This hotel is a mix of contrast. Very beautifully decorated public areas match with a very bare room. An excellent club lounge and services that should have rewarded hotel guests with a great stay was spoiled by an unexpected problem ( more on that later ).

As my 2nd visit to Taipei but my first visit to Taipei on vacation, I have researched the hotels available in Taipei and decided earlie that the Sheraton Taipei was worth a try, being newly renovated. I booked a club deluxe room for 2 nights.

Upon my arrival, checkin was efficient with the staff noting my request for early checkin and I was escorted to my room. My baggage arrive on time. The executive floor butler/manager came to introduce herself. So first impression was good though I feel the way they do it seems a bit rush. I look around my room and start to feel uncomfortable with the smallish room and lack of space. It was advertised as only 35m2 so my expectation wasn't high but I feel in actual it is less. Sure it was equipped as advertised, ie bathroom with separate shower and tub, LCD TV etc. but there was hardly any room to walk around the bed. I pull open the curtains and was further annoyed to see a "view" of the back of old ugly buildings and piles of rubbish lying around at the ceilings.

I then went to the club lounge and requested a room change. The staff on duty was helpful and offer a bigger room ( Club Premier room ) with a view facing the main road at TWD500 more. I took up the offer. Checking in to my new room, it felt much more spacious. There was also not much of a view but at least there were no ugly backyards. Maybe this is a "minimalist" design but again, the room feels very bare with lack of furniture and decoration. No sofa chairs provided, only a simple 2-pieces chairs with no arm rest. Well, I supposed the hotel presume you are to relax in their lounge. The bathroom is nice but is exactly the same as deluxe room. The dark grey marble lends a dull look to the bathroom. A unusual feature of the bathroom is that it is equipped with a high tech toilet. Overall, the room is just too bare and I am surprised this was actual design by the famoust Hirsch Bedner Associates from whom I have seen much better work.

The club lounge is a different matter althogether. It is very well appointed with lush and comfortable seating sofas, beautiful overhead lightings, plush wood panels and very spacious. The attentive staff is keen to attend to your every request. The club lounge serve 3 food presentations a day, namely breakfast, afternoon snacks and evening cocktails. The last one was especially impressive. Usually cocktail food in club lounge are simple snacks with drinks to go along. Not the Sheraton. It's a full fledge buffet with a wide selection of food that you can have a full course dinner there. Wireless internet is avaliable in the lounge and is very fast. Thus, I fully agreed with an earlier reviewer that the Sheraton Taipei indeed has a great club lounge. When not outside, I spent much more time in the lounge than my room.

The public areas are just as impressive. The lobby is swanky and chic especially at night, with beautiful lightings. Judging from the crowd, the hotel seems to enjoy good occupancy. An impressive hanging chandelier sort of "flows" across 3 stories of the lobby. There's also an impressive looking open atrium that extends the full height of the hotel. Like most hotels in Taipei, there was a wide selection of food outlets within the hotel.

Now comes to the most annoying aspect of the hotel. The rooms were seriously lacking in sound proof. I suspect the walls separating the rooms are not concrete but gysum board partitions only. I can hear clearly footsteps from the hallway and other guests openng and closing their doors. I was unfortunate to stay next to a highly inconsiderate hotel guest who choose to hold late night family discussion in the room next door whole night until 2 AM in the morning talking loudly and keep banging the wall perodicially and making loud noises in their room. Due to the fact that the sound-proofing in Sheraton Taipei's rooms were very bad, I could hear everything. Complaints to the guests services was useless as the staff just told me they have requested the guest not to make noise but can't do much and this continue and continue.. Finally I was forced to request a room change at 2:30 in the morining in order to get some sleep, dragging my luggage along the hallway and finally got some sleep in my new room at 3am in the morning. As a result, I was dead tired the next day. I complained again the following day and was offered symbolic apologies by the staff but I presume the hotel staff cannot do anything to discipline its guests or improve the sound proofing of the room short of renovation again. My second night was thankfully peaceful. I can still hear noise from the hallway but at least no annoying neighbours banging on the wall.

Overall, this hotel is good but if you are sensitive to noise like me, stay elsewhere. I most likely will not return due to the fact that I cannot be sure I will have a good night sleep. The Sheraton hotel is actually a good hotel, spoiled by poor sound proofing and a very average room. What a pity. That said, you may not encounter this problem like me if you don't have a nosiy neighbour. But what is good of a hotel if it cannot provide their guest a basic good night sleep?