Ramada Encore by Wyndham Hualien

The staff were great, the location was great, and the hotel was great!

👍 Nice.

The room was spacious and up on the top floor, so it stayed fairly quiet and I got good rest during my four days over Lunar New Year. The hotel is in a fairly quiet part of town, and we rented a car. Parking wasn’t guaranteed, so anyone driving should leave extra time in case finding a spot is an issue. The taxi driver who brought us on the first day joked that the hotel had changed hands several times and wondered why we’d picked it 😆 There were some maintenance issues: the sofa sagged when you sat down, there were faint black lines on the bathroom mirror, and a doorknob by the emergency exit was loose. The facilities felt a bit dated. At check-in, the bathroom still had hair and fecal residue on the toilet seat. I reported it to the front desk right away and asked them to clean it. I hope housekeeping is more thorough next time. The room’s size and quiet are real pluses, but cleanliness and upkeep need attention for the stay to feel complete.

The presidential suite was huge, but really dirty. We booked it for two nights starting on the second day of Lunar New Year, and the floor left our feet black. I figured we’d just use the paper slippers, but the staff’s communication problems made the stay deeply frustrating. We had a large, tall seven-seater and were grateful when staff first let us use a flat parking spot nearby, especially with our young baby. The next morning, the front desk said a tour bus needed the space and asked us to check back when we returned to find out how to park. They called again at 2 PM to remind us. It seemed considerate at the time. But when we called from the gate later, the person answering kept saying we couldn’t park there because of the bus. I understood that their colleague was supposed to tell us where to park so the bus could get in and out at night. The supervisor then came out with two staff members, and they contradicted each other. First they said we couldn’t use the space; after we agreed to park straight, they said we could park sideways. Another staff member asked if we could drive out and park in front of the hotel. Our baby started crying in the car, and our relatives and friends were waiting in front of the hotel while we tried to sort it out. The female supervisor asked who had told us we could park there, as if we were being difficult and insisting on the adjacent lot. The staff member who’d initially okayed it later called to apologize and asked what the supervisor had said. I was furious and told them to speak with their supervisor directly. Their poor communication had caused us a lot of trouble, and I shouldn’t have to mediate it. We had a little baby with us, and they kept changing their answer without figuring out where we could park. It was so frustrating.