Zenda Suites

Tainan’s a great place to eat, and there are lots of places to grab food right outside the hotel. The breakfast buffet leans Taiwanese, but everything I tried was good. The rooms are modern and roomy, and the location works well: it’s close to NCKU, there are plenty of Youbikes nearby, and Tainan Main Station is just a short walk away. It’s now called Academy Hotel. I enjoyed staying here.

We spent two weeks here for a study program at NCKU. The rooms were quiet, clean, and tidy, though they were only cleaned twice a week. Staff couldn’t speak English. At times our room smelled of sewage, but they did offer to move us to another one.

The front desk entered my stay as one night instead of two in the parking system. When I tried to leave at checkout, I couldn’t get out, and the intercom at the gate didn’t work. I had to make several calls before I could drive away. The location is excellent, right in the center of NCKU, with lots of food stands and delis nearby. The parking lot is spacious enough for any kind of car. My room was huge and reasonably clean, with limited but well kept hardware, apart from the door information system. There’s a design problem with the do not disturb sign, which is combined with the doorbell. The signal disappears when you take the power card out of the wall, so if you leave briefly for breakfast, housekeeping may come in while you think do not disturb is on. The hotel has nice rooms and a great location, but the service and setup feel like management thinks it’s running a BNB.

Check-in was quick, and the room is huge for the price. The location is great. The breakfast selection wasn’t bad, but the food tasted ordinary, there were ants on the table, and the chairs looked old. The dining room wasn’t clean. There’s no bathroom on the first floor, and you can’t eat or drink in the lobby. The hotel also has nowhere for travelers to sit and have food or a drink. I ended up going to the nearby campus to eat lunch and have coffee in the sun. That’s really inconvenient for travelers, and I’ve never had a hotel stay like it. The room feels outdated and isn’t set up well for business travelers with electronics. There’s no reachable outlet by the bed for charging a phone. One outlet is there, but it’s very hard to get to. A shame, especially with the school being famous for technology.