Ecfa Hotel-Wan Nian

It’s affordable and right in the middle of Taipei, in Ximending, so it worked well for a trip with friends. I wouldn’t pick it for a family stay. The rooms are tiny, and the beds weren’t very comfortable, ours sloped near the head. Bathrooms were nice but also very small. The hotel is on the sixth floor. Below it, the ground through fourth floors are Gashapon World, with Tom's World arcade on the fifth.

There’s no bidet, and you can hear people outside because the room doesn’t block much sound. The male receptionist was the one real downside, he was quite rude. Otherwise, the room was spacious and there are lots of shops around in the heart of Ximending. You can leave your bags if you arrive early, and they’ll also store them after checkout. Free water and coffee are available. The elevator gets crowded sometimes, but it’s manageable.

We used a few different rooms, and some were very humid. Cleanliness was okay, but the staff weren’t very friendly. I think friendliness matters more than the room conditions.

The one clear plus was being so close to Ximending’s shopping area. The rest of our stay with friends had a lot of problems. The room had an awkward step at the entrance and a ledge, then another drop down by the beds. The large bathroom also had a step to get into it. The hotel is on the sixth floor of an old mall, and the elevator can be crowded and hard to manage with luggage. If you know Divisoria or 168 mall in the PH, that’s what the building felt like. We also had a security scare: another guest got into our room while I was alone. I called the front desk and insisted they review the CCTV right away to rule out theft. I asked to move rooms, but they refused and just said to call if it happened again. Our room faced the main street, where drunk people shouted outside in the early hours. The noise in the morning made it hard to sleep, especially since I had to work at night. Shower water swung between cold and scalding, with no reliably warm, comfortable temperature.