noise and you will hear a lot of that since the building is at a corner of an intersection. There is also the adjacent building's underground parking, which produces another beep beep sound whenever a vehicle is exiting the building. This sound is to forced pedestrians to stop and let the vehicle exiting the building. You will hear this sound early in the morning. Outside of the window are four AC units, which don't make any noise. But during my stay it was raining and the big fat raindrops made a lot of noise when they fell on the AC units. That being said, the host does provide ear plugs for you. So if you can put up with that I would say, the room is highly recommended.
The bathroom is really clean and the showerhead produces a strong flow of water, which is nice.
The location is very handy too. There are numerous noodle restaurants and bubble tea shops right next door of the hostel. There are also numerous camera shops just down the street.
There's a MacDonald's further down the road for those who are homesick for some nourishing meals! Taipei Main Station is about a 7 minute walk from the hostel. In fact, this was one of my main reasons for selecting this hostel. I got here straight from the airport. Easy Peasy!
In the common area of the hostel are the usual fridge, microwave oven etc. Coffee from the coffee machine is extra.
So I booked a few nights in the dormitory at this hostel but I didn't get to stay in it. As an inbound traveller to Taiwan and due to covid protocol as of late October 2022, I had to get a private room with a private bathroom. This, I found out from the host during check-in. To say that I was shocked was an understatement. But the host did help me with a discount to get to the above private room. It was a nice touch to an otherwise challenging check-in.