Asiaworld Hotel, Taipei City

This hotel is actually called the Sunworld Dynasty Hotel, and is no longer owned by Holiday Inn. My wife & I stayed at the Taiwan Sunworld Dynasty Hotel for 4 nights from Wed July 18 – Sun July 22, 2007. The lobby is spacious and impressive, but old in style. Actually the same thing can be said about our room. We got their executive suite which is an enormous 116 square meters, but totally empty. It was like staying overnight in your high school gymnasium basketball court—with a bed under one basket and a sofa under the other. It was convenient at times to have two bathrooms and two televisions, though. The room was on corner wall on the 6th floor. No neighboring rooms or anyone close by, which was great! The view was of the stadium across the street, which we actually enjoyed. We had slight trouble communicating in English with housekeeping and room service, however the concierge all spoke English well and were courteous. The hotel has 3 excellent Chinese restaurants. The hotel is on East Nanjing road. There is good clothes shopping nearby along East Nanjing Road. There is also an Ikea and Outback Steakhouse adjoining on the first floor. There is a Fridays a block away, though we dined mostly at Taiwanese restaurants during our stay. Right next door is the Asiaworld Shopping Center. There is a food court with a McDonalds and local Taiwan food in the basement of Asiaworld, though nothing looked terribly appetizing. There is a subway station about 15 minutes walk away. There is a bar called Brass Monkey that is packed on Thursday nights about 20 minutes walk away. Also close by in walking distance is a pretty good spa called Bodhi Spa with a couples room – she got the facial, I got the aromatherapy. There is a 7-11 across the street from the hotel as well. All-in-all the hotel was quite old in style but convenient to clothes shopping & western style restaurants. I would say it is closer to 3 1/2 stars than 4 stars. It is a good value for the area and service, though I would not take someone there that I wanted to impress.

My wife and I got married at this hotel 20 years ago -- then the best hotel in Taiwan. So it holds a special place in our memory. We made a point to stay there during summers of 2005 and 2006, and we were pleased. They gave us an upgraded double room this time without us asking. With its superb location, great value, and attentive service, this hotel is still among our top choices in Taipei. The carpeting can use a renovation.

The service was very good and fast. Personnel courteous and helpful. They assisted us in our tours by writing in Chinese characters the places we'd love to visit. Special mention to James Dee and wife who made our stay like we were at home.Thank you very much. Congratulations and more power! from Liberace, Maribel and Mae Angela Nicolas

Check-in took 30 minutes while there was no lines waiting. Room was noisy with singing from lounge below, this was after 10 PM. We complaint to the manager and was moved to a better room. Smelly room.Dirty and worn carpet, most of the guest rooms needed to be renovated badly. On the last day, when we had the large luggages taken to the storage area, our other belongings were removed from the room by house keeping before we officially checked-out.