Cuisine & Wine Asia — May-June 2017

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W

hile Aloft Taipei Beitou is a brand under

Marriott International, the owner is a

Taiwanese whose father used to be a farmer. He

had invested his earnings in a piece of land in

Beitou, and had wanted to build a hotel here, to

bring livelihood to the area. However, he passed

away before he could bring this dream to reality.

So, his son, who is a developer of commercial

buildings in Shanghai and Ningbo, brought this to

pass. If you looked carefully from the outside of the

building from the main road, you’ll see the Chinese

character for “paddy” (tien) incorporated into the

façade, as a remembrance of the owner’s dad,

whose name includes the character.

From the lounge to the lifts, from the corridors to the

rooms, a sense of playfulness and lightheartedness

can be found. Mood music ranges from upbeat,

catchy tunes to chilled, jazzy vocals, and visuals

oscillate from videos of young people spoofing cult

films, which make me burst out laughing, to an

incandescent blue cast over the bar as night sets. The

brilliant red hue of the bathroom tiles is apparently

of the sunset over the paddy fields, which the hotel’s

designer wanted to capture, while the painting in the

lift lobby, created by a local design student, evokes

the silhouette of cherry blossoms, which bloom in

Beitou in mid-February.

At Aloft Taipei Beitou, you can go keyless by

registering your phone on the Starwood Preferred

Guest App. The room door is unlocked by holding

the phone in front of the keypad, till the green light

is on. When you check out, the virtual key disappears

from your App.

The gym is located to overlook the

view of the paddy fields, so you

feel as though you were working

out in nature.

Children below 12 can sleep in a red-and-white

tent, complete with Peter Rabbit bedding. Soon, it

will also be possible for you to stay at Aloft Taipei

Beitou with your pet. Instead of