Mandarin Oriental, Taipei

GrojoMelbourne5 months ago

The Mandarin Oriental Taipei is a world class luxury hotel, that well lives up to the MO name. We had previously stayed at the Grand Hyatt Taipei and the MO is considerably better in every way and worth the additional expense. ||The rooms are stunning - very spacious, beautifully designed, with all the hallmarks of the best rooms (including international power points and quality bathroom products). And of course the rooms were perfectly clean and serviced to a high level every day. It was a pleasure to spend time in the room. ||The service was exceptional and a highlight of the stay. Nothing was too difficult and the staff accommodated each and every request with a smile. We particularly appreciated that there was a personal touch to the service. Special mention to the reception staff who made check in and out effortless, and the staff at Cafe Un Deux Trois who were friendly and efficient and even recalled the specific order of the previous day. ||The buffet breakfast was excellent - a good range of continental and hot breakfast options. The products are all very high quality, the dishes rotated daily and the food was constantly refreshed. However, we were somewhat disturbed to see the staff throwing out the uneaten pastries one morning on the dot of 10:30am when the buffet closed. Hopefully the hotel donates these leftovers to charity and does not engage in such avoidable food wastage. ||The pool was lovely, a nice warm temperature for the winter, and the staff are wonderful in providing water and tea, making it a very pleasant experience. The gym was well-equipped, although it is unnecessary to restrict access to gym equipment for social distancing reasons in a post-Covid world and it is a waste for the equipment not to be usable. ||The location of the hotel was great. It is about 10 minutes to the MRT but more usefully there is a bus stop directly outside the hotel that has buses that go to many of the key sights - we highly recommend looking into the buses. The door staff were also extremely helpful in organising taxis. ||One more thing is worth noting - in order to sign up to Wifi, you have to create an MO account and there is otherwise no free wifi. Although signing up to an MO account is free, it seems an unnecessarily complicated way of providing wifi. Given the cost of a room at the MO, it is unacceptable that they would even dare ask guests to pay extra for wifi (noting that budget hotels/backpackers offer free wifi). Further, the wifi had a weak connection, and better wifi is expected of a hotel like MO. ||Overall a sensational experience and we would be delighted to return.