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San Want Residences, Taipei, Taiwan
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Address: No.128 Nanjing East Road, Section 1
Address: No.128 Nanjing East Road, Section 1 (17 votes)
Ranked #6 out of 184 in Taipei
Address: No.128 Nanjing East Road, Section 1
Reviews
one of the best hotels I have stayed in Taiwan so far. the rooms are quite new, good internet access and also the bathrooms are quite nice. (they have the automatic closet - so for somebody who is new to it - it is an attraction :-))
Also they have good coffee at the lobby .. very good staff.
if you are interest in early morning walks - then there is park just in front of you. Also, it is quite busy place until late in the night.
This hotel really deserves a 5/5. It's small and cozy but not short on staff to be ever helpful. The staff always seemed to care about doing a good job - opening doors, grabbing bags, serving coffee, getting taxis, checking departure flight information, etc.
The extra amenities in the room (suit press, printer with fax machine, wireless internet, rotating TV that can be viewed from bed or desk, etc) add to the experience.
Usually when I'm in Taipeh for a fair I always stayed in other hotels, but this time tried
the San Want Residences. Great choice in every way, very friendly staff, great rooms and
the price for the room was ok too.
Its near by the 101 Tower and also the fair I always go. Just close by is also the Hyatt Disco the best place in Taipeh for a good drink and maybe a dance.
The next time I will stay again in this hotel.
Staying at the San Want Residences while writing this review.
Have spent over 25 nights there I think this year. After having tried the other San Want Hotel, Westin, Grand Hyatt, Far Eastern and a few other hotels, I really like this one.
Have not tried the Les Suites Taipei yet though I heard good things about it as well.
What makes the San Want Residences my favorite? No surprise. All the rooms I have stayed in are identical and saw rooms from a few colleagues, same thing.
You can have an amazing experience at the ShangriLa Far Eastern in Taipei. One stay in particular I was freely upgraded to a suite that was easily twice as large as my apartment. On the other hand, once at the Grand Hyatt I stayed in a room that felt more like a closet with no window.
At the San Want Residences there won't be any surprise again.
The staff is very attentive and super responsive. The ironing board but be hiding in the hallway when you call for it. Vincent in particular is awesome! Very funny and kind.
They offer taxi service in the morning to the office which I think is a brilliant gesture (others, take notice). Especially given they are a fraction of the price of other hotels of the same class in Taipei.
The rooms are quite comfortable. Separate showers with a large powerful shower heads. Complementary Internet access (wired and wireless). A large bed with nice linen, good blackout curtains, quiet hallways and discreet housekeeping. Have noticed only 7 rooms per most floors so almost no hallway traffic.
So is it all perfect? Not quite.
- The gym is not great (not an issue for me). It's downstairs with some limited equipment in what feels more like a modular meeting space than a gym (still there is one)
- The Breakfast is good but not great. That's one thing the other nice hotels in Taipei have on the San Want Residences. There are some amazing breakfasts in Taipei, San Want Residences is not one of them. They have Chinese, Japanese and occidental stations.
- The location is a little bit out of the way. Close to sort of the JapanTown portion of Taipei, it is not as conveniently located as the Hyatt for example.
With all this, it is still my highest recommended hotel in the city. Very comfortable and great great staff.
The San Want Residences is a new luxury boutique hotel belonging to the Small Luxury Hotels brand.
The entrance is nice and airy with a beautiful chandelier. Next to the two lifts is a sitting area with complimentary drinks and laptop internet access. Books and magazines are also on display for consultation by the guests. The staff are all dressed in black which adds to the luxury touch of the hotel.
Our room was nice with a flat TV screen and the beds were comfortable. Not extremely large (less than 50 sq meters) but well appointed. There are nice artworks in the corridors and the lobby area.
The bathroom has a large shower area separated by a glass door. This is perfect to relax after a long flight to Taipei as you can sit in the shower area with the powerful shower turned on. There is also a stone-made Japanese-style bathtub where you can sit and have a relaxing hot bath. The toilets are also Japanese-style which means lots of fancy buttons to heat the toilet or wash your back. Generally speaking, you will find a lot of Japanese influence in Taiwan since Taiwan was a Japanese colony until WWII and is still a major commercial partner. The Taipei subway signs and underground shopping network looks exactly like Tokyo!
The breakfast is mainly composed of Chinese courses
(stir fried vegetables, rice congee etc.) with a selection of Western courses (toasts, bread etc.) You might be disappointed if you only select Western dishes so make sure to try the local specialties (the staff will be happy to make a Taiwanese hamburger!)
The hotel is located on the busy Nanjing East road in front of Linsen Park and a good 10 minutes walk from the Zhongshan subway station on the red line. Along the way to the subway, you will find the Japanese department store Mitsukoshi with several restaurants downstairs. Like any other south-east Asian city, Taipei has a lot of restaurants and night markets where you can try lots of local specialties at very cheap prices.
