Tag: Starwood Hotels

REVIEW: W Taipei, Wonderful Room
tl;dr:
- If you need to try a W Hotel in the city for the first time, this is a good choice
- Small but very comfortable rooms by W’s standard
- Great proximity to shopping areas at City Hall and Zhongxiao Road
- Full spa facilities, including jacuzzis, steam rooms, sauna and even a cold plunge pool
- Small pool surrounded by Kitchen Table and Woobar, not a fantastic location
- On-property signature restaurant serving up Chinese cuisine
W Taipei, Wonderful Room

Over the weekend that I was in Taipei, I took advantage of W Taipei’s Super Sunday special offer to bag another stay, in order to requalify for my SPG Gold next year.

A little more about the promotion: This is not listed on Starwood’s website, but instead have to found on W Taipei’s offer page itself. When I reserved, the going rate was about NT$5,800 for a night’s stay with breakfast, which is arguably one of the cheapest rate you can get a W hotel stay at. Definitely worth the splurge even if you are usually a budget traveller.

W Taipei is located at the City Hall station along the Taipei metro, in the same building as the Hankyu President departmental store.

The entrance of the hotel is a little hard to find though. If you are arriving from the metro station (a la budget traveller), you will have to get out of the mall and walk around it to get to the main entrance. Otherwise, there is a little side entrance from the mall to the hotel ground floor lobby, but this is only accessible during the mall hours.

Check-in desk

W Taipei technically does not have its own building – it occupies a significant number of floors, including the top floor that houses the signature Yen restaurant and bar. The check-in desks, as well as Woobar, Dining Table and the WET pool are all located on the 8th floor.

The moment you arrive by foot or by car, the friendly front of house guests will offer to take your bags for you and send it straight to your room, while you head up to the lobby to handle your check-in.

As I was an SPG Gold member, I was upgraded to a room with a premium view – the Taipei 101. Note that the room is still a Wonderful Room, just that the Taipei 101 view comes at a higher price than those on the other side of the floor. The front desk also noted that my birthday was around the corner, and offered me a cake to be sent to my room at my preferred time. How thoughtful!

Plenty of water in the room

Upon entering the room, I realise this must be one of the smallest W rooms I’ve ever stayed in. The separation between the bed and the desk against the wall was nominal, and with a couch beside the window there was hardly any space to move around.

The décor remains consistent with the W theme, with its wacky designs and vibrant colours. The bathroom is an open concept one, with hints of Chinese elements such as the wooden stool and the bamboo ladder that serves as a towel rack.

Bath amenities

One good thing I love about the room: there were plenty of bottled water around the room. I feel this is a small but often overlooked detail, so that drinking water is always within reach anywhere in the room. While some people argue that this leads to a higher wastage, but I feel that is the responsibility of the guest rather than the hotel to ensure minimal wastage.

Party room amenities

There were its usual plethora of in-room merchandise and F&B creative packages (which I thought was clever marketing but incredibly annoying), but also several nice touches such as the white noise machine that aids with falling asleep. The bath came with the standard W amenities, including my all-time favourite lemon scented body wash.

Complimentary coffee and TWG tea

After spending some time in the room, I went to check out the gym and the spa, both of which were incredibly delightful. The gym was spacious and well-equipped, and also has a separate room for classes. There were plenty of treadmills (although Taipei city is a great city to run in), as well as barbells and even a smith machine.

Spacious gym, well equipped

If you are living in Taiwan and have a lot of money to spare, the FIT gym is also opened for public membership at NT$150,000 (that’s right, 150 grand) a year. The membership comes with a free night’s stay at W Taipei, 5000 starpoints, a range of discounts, complimentary parking and other perks. There are also group and multi-year discounts as well, check them out here.

Over at the AWAY Spa, there was a full suite of spa facilities in the changing room, including two jacuzzi pools, a cool dip pool, a sauna and a steam room, which was a far cry from what W Bangkok offered.

Jacuzzi

Beyond that, what’s amazing is that there were even lounge chairs for guests to lie on, each complete with its own TV screen if they need a little entertainment.

The WET Pool is located on the 8th floor as well, right next to Woobar and adjacent to the WET bar. The pool is rather large by a city hotel standard, although it can look rather intimidating with deck chairs all around the pool, as well as the Kitchen Table and Woobar overlooking it as well.

