Taitung Yu Krung Smart Stay

The room itself was very nice, big and clean. Bed was very comfy, assuming you manage to sleep. Location seems great for the station. It's about 700m walk down a straight quiet road, but unless you like listening to screeching trains, it's not great. The room isn't soundproofed well enough, and you can hear every southbound train coming in as they start braking right next to the hotel. The first one starts at 4:40am. I normally don't get up before 8am, but I was awake by 5am every day staying here. The hotel sells ear plugs, which seems rude given that they've been free in every other hotel I've stayed in that has a noise problem. And this one definitely has a noise problem. This place has no elevator, which isn't made clear on the listing. There are no cancellations, and it's only once you've paid and have no way of changing your mind they email you to say there's no lift. Carrying a 23kg suitcase up to the 5th floor isn't fun. Talking of which, after paying in full you get an email saying that your booking won't be held unless you also complete the registration process at least a day early. For this you need to add them on line just so an AI can respond to stupid premade buttons that take you to a browser inside line. Once you go through the process of registering, you get a QR code, or you would but you can't check in yet because it's too early, and you can't save the link because it's inside line. Clicking on the original link restarts the process again. I wasted an hour on this. When you get a QR code, it changes every 5 minutes, so you need your phone to get in. This means when you go out running you need to carry your phone instead of a small door card like every other hotel. Who knows what happens if your phone runs out of battery, I just you end up sleeping on a bench outside the station. Everything about the communications from this hotel seems like they want to rip you off. Arrive early? 500 NTD per hour early. Late check out? 500 NTD per hour. Forget to click checkout in line. Same, I guess. Warnings on the front door not to lock it or get another fine (how about don't let the door lock if you don't want it locked?) Extra toiletries? Also charged for, but with a passive aggressive sign saying you're being recorded so don't steal anything. Several other signs about charges for other things that I didn't bother trying to translate. Also, you're expected to change your shoes with slippers at the front door. OK, but there's no indication that they are clean. My room was a double, but I came down after the first night and the second pair had been taken..when I returned that night, some child sized slippers were there instead, and the next morning adult slippers. No idea if anyone wore my slippers while I was out, or if they'd been cleaned before or after I stayed. As well as the room not being soundproofed, the bathroom window has no curtain and the bathroom has a glass door. So once you've been woken by the trains, it's hard to get back to sleep as it's light by 6am. And the door to the room has glass panels, covered with black paper, but light shines around all the edges. The shower door doesn't meet at the side at the bottom, but there's a 1cm gap under the door anyway, so the first time you have a shower you discover you bathmat is soaked through and the extractor fan doesn't do much so it was wet every day afterwards. Overall, this room is perfect if you're catching an early train or like waking up really early.

This is a really cosy place. I really love my room. Clean and modern interior. The only downside might be the location. It's close to the train station. But there isn't much nearby for food. Probably best to rent a scooter to explore Taitung anyway to make your stay more convenient. They are plenty of scooter shops near the train station too.

very good