Memory Traveler

We arrived late on a summer night, and the air conditioning and lights were already on. That was thoughtful. The room was beautiful, clean, and comfortable, and the host offered us lots of Tainan specialties. It's under a 10-minute walk from Dadong Night Market. We checked in on a Monday and had no noise trouble, despite what some other reviews said. The walls are solid. The price was reasonable and felt like good value.

The room was new, which was its one saving grace. Sound carried badly, and people speaking quietly on the second floor could still be heard from the first. When both rooms showered at night, there was no hot water. The shampoo and shower gel were nearly empty and hadn't been topped up, so getting even a little took ages. There was no water dispenser or kettle.

There was a nasty smell in the room, and the stay didn't feel worth the price. Soundproofing was poor too. The ceiling light connected to another room's Bluetooth, so I was stuck hearing a basketball live stream all morning. It was really disturbing.

We arrived at 9:45 PM after booking online and found the room hadn't been cleaned at all. There was hair everywhere, the bed was a mess, the bin was overflowing, and used towels were lying around. I contacted the housekeeper right away, but their listed closing time was 6 PM and my call went to voicemail. The so-called customer complaints line told me to call the landlady, who didn't answer either. Calls just rang and rang. Her LINE message said not to call after 10 PM because she was asleep. I started calling at 9:46 PM and got no answer. After wasting money on a text asking her to pick up, she finally answered on my next call. When I explained that the room was untouched, she called another younger woman, presumably the housekeeper. It turned out the cleaner had gone home before finishing, and apparently nobody checked the rooms afterward. The housekeeper said they couldn't find another cleaner, and since there were no rooms left in that building, we'd have to go to their Anping branch. It was already past 10 PM, we'd parked and had lots of bags, and they wanted us to drive 15-20 minutes away. That was completely unacceptable. Then they offered a refund. Of course I wanted a refund, but where were we supposed to go so late? Was booking a room a joke to them? They kept repeating that we should go to the annex and saying, "I'm sorry." I couldn't understand why the original landlady wasn't handling the call and had another woman repeat those two lines instead. They only suggested the annex because it happened to have a vacancy. What if it hadn't? They told us to find temporary lodging and not to ask them to cover a price difference at another guesthouse. They said they'd discuss it and call back. My friend and I immediately found a nearby guesthouse that could take us, and booked it. The manager said they could come clean our room, but we'd have to wait about 30 minutes. It was nearly 10:30 PM. I wasn't willing to wait around for them to clean it. We left and asked for a full refund. They also refunded an extra 500 as compensation. Reading earlier reviews, I saw the same attitude in the owner's reply to someone whose shower gel was missing: the cleaner had forgotten to refill it, and problems had to be reported right away, with no complaints later. I told the owner that I could resolve it, but they couldn't even reliably check rooms and replenish supplies. The way they handled the problem was appalling, and I'd tell people to think twice before staying there. I still wonder if the owner would have picked up or checked her phone if we had arrived later than 10 PM. ^_^