Houze Hostel

The lobby looked decent, so I expected the room to be at least okay. It was gross and old instead. Wood around the room, including beside the bed, was rotting, there were white specks on the floor, and there was mould all over the toilet. The room had poor ventilation and no sunlight. There was a window, but it was useless. The other bad reviews are true. Housekeeping came each morning, and the lady was polite and very nice. We turned down the service, but she was doing her job and seemed to be doing her best with an old room that needed saving. The other staff were also nice and present, so I have nothing bad to say about the service. We stuck it out for the whole short trip because we were out most of the day and didn’t want the hassle of changing rooms or hotels. The WiFi was verrrry bad, so I used my data the entire time. Five stars for service, minus ten for the room. Really.

Apart from the location, I don’t have much good to say. They’ll give you free snacks and drinks on the condition that you leave a positive Google review. Luggage storage costs NT$350 per day. There’s no water fountain or coffee at the front desk, and nearly everything in the building is small, including the elevator.

The location is great, but the room was pretty run down. The bed was as hard as concrete, and I woke up with my back hurting like hell. WiFi was basically nonexistent and didn’t feel secure. The shower holder sits around mid-back height, which made washing my hair unpleasant. The cleaning lady knocked while coming straight into the room, so there was no time to react. At the front desk they asked for my passport and credit card, then had me write all the same information on paper. That part wasn’t a problem exactly, just kind of dumb.

We only booked for one day because we needed somewhere to leave our luggage while we looked around before heading to the airport. Jason at the front desk let us check in early to drop our bags, then took the initiative to find a taxi for our group of seven. He was super friendly and helpful. Good job, Jason.