The staff is mainly young and speaks English but I have noticed that they sometimes seem a bit confused when giving directions. (They always tend to suggest you to take a taxi) This can be quite funny at some point since they do not always know where the hotel is on a map! It therefore helps if you can speak a little bit of Mandarin.
From the Taipei International Airport, you can take a bus going to the Taipei Central Train Station and show the driver the address of the hotel from its website (written in Chinese, not in English). He will then drop you at the closest point along his route which will be next to the subway station. You just need to walk 10 minute east to find the hotel. If you feel adventurous without too many bags, this is unbeatable in terms of price!
Be careful not to confuse this hotel with the San Want Hotel (which belongs to the same San Want group) but is more a 4* business hotel.
Being a new hotel, a lot of taxi drivers do not know San Wat Residences and the best option is to point them to the Emperor Hotel (Kuo-Wang-Ta-Fan-Tien written as 國王大飯店) which is just next door (118 Nanjing East road versus 128 for San Want Residences) and is known by all taxis.
Overall a nice luxury boutique hotel where I would return without hesitation.
During your visit of Taipei, I strongly recommend visiting the Shin Yeh restaurant located just below the top floor of Taipei 101. Shin Yeh is a well known Taiwanese restaurant chain but its 101 branch is more upscale and offers nice views over Taipei. Although there is a fee to visit the top floor of Taipei 101, access to the Shin Yeh 101 or the adjacent bar is free, so you might just as well go for a meal and enjoy the same views!
In terms of food, I recommend to start with the legendary Chinese soup "Buddha jumps over the wall" (don't worry, the waiter will understand and can also explain the little story behind this name!) which combines the finest ingredients for an extremely tasty soup. The main specialty of Shin Yeh 101 being seafood, I also recommend a steamed Superior Garoupa which has one of the most creamy textured flesh I have ever tasted...
I am a frequent traveler and look for the best possible value in a hotel. I had previously stayed at the San Want hotel (on ZhongXiao E. Road) and decided to try the newer, smaller hotel this time around. From the moment I walked into the door, I was amazed by the decor and service at the San Want Residences. The staff made my check-in extremely easy and greeted me with a big smile in the hotel's magnificent lobby.
The view from my hotel room was beautiful, and the room spared no details. All furniture was new, and the room offered some complimentary snacks (I guess the hotel is owned by a large snack food company, which explains the name and logo). The breakfast at the hotel was amazing - a delicious and classy mix of Chinese and Western cuisine.
I took advantage of the "Happy Birthday" promotion, which brought room rates to around US$100 per night... an amazing value considering the sophistication and quality of the hotel.
The only drawback of the hotel is that the subway line that runs directly in front of the hotel is still under construction. Since I don't know how to use Taipei buses, I had to walk three blocks to get to the nearest subway stop or take a cab.
Beware! You'd better learn to read Chinese or don't bother booking their "Happy Birthday" special birthday rate--you just might end up having to pay twice as much for the room. A big error in their English room rate description for this offer, which the staff, all non-native English speakers, insisted was correct. What a joke.
Out of town and a having it been a Saturday night, and too late to make arrangements to stay anywhere else, we grudgingly stayed. Anyway, it ruined my weekend and the staff made no effort to apologize. Did I mention they repeated the original, cheaper room rate twice to me over the phone when I made the reservation in the first place? Imagine my surprise to waltz in and be charged double.
The Good: Nice view, if you can get a park view room. The sunken tub is nice. The location is good--close to all public transportation, government offices, etc.
The Bad: Furniture a bit scuffed up--odd for a new hotel; gym is a bit heavy on aerobics equipment and light on weights; wifi is really weak. The front desk area seems a bit overstaffed--odd to be greeted each time you go in and out by 20 people staring you down. Oh yes, and read about the rate rip-off above. Room service menu had like three items on it.
Here are some little Taipei hotel tips: You can spend half as much for just as good of a room at the Tango or Hotel Eight Zones, or any of the other of boutique hotels that have sprouted up around Taipei. Or, you can spend the same amount we did and stay at a name hotel, like the Hyatt, Regent, or Westin, something with a better name "San Want", where they deal with rate and promotional material mistakes like professionals instead of clowns. How on earth did this place get rated No. 1 in Taipei?
