Fukuoka Fanfare:
- Singapore Airlines SQ656 Singapore – Fukuoka [Business]
- The Ritz Carlton Fukuoka
- Hotel Oriental Express Fukuoka Nakasu Kawabata
- Lounge Fukuoka
- China Airlines CI111 Fukuoka – Taipei [Economy]
- Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport
- EVA Lounge Safari
- EVA Air BR215 Taipei – Singapore [Royal Laurel Class]
I struggled a little with picking a property for this pitstop but landed on this due to its proximity to the airport for the 16 hour stopover. I was trying to clock some Accor status points and although they had another property further into the city, I figured it wouldn’t be a smart choice for this time.
Address – No. 1-1, Hangzhan South Rd., Dayuan District, Taoyuan City337041 Taoyuan City. Website.
Contact – Tel: +886 3-398-0888. Email: h6701-re@accor.com.
Location – This property is the nearest hotel to Taoyuan Airport and is one stop away from the Airport MRT and steps away after exiting the station A14a Airport Hotel Station, with direct airport MRT services for every 15 minutes to and from hotel between terminal 1 & 2.
Price – SGD166++ per night for room-only booked directly for a Standard King Room on Accor’s site which worked well for the location. Having no breakfast was not a concern to me as I was leaving early the next day anyways.
Pre-arrival – I emailed the property to request for their shuttle bus info (as apparently, they used to do pick ups) as well as early check in due to my flight times but never got a reply. I also completed the online check in registration on the app even though I wasn’t quite sure what benefits came with it – but I did have the chance to indicate an arrival window which I thought was better than nothing given the lack of response via email.
Getting There – Getting to the property was pretty easy as there was a direct train service – the stop at Taoyuan Airport Terminal 2 is A13 – Airport Terminal 2 Station (haha) and only 1 stop to A14a – Airport Hotel Station. The train takes a while to come though so wait abit if so.
The good thing is that the subway system also accepts international credit cards for payment so for short hops like this, it was convenient not to have to get a travel card or change TWD just for this. But tapping my physical card didn’t work so I had to use Apple Pay.
Once you exit Station A14a, just follow the sign that says “Airport Hotel” and you would be there in less than 5mins.
Check In – the lobby was thankfully empty when I stepped in and I was attended to immediately. The process took less than 10mins including taking payment for the stay. There was no welcome letter but I was given a welcome drink voucher for my stay which I can redeem at any time at the bar.
Meanwhile, the lobby looked much better than I expected for its age and the high ceilings made it feel alot more spacious.
There were also some very interesting features once I got around to exploring the grounds – including a disinfection channel booth – didn’t try it but looks super useful when necessary.
A large China Airlines plane model was also featured in the lobby.
I also realized later that there is a partnership between the airline and the hotel where passengers with a valid ticket can book rooms here at a subsidized rate which looked really attractive but the booking is not eligible for points or night accruals if that matters. More details and booking link here.
On another side of the lobby was a super interesting feature wall showcasing a collection of wall mounted plane models of various airlines – so have fun spotting your favorite airline! I have no idea how the featured airlines are selected but I could not find any of Singapore Airlines.
Room – I suspect I had been given an upgrade to an Executive room from the booked Standard King Room but they are all the same size anyways at 28SqM. Anyhows, I opened the door to my room, 846, and was pleasantly surprised that the room looks actually much better in person than the pics.
The room opened up to a decent size door way, with a cupboard, wardrobe, and a luggage space to the right. The wardrobe was barebones with only an ironing board and hangers in it, while the cupboard held the safe, slippers, and bathrobes which were wrapped in its own bags.
Not sure if it was because I came from a local Japanese hotel experience before this, but the bathroom opposite this space felt big especially for 1pax. A single sink, a shower tub, and a separate toilet area, with toiletries Deep Nature branded – never seen before but quite nice!
The main bedroom space is spacious and holds a firm king bed with bedside tables and a day sofa which holds a giant panda as a companion which was hilarious I thought.
A work desk + chair with the wall-mounted TV above it provided extra platform space for putting stuff.
Built into one corner is the mini bar which surprisingly stocks a Nespresso machine with pods and 4 bottles of complimentary water. More than enough for my short stay for sure.
Later than afternoon, housekeeping brought a welcome amenity which I was surprised to receive as a Gold – those airplane shaped butter cookies are so cute! The amenity even came with a printed personalized note which was nice.
I also found a pillow menu listed by firmness and requested for Tea Pillows just to see what they are and turns out they are just really firm pillows and do not smell of tea hah. The property also offer ear plugs but I personally had no issues with the noise – in fact I was so tired I slept almost right through from 5pm until 4am the next day.
Facilities – I never had the chance to try these on level 3 but the Fitness Centre (24hrs) and the Pool (6:30am-10:30pm) were one of the better ones I’ve seen. I wish I had more time here.
The Fitness Centre was huge and spans over an expansive floor area which made it feel like almost a commercial gym – they even had a dedicated mat area for non machine stuff which was rare.
The pool was undergoing maintenance when I visited – I was told it’ll be opened later that afternoon so all I could do was to peek through the glass window. But knowing that it’s an indoor heated pool with a jacuzzi at the side, the thought of spending a proper stopover in this property sure sounds tempting for next time.
Food & Beverage – I had a late lunch at their restaurant at the odd hour of 3:00pm when they were just cleaning up after the buffet lunch service and had a very enjoyable and reasonably priced salmon salad for TWD380 (SGD$17). I asked if they’d allow me to redeem my welcome drink with my food and they agreed and passed me the drink list to pick from – and this was actually the first time that I saw the welcome drink list differentiated by tiers. Thank goodness Golds still get alcohol!
Service – No complaints as nothing went wrong during this short stay.
Check Out – Done at front desk at 6am seamlessly – the staff was also very well versed in handling quick checks out as most guests checking out at this time would be trying to catch the shuttle bus to the airport understandably.
In Summary,
an excellent pitstop even if its room-only before I go on my way home. EVA here I come!
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