Hotel Papa Whale

Recent Reviews: 549

• User:Stephen R

  Trip type: Solo travel

  Reasonable stay

  31 May 2026

  The room was decent good value some small things could improve on but overall good for example could use a paint a few marks about would love a window but didn’t realise until I got there air conditioning and tv was a bit difficult to work out but I managed it.

• User:Cal D

  Trip type: Solo travel

  Unclean rooms but Great location

  13 May 2026

  I stayed 3 nights in a single room on level 2.The industrial style works in the lobby, but in the rooms it just feels unfinished and unclean. There are cracks in the walls and ceiling, the lino flooring is lifting, and the metal bathroom floor is already rusting. There are gaps around the shower area suggesting waterproofing issues, and visible mould in the bathroom. Overall, the room felt less like a hotel and more like somewhere a government agency might use for “questioning.”The layout isn’t very practical—no soap by the basin, nowhere proper to put luggage, and no towel rail, so towels never dry properly (and according to thier rules "the hotel does not replace towels for staying guests"). The shower is also awkward to use, with very little clearance to close the door, meaning you have to jam yourself into a corner just to shut it.The bed is small and awkwardly placed. I’m 6’2” and couldn’t properly fit between the walls, which made the room feel even more cramped.The duvet was yellow and worn—clearly not cleaned or replaced in a long time. That's quite disgusting. The air conditioning was also broken and couldn’t be adjusted, which made the room even less comfortable.The rooms have no windows (which is advertised), but mine had fake windows with dusty blinds that just made things feel more disorienting.Location wise it's pretty good, with many cool food spots around, you certainly won't go hungry. It's about 15 mins walk from Taipei main station making it very convenient. Overall, the hotel feels tired and in need of some TLC. It’s definitely not a 4-star experience—closer to a 2 star. For the price you pay it's not worth it. If you’re after somewhere clean and comfortable, this hotel isn’t it.

  Read more

• User:wolfreinhold

  Trip type: Solo travel

  Windowless discomfort and insanely high prices

  28 Apr 2026

  Papa Whale Hotel (Review)In the Biblical story, Jonah is swallowed by a big fish, colloquially though of as a whale. What’s it look like inside a whale? Dark, no windows. A bit clammy? Well, you’re starting to get the idea about the inside of the Papa Whale Hotel in the Hsimenting district of Taipei, Taiwan.The lobby and surroundings have a few bits around to try and give you the impression that there’s a nautical theme going on, or something or other (an old dial telephone and vacuum tube radio seem a little out of place), but it looks clean and efficient. The prices at Papa Whale are high; on the weekend eye-wateringly so, but you’ve paid it because you had good expectations of the place. (“It looked so good online….)Once in your room – and all the rooms are more or less the same – you notice right away one inescapable truth: there are no windows. The floors and walls and ceilings are all smoothed, grey concrete. There’s a small table and chair but no place to put your suitcase except on the floor. At the back of the very small room, there is a raised area with a one-foot step to the shower, sink and toilet all in a row, which are also tightly fitted into the small space. At first you might think that a 12-inch step up to the toilet is not anything to be concerned about until you get up in the night to use the bathroom and find that going up is fine, but taking a step that far down in the almost total darkness is a bit unsteady, if not downright dangerous (there is a small nightlight embedded in the step to alert you where the step begins, presumably so that if you fall, you know where you are). I can’t imagine an elderly person navigating this drop-off in the dark without considerable worry. Did I mention there are no windows? Well, actually there is sort of window over the sink. It’s smaller than an A4 sheet of paper and heavily glazed so that you can’t see anything or any shapes from outside. It’s more decoration than anything. The fittings in the bathroom and shower are brass-colored pipe fittings, which one gathers is supposed to be some lame attempt at a steampunk motif. The air-conditioner control has LED lights and modern-looking settings that give you the impression that you’re in full control of the temperature in the room, but no matter what you set the unit on the wall at, nothing changes. The temperature setting continually snaps back to whatever it was when you first entered the room, which is slightly chilly, but perhaps reasonable for the inside of a giant fish. The mattress on the bed is of the old, pinstriped model with a giant stitched hem running all the way around. It’s hard and sticks up above the actual mattress and cuts into wherever your foot or leg lands on it. If you are 173cm tall (5’8”), the beds will be too short for you to fit into. Even if your head is touching the top of the bed, your feel will be over the end, and the ribbed hem of the mattress will cut into your foot. If you have a double bed, you can almost position yourself sideways and defeat this torture. It’s the kind of bed that makes you feel like they got a great deal on hundreds of used mattresses from a defunct children’s hospital. So, to sum up: A small windowless room with a very uncomfortable mattress, nowhere to unpack your suitcase except the floor, an icy cold AC with no actual controls, the toilet area raised too high to be safely navigated at night, and all at a price nearly similar to the famous Grand Hotel.The staff is helpful and courteous, but the hotel room experience itself is an expensive disaster. It’s difficult to rate a place that is so thoroughly uncomfortable and obscenely expensive. The best advice is to avoid this hotel like the plague. April 2026

  Read more

• User:Capt65

  Trip type: Couples

  You’ve been warned!

  05 Mar 2026

  We booked three nights here at the recommendation of a travel couple we follow on YouTube. Went on blind faith, so shame on me. We also booked this 7 months in advance. We arrived at 11pm (23:00) due to flight timing. Check in was fine until he handed us the keys and said you will be in the basement. What person anywhere would want to be in the basement. My wife was very nervous about this, I felt let’s just give it a try. We found the room and opened the door and were shocked. It was so small we both couldn’t have our suitcases open at the same time. We decided to sleep on it and make a decision in the morning. The room was very cold so I turned up the A/C to get it warmer. We went to bed, which only had a light bed spread. My feet hung off the end of the bed and I am only 5’9”. By 2am, we were both freezing to death as the temperature in the room continued to drop. I tried to call the front desk and it would ring twice and hang up on you. I got dressed and went up to the front desk and complained about freezing. Had to interrupt him watching videos. I said we’re freezing and asked how do I turn on the heat. He said our building doesn’t have heat. How is this even legal? He offered more blankets which I accepted. Back in the room there was a terrible humming noise coming from the ceiling and wall behind the head of the bed. It was coming from a refrigeration system above and would get very loud at times. There was also this random banging noise. By this time and after only about one hour of sleep, I began searching for a new hotel, reserving one at 3am. We tried to sleep again but could not. By 6am, someone was dragging chairs around above our room. Apparently we were below what is their breakfast restaurant. We got up and got dressed. Took our stuff and went to check out. The guy (different person than checked us in) couldn’t find our paperwork. Completely disorganized office. We requested a full credit given no sleep and only being there 7 hours. He refused and charged us the most expensive rate for that night. Other things about this room. The walls in the bathroom had large cracks. The sink had a flexible drain trap which isn’t code compliant. Both are shown in the pictures.Comments of ours:How can a hotel operate with no heat in the rooms? Especially a basement room.Our room felt like a fire trap. If a fire broke out we were screwed.We have never experienced basement rooms, let alone a room that small.Everything had that musty basement smell.PLEASE LOOK ELSEWHERE

  Read more

• User:freddyfok

  Trip type: Solo travel

  Bad

  29 Dec 2025

  Housekeeping of low standards such as no cleaning of the toilet. Do not disturb sign is on but housekeeping lady still knock on the door and press the bell repeatedly and pass you towels and bottled water and turn off the do not disturb sign inside the room. Poor attitude