I didn't know I couldn't live without rain shower before I spent two weeks at San Want Residences. It was refreshing in addition to their refreshing assorted toiletry I must admit I enjoyed. The fragrant salt to Japanese-style bath was also nice although the bath itself requires an acquired taste. The staff was helpful and courteous when I needed them, and more importantly they also knew how to get things done without bothering me when I really wanted to be left alone. The breakfast included Japanese, Taiwanese, and Western affairs, which made it less boring than usual hotel breakfasts. I loved their coffee, however; they have a nice coffee machine, and the coffee they use didn't taste cheap. I know many workers there majored in hotel management in college, which seems to be the norm in Asia, but I must say this hotel wasn't as perfect as some I stayed in Hong Kong or Seoul. They have potential to be better, but for now they still deserve my five-star.
*This review is for the San Want Residences NOT the Hotel*
MY TRAVEL STYLE: If possible, I try to stay away from business and strongly prefer resorts that resemble the Four Seasons, Aman, and Oberoi but try to find similar properties at lower cost. I seek out the “wow” experiences and I encourage you to view hotels I have stayed at and their respective reviews (by clicking on my name).
LOCATION: Good. In an area with plenty of restaurants and a 10 minute walk to the metro station. The majority of the restaurants nearby are Japanese. Most hotels that are close to a metro stop would be a good choice since the metro can get you to most tourist sites quickly.
TYPE OF ROOM: Standard.
BED/SHEETS/PILLOW: Very soft bed with better than average linens and excellent down pillows (pillow menu available). Maybe the bed linens are just too new, but I found them to be surprisingly a little bit scratchy.
LIGHTING: Great in both bathroom and bedroom.
BATHROOM/SHOWER: Bathroom is of average size. Shower has very strong water pressure and can be made consistently hot if desired. There is a Japanese bath that is square and much smaller than a normal bathtub. To me, and probably most Westerners, it’s a useless waste of space. There is also a toilet in which the 1 or 2 lids will lift up with a touch of a button. Actually the first lid lifts up just by being near the toilet.
TOILETRIES: Excellent. L’Occitane soaps, shampoos, etc.
CLEANLINESS: Entire hotel and room is very clean and only 1 month old.
A/C: Quickly and quietly would get the room cool if desired.
CLOSET SPACE: Average. Probably a little bit too small for 2 people to unpack most items.
STYLE OF ROOM: Very luxurious. No expenses spared, even beautiful original art on the bedroom walls. There is also a printer/fax machine in the room. Huge nearly floor to ceiling glass brought in lots of natural light.
QUIET/MORNING LIGHT: Room was very quiet and all morning sun light could be blocked with the curtains.
FOOD: Only had breakfast here which has pre-made eggs, choice of 3 cereals, breads, and then plenty of Asian selections.
TV/INTERNET: TV has about 6-7 English stations including a couple of movie channels. Huge flatscreen. Internet is fast and provided at no charge and is both wired and wireless in the rooms.
SERVICE: Outstanding. Stayed in approximately150 luxury hotels in the last 10 months and this is the best service received on our entire trip. Staff speaks English very well and are very friendly. Staff would press the elevator buttons for us, pour your milk into our cereal bowl at the buffet, remember our room number, etc all without being too in your face. We asked about taking the bus from Taipei to Sun Moon Lake. The hotel concierge, Vincent offered go to the bus station and purchase the tickets for us non-Chinese speaking guests. We were impressed but declined stating to only write the instructions in Chinese so we could hand it to the ticket window at the bus station. He said he would do this for us. 90 minutes later, we received a phone call from Vincent at the bus station saying he was there to purchase our tickets and wanted to know what time we wanted to leave. Another 30 minutes later he was back at the hotel in normal (non-hotel uniform) clothes and delivered the tickets. He went there on his own personal time! Then when we checked out, they had packet of information for us on Taiwan and specifically Sun Moon Lake since they knew we were traveling there on our own.
COMMON AREA: Lobby is spectacular. Not huge, but really beautiful with one of the most impressive chandeliers I have ever seen in a hotel. Marble everywhere and the reading room next to the lobby is equally impressive. Beautiful original oil paintings and sculptures are throughout the common areas. The couches are gorgeous and everything in this hotel is top notch.
ROOM & CITY TIPS: With the name residences, I though there was a chance that the rooms here may have kitchens, living rooms, etc, but at least the standard rooms resemble a typical hotel room layout. Higher level rooms will have better views and I would guess that the best rooms are facing the front of the hotel since there is a view of a park. Be sure to walk in the alley directly behind the hotel which has tons of restaurants. We also stayed at the Tango Xin Yi which was also impressive, so if you click my name you can compare. Out of the last 150 luxury hotels I stayed at (in the last 10 months), this is by far one of the most beautiful properties of them all. Coupled with outstanding service and a good location, I truly think that this is by far the most beautiful and luxurious boutique hotel in all of Taipei. This hotel will only get 5 star rating from future trip advisor guests and I predict that this hotel will be the #1 rated Trip Advisor hotel in Taipei. I strongly recommend this hotel.