During my stay, it was the WET Pool’s monthly pool party (happens every

WET pool

As an SPG Gold member, the hotel also serves up complimentary cocktail hours at both Woobar and the Yen Bar on the top floor, from 5pm to 7pm daily. What’s available on the menu (which are the same at both venues) include prosecco, wines, housepour spirits and soft drinks.

YEN Bar

Along with the drinks, Woobar also serves up free snacks for you to nibble on. However, I personally recommend heading up to the Yen Bar – I can’t describe the view enough, you just have to enjoy a drink while watching the sun goes down, a very pretty sight.

Evening drinks for elite members, 5-7pm

Next morning’s breakfast was at the Kitchen Table, serving up a good mix of local fare and the usual western breakfast offerings. One thing I always love about hotel breakfasts in Asia is the availability of Chinese staples, such as soup noodles or rice and soup.

The Kitchen Table

Today, I had a bowl of cooked-to-order soup noodles with braised meat and shrimps, a good start to a cold morning. Other asian offerings such as dumplings and scallion pancakes were also on the table, which happen to be some of my favourite Taiwanese fares. What was disappointing though was that I could not find luroufan, or braised pork rice. I swear I saw someone in the restaurant having it, but I just couldn’t find it anywhere on the buffet line.

Cook-to-order soup noodles

What was also interesting was the availability of ice cream for breakfast, which I gamely took. (Well, if you can have champagne for breakfast, I don’t see why you can’t have ice cream for breakfast too.) The ice cream proved to be disappointing on scooping, as it was half melted, so I took a bite and threw the rest away.

Udon noodles

Overall, the breakfast was decent but I wouldn’t pay the door rate for the breakfast, as affordable options around the area can be found very easily since this is Taipei.

Even without the promotion, W Taipei turned out to be rather outstanding, packing a lot of punch into the floors that it occupies. The unobstructed view of Taipei 101 also makes it a premier choice for Taipei’s well-known year end countdown parties, given its first class view of the fireworks from the iconic building at the stroke of midnight. All in all, the great Taiwanese service, W design philosophy infused with local flair and premium location adds up to a memorable premium stay on your holiday in Taipei.
23 November 17
REVIEW: W Bangkok, Spectacular Room

As the year was coming to a close and in need for a few more qualifying nights to renew my SPG Gold status, I booked a night with W Bangkok for a weekend stay after a couple of working days in the capital city of Thailand.

Spectacular Room

W Bangkok is located along the commercial zone of Sathorn, near the Chong Nonsi BTS station. A stone’s throw away from Silom, the location is great for those who needs easy access to the city centre where Siam Paragon, Central World and the likes are located, but quite a hassle if you wish to café hop along the Sukhumvit area.

This Starwood property is a Category 4 hotel, the lowest category for the W Hotels brand (there are only eight Category 4 W hotels globally, with four in Asia).

Welcome cookies placed in my room

The hotel runs 31 floors high, featuring 403 guest rooms and 34 suites.

For this stay, I booked myself into the entry level Wonderful Room. Being a SPG Gold member, I was upgraded to the Spectacular Room instead. And of course, I enjoyed the perk of a 4pm check-out as part of the SPG Gold benefits. Note that this benefit cannot be enjoyed at W Hotels that are resorts, such as W Sentosa and W Bali.

Giant gloves on every bed – perfect for that Instagram moment

The Spectacular Room boasts a rather unique layout, around the curved parts of the floor, giving the room a curved window to form a triangular layout. The décor is in the usual loud and modern W Hotel style, adorned by a huge pair of glitzy boxing gloves on the bed.

The room overlooks the swimming pool on the 6^th floor, as well as the front porch of the hotel which has a fountain.

View from the room

The bathroom is integrated as part of the room, separated only by a huge yellow frosted glass strips and a heavy red curtain that serves as a ‘door’ for the bathroom. For those traveling with friends and family and prefer a bit more privacy in the bathroom, W Bangkok may not be the best choice.

Open concept bathroom

Most of the recreational facilities are located on the 6^th floor, including the gym (FIT), outdoor splash pool (WET) and the AWAY Spa.

The gym is one of the smallest in the W Hotels I have stayed in. It is an open area on the floor, and is accessible 24 hours. The outdoor pool is not large, but throughout the day you will find people basking in the sun on one of the many deck chairs around.

The AWAY Spa is located on the same floor as well. At the time I stayed, W Bangkok was running several promotions for spa services, including a room package, Fuel Your Glow, which includes a 60-minute AWAY Massage for one. My feel is that being a destination known for its great spa and massage scene, hotel spas such as AWAY will find it incredibly challenging to offer a premium product when similar alternatives can be found easily and at a fraction of their price.

AWAY Spa – Men’s changing room

Guests may use the AWAY Spa facilities, including the steam room and sauna free of charge. The relaxation facilities are gender-segregated, but they are rather small and often underused. Note that the staff do not keep the steam room on at all times, so it’s best to call 15 minutes ahead for them to switch it on if you intend to use it.

There is also a jacuzzi somewhere within, but I didn’t check that out.

While my room didn’t come with breakfast, I asked about it during check-in and they offered a 30% discount on the breakfast at the Kitchen Table if I took it up at check-in. That comes up to about THB700 nett, which was quite a steal for a hotel breakfast but obviously extravagant by local standards.

The Kitchen Table

The Kitchen Table is located on the second floor of the hotel. First thing that caught my eye was the abundance of space and natural light. Of course, the high ceiling helped too. As with all W concepts, the Kitchen Table boasts of mod décor, the use of bold colours contrasted with black.

At first glance, there was a good spread of food choices: from your usual English style breakfast items such as bacon, eggs cooked-to-order, waffles, pancakes, to a wide variety of Asian fare, including congee, DIY miso soup and a live noodle station, serving up tom yum or chicken broth soups with noodles.

Cooked to order noodle soup, chicken broth

When I first took my seat, I was presented with an eggs menu. I ordered a pair of poached eggs. Honestly, the eggs weren’t fantastic so I only managed to finish one. The pastries were on point as usual – with the pancakes being my favourite. I only wish that the pancakes and waffles can be made to order so that they remain hot and fluffy.

Plenty of pastries and baked goods available for breakfast

Consistently across Asia, the Asian fare is much better. The noodles were on point, and the dim sum was decently delicious too.

Outside of breakfast, W Bangkok has got one of the most vibrant dining and drinking line up across Bangkok hotels.

Available for breakfast too – Dim sum

Every alternate Saturday, The Kitchen Table features ‘W does Brunch’, offering a vast spread of fine cheeses, salads, cold cuts, carved meats, BBQ, seafood, céviche and many sweet treats. Food and non-alcoholic beverages goes for THB2,500++ per person, while free-flow alcohol adds only THB600++ to the bill. SPG members enjoy additional discounts.

At Woobar on the ground floor, they have a daily happy hour one-for-one deals, but note that the one-for-one offer is based on a more expensive and limited menu. Still good value overall, especially if you imbibe alcohol like water.

Woobar, ground floor

What’s more exciting are the mid week events: apart from the usual ladies night every Thursday called “Girls Love Bubbles”, Woobar also features a “Boys Love Bubbles” every Wednesday night with free flow prosecco!

Next door at the House on Sathorn, there’s also a plethora of dining offers and options available for guests and walk-in customers, such as the high tea offer at the Courtyard available daily from 2.30pm to 5.30pm at THB1,350++ for two, including a selection of TWG teas. In the evening, the Courtyard and the Bar also runs a happy hour from 5pm to 7pm on weekdays offering 25% off all cocktails and beers.

W Bangkok

Overall, W Bangkok offers good value for the money you pay – in terms of its offerings as well as its excellent location in metropolitan Bangkok. The thing that didn’t quite work for me was the small swimming pool. As one of the cheapest W properties globally, this hotel is definitely a great place to sample the W style and top notch service without breaking your wallet.

29 October 17
REVIEW: Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11, Savvy Suite

I came to Bangkok for business this weekend and decided to check out a few hotels along the way. Since I was arriving late into Bangkok late on Wednesday evening, I decided to book the cheapest Starwood property available in town to clock a stay for one night, before moving on to other hotels the next day.

Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 is my choice this time round, given that their cheapest room went at about THB3000 (S$120). I didn’t book early enough, because there were times where early bird discounts drive the room price as low as THB2400.

Depending on the time of the year, another Starwood property, Four Points by Sheraton Sukhumvit 15 may take the place of being the cheapest Starwood property in Bangkok city, so do check both hotels.

I booked myself into the entry level Chic Room simply because it was only for one night. Or a little over 12 hours, to be exact. Checking in at midnight is definitely not a fantastic way to start a trip and all I wanted was to hit the showers and the bed. There was only one other guest checking in before me (you will imagine that no one checks in at midnight) and I was impatiently waiting for my turn. Kudos to the front desk staff, check-in was very fuss free and quick, and when he handed me the room key, he said the magic words, “We have upgraded you to a suite.” My eyes widened only because I forgot that SPG tends to provide upgrades for their gold and platinum customers, except at resorts!

So I got myself a suite!

Savvy suite – Photo from Starwood.com (source)

To be honest, I wasn’t planning on reviewing this property but since it’s the first time I stayed in a suite at Aloft, why not?

Aloft has a reputation to be the wannabe of W Hotels, almost like a pesky younger sibling. In fact, its tagline – A Vision of W – unabashedly positions itself so. At Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11, you can vouch that this is definitely the party hotel to be at, given the throngs of people streaming in and out of the xwyz bar when I arrived at midnight.

My suite was located on the 31^st floor, just a floor under the top. I’m not a big fan of high floors, particularly when the lifts are few and slow. This was the case with Aloft – not necessarily the slow bit but there were only four lifts.

Living room equipped with a sofa and a dining table

The suite was essentially twice of the regular Chic, Breezy and Urban rooms. There is a certain regularity to the size of the rooms in the entire property (unlike W Bangkok), so there isn’t many ways you can configure them.

The suite consists of a living room and a bedroom, with a bathroom and dressing area that ran the entire length of the room.

Long bathroom with walk-in wardrobe

The bonus that came with the suite was a bathtub – this is the first time I’ve seen a bathtub in an Aloft room. The body soap and shampoo, however, still came in a push pump bottle.

Bathtub – a rarity in Aloft hotels

There were also two vanities with a tray of amenities in between. What puzzled me the most was the bar soap – if Aloft is bent on saving money with the press pumps, why not do it for the bar soap too? There are liquid formula for either facial foams or hand washes.

Savvy suite – Bedroom

The bed was definitely incredibly comfortable, with good sized pillows and mini bolsters that I liked to use. Do note that the suites only came with King beds, so if you definitely need twin beds in your room, you will have to give up the suite for a regular room.

I was feeling a little hungry so I went down to RE:FRESH, which was Aloft’s signature convenience store/café concept across the entire brand, and had saved my life on several occasions with hot food being available late at night. I ordered some lamb meatballs and a drink for THB230. Still pricey by Thailand standards, but hey for a hotel it’s definitely good value.

Outdoor splash pool

The hotel also contains a small gym and an outdoor pool on the 10^th floor. The gym is adequate as long as you are the only person in the gym, while the pool can comfortably contain perhaps a dozen people.

RE:charge – which is essentially a gym

Aloft is most famous for its wxyz bar (similar to W’s woobar) and this property is no exception. The perpetual deal was a 1-for-1 deal from 5-9pm daily, and a buy 2 get one free offer from 9pm onwards. Now that makes it perfectly understandable why it was so crowded.

Location wise, the hotel is located deep within Sukumvit Soi 11. A walk out to the closest BTS station, Nana, is about 10 minutes. The soi (lane) is also inundated with plenty of hotels, including Ambassador hotel, and newly opened Mercure and Holiday Inn Express hotels. As a result, the lane is perpetually packed with vehicles, so be sure to book your Grab or Uber well ahead of time, and leave plenty of time for getting from one place to another. If you are leaving for the airport, suggest you plan for a one hour journey. Besides that, the soi is generally popular with Caucasians and packed with bars – very good if you enjoy the Kuta-style sitting at bars and chugging beers the whole night.

Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 is generally a good and cheap place to stay in Bangkok if you need to clock SPG nights. The only real downside is its location, which can really be a bummer if you, like me, hate to waste time getting from point to point and prefers a more accessible location.

24 August 17