ioio Tainan Homestay

For the price, this is hard to beat. The room was huge, modern, and really clean, and the location was great. There was a kettle in the room, but nowhere to refill our water bottles. I’d definitely recommend staying here.

The room itself was nice and clean, and once you’re inside, you’ll like it. Getting booked and checked in was much more complicated than it needed to be: several emails and phone calls, a bank transfer, and then a door code without a room number.

The location was good and checking in was easy enough. We didn’t understand the message about LINE at first, until a helpful Taiwanese lady explained it was a messaging app we needed to download. The bed was very firm, so it won’t suit everyone.

The rooms are spacious, and the TV on the 5th floor can be moved, which is handy. But I’d never return. Unless you can shut out the world completely and sleep anywhere, I’d strongly advise against staying here. This guesthouse has one unit per floor and sits near a crossroads about 20 meters away. We stayed on the 3rd and 5th floors. After being unable to sleep on the 3rd floor, we told the owner the next day and moved upstairs. On the 3rd floor the windows didn’t seal well, and from midnight into the early morning, traffic was extremely loud, with warning lights from large turning vehicles. My friend woke at least 10 times, and I woke 4-5 times. It was painful. The 5th floor was a little better because it’s higher, but the traffic noise was still there. The beds weren’t comfortable either. The mattress felt like a very cheap spring mattress, and the double bed seemed only standard size, small for two people. There was just one pillow, and the heights were inconsistent. The room size itself deserves five stars: it’s very spacious, like a one-bedroom, one-living-room, one-bathroom layout without partitions. But some facilities were damaged. On the 3rd floor, the low chair handle and bathroom showerhead holder were broken. Upstairs on the 5th floor, one of the chair’s connecting parts was broken. I sat on it without realizing and nearly fell backward, which was dangerous. On the 3rd floor the water pressure was unstable and the shower shifted between hot and cold. The shopkeeper said the hot water would run out in about 15 minutes, and this also happened when too many people showered together. Drinking water wasn’t provided, so you have to buy your own. The 3rd-floor TV is fixed, and its sofa is so slippery you can’t sit comfortably unless you sit cross-legged to avoid sliding onto the floor.