Perhaps the most important thing to take away from this review of the Madison Taipei Hotel is that it behooves you to think outside the box when it comes to choosing hotels in Taiwan.
There are some really fantastic small / boutique hotels in the city of Taipei. I’m happy to report that the Madison is one of them.
A full review of my 1-night stay the Madison Hotel in Taipei
Having stayed in relatively mainstream hotels during previous visits to Taipei, I decided to go with something a little more hip / stylish this time.
I booked this reservation based on pictures alone by the way. It looked nice, seemed to be located in a nice part of town, and the price wasn’t overly obscene. At least not enough to make my butt cheeks clench up.
Location
The Madison Hotel is located in the Da’an district of Central Taipei. It’s a really nice 15 minute walk to the Taipei 101 Tower. Most importantly, I like the fact that it’s situated just outside of the core (busy) part of the city. The surrounding area is quiet, clean, and completely safe.
Welcome to the Madison Taipei! I can only imagine how worried the front desk staff is as they see a white boy standing outside taking pictures of the main entrance (and welcoming himself to their hotel).Here’s a wider angle view showing what the surrounding area is like. Yup. Looks like I’ve made a fairly excellent hotel choice.
The lobby (and checking in)
You’ll be hit right over the head with ‘boutique hotel’ vibes as soon as you step through the main entrance. The lobby is small, very modern, and highly stylish. And the front desk staff? Courteous and as helpful as can be.
The lobby (and check in desk). Extremely clean, well-designed, and curiously void of any staff. I guess I’m scarier than I thought.
Getting to my room
Honestly, I’m usually not a fan of hotels with a dark and moody vibe. The Madison definitely qualifies as that, but it’s stylish enough for me to not hold any grudges.
Just be warned that the elevators and hallways are a little dark (and perhaps a little creepy if you’re not prepared for it).
There’s definitely a dark and moody vibe to this hotel. Which, thinking back on it, was a perfect match for the irritability I was feeling after a long day of travel. Bright colors and happy paintings on the wall probably would’ve ticked me off.This is it. Room oh seven oh five. Oh yeah!
Room (suite) overview
I booked a suite for this one night stay (not an individual room). The good news is that it was as beautiful and well-designed as what I saw in the pictures during the booking process. The bad news is that it was a lot smaller than I was expecting. Those pictures were deceiving.
Crack open the door, and… *starts walking*…and I like what I see!Wow. That’s a good looking bed. I was slightly concerned about the guillotine-like discs hanging from the wall just above the pillows though. They screwed in those suckers in good and tight, right? At the foot of the bed is this partition wall separating the bedroom from the living room. Those of you who read my Munich Airport Hilton review are no doubt a feeling a strong sense of déjà vu right about now.Here’s a view from the other side, opposite of where I was standing in the previous pic. Yeah, this is a little small – but still really nice. I can work with this. That’s what she said.Cocking your head to the right (I think she said that too) reveals the bathroom. There’s a desk and a decently comfy chair on the backside of that wall. She refused to comment about this (thankfully).Yeah. As far as hotel room desks and chairs go, these are pretty nice! Looking back towards the bathroom (on the left) and the bedroom (on the right). Well-appointed nightstand dead ahead.Said well-appointed nightstand. The integrated buttons for the lights is some 5-star hotel shit for sure. Not gonna lie. This is a fairly small suite, and I’m having a little trouble trying to figure out what I haven’t showed you yet. You’ve seen the TV already, right?Imma gonna check it out one more time (because Taiwanese TV is far too interesting to this white boy lol). It’s cozy in here! Perfect for a solo traveler IMHO, but it might get a little crowded if you’re sharing it with somebody. My advice? This is not the room for anyone who just can’t put up with the bullshit of occupying such a small space with another human being. Electrical outlets (featuring a USB port), closet space, and the temperature control unit. Yada yada yada…Free snacks, and more free snacks! Not only were the two bottles of water (and two bags of chips) complementary, but the cold stuff in the refrigerator was as well.
The bathroom
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the bathroom is that it looked very similar to the one you saw in my review of the Grand Hyatt Taipei. It’s almost as if they hired the same guy that did the bathrooms there to do the bathrooms here. He gets around!
Let’s go to the bathroom! I like how it’s encased in glass. How cool would it have been if it was encased in transparent glass?All I’m going to say is that this bathroom is nice enough to make me feel really bad about the bathroom I have at home. I would kill (and/or do naughty things) for a bathroom this nice! The toilet. With a side table. And a trashcan. And buttons for cleaning your butthole. I like! This combined tub and shower area is a really nice place to scrub your junk as well. I suppose you could attempt cleaning your junk here in the sink – but I don’t recommend it. That said, I’ll bet pretty much anything that it has been attempted at least once.
The view from my room
Because the Madison is located just outside of the central part of the city, it doesn’t offer any views from the rooms that I would consider to be “spectacular.” If that’s what you’re looking for, I highly recommend staying at the much taller Shangri-La Far Eastern located just down the road.
Day view vs night view. As you can see, visiting Taipei in May (which is when I stayed at this hotel) is generally pretty nice. The views from your room will be green and lush.
In room dining (and restaurant)
One of the best parts of this experience was the food. Not only do they offer in-room dining, there’s a very good on-site restaurant as well. Food quality is excellent – I didn’t eat anything that didn’t make me moan with pleasure (which I’m sure was annoying AF to anyone in the general vicinity).
I went with a bowl of pork dumplings and a glass of orange juice for my one and only room service experience. It was delicious. And expensive. A whole lotta white folk (myself included) here in the restaurant the next morning. My peoples! My breakfast haul (from the buffet). I’m not even ashamed to admit that there were two more plates after this one. The food was excellent!
Pros and cons of staying at the Madison Taipei Hotel
Basically, I can’t recommend this property highly enough. I was slightly apprehensive about not going with something familiar like a Hyatt or a Hilton instead, but I walked away from this experience thinking that this might have been one of my best hotel stays ever.
Pros
It’s extremely clean, quiet, and very well-maintained. Stylish too!
Location is excellent. It within walking distance to everything, even though it’s situated in a quiet part of the city.
The breakfast buffet is darn near spectacular. It’s absolutely worth trying.
Cons
The rooms (and suites) are a little small – at least compared to western hotels.
Paying for all of this style and design will not be cheap. This isn’t a good place to stay if you’re trying to save as much money as possible.
