Last Updated on March 7, 2024 by CreditFred
Back in 2019, I had the chance to stay at the Courtyard by Marriott Taipei hotel (台北六福萬怡酒店) during my quick trip to Taipei from Taichung to visit some friends.
The contemporary glass fronted hotel was built in 2015 and has 465 rooms across 20 floors (F11-30). Not to be confused by the similarly named Courtyard Marriott Taipei Downtown 台北國泰萬怡酒店 (review), which is located more in the city center, this hotel is situated in the southeastern district of Nangang. The area is known for hosting large-scale exhibitions at the Nangang Exhibition Hall and is a major tech hub due to its proximity to Nangang Software Park.
Note that I didn’t take a lot of photos at the time, so will be borrowing many of the official photos from the official Marriott site.
Location
The Courtyard by Marriott Taipei is located right on top of Nangang Station (南港車站) in Taipei, Taiwan. The location is a key multimodal transportation hub offering direct connections with Taiwan HSR, TRA, and Taipei MRT systems.
How I Booked
I paid 17,500 Marriott Bonvoy points for a one-night stay at the hotel. Had I paid in cash, it would’ve cost me 5,280 NTD(~ $176 USD) at the time.
I made this booking in the summer of 2019. I had just earned the 100,000 points signup bonus from the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business, and decided to redeem it for an upcoming trip to Taipei.
$176 / 17,500 points = $0.01 per point
Bonvoy points are less valuable than Amex MR points, Chase UR points, and most airline miles. I usually value Bonvoy points at a minimum of 0.8 cpp, so a 1.0 cpp redemption is solid, especially factoring in that I earned this with a signup bonus, it was basically free.
This is not considered an amazing redemption by any means, but the following reasons made me choose to just go with it:
- Excellent transportation connectivity, can get in/out of Taipei via HSR and connect to other places in the city with the MRT system directly.
- Quick trip, will only be spending 1 night in Taipei and will not be in the hotel much, thus didn’t need very fancy facilities.
Sadly, Marriott Bonvoy points have been devalued since my stay in 2019 and the same booking now costs 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
My Experience
Check-In
After getting off my High Speed Rail train, I followed the signs and found the entrance to the hotel.
Found it!
I then proceeded to the main lobby by taking the elevator to the 7th floor for check-in. For a courtyard, the lobby is very impressive and modern!
The process was quick and after being in the US for so long, I was shocked at the high level of customer service. Additionally, even though I was just a Silver status member at the time, the hotel thanked me for my “loyalty” (hehe). Unfortunately, I wasn’t “upgraded” to a higher floor.
We were assigned to Room 1309. Let’s head over now!
Room
The room was fairly standard, but was clean, modern, and exactly what we needed.
Being on the 13th floor, we also had a decent view of the city.
Here’s some pics of the room:
Amenities
I didn’t have much time to explore the other offerings at the hotel, but was able to check out the fitness center briefly. It was small, but very clean and we were the only ones there. They also provided fresh towels and water.
Conclusion
Overall, I found this to be a pretty solid redemption and good use of minimal amount of Marriott points for a convenient and pretty nice stay in Taipei. Since we were out most of the day, the location was the biggest factor when deciding which hotel to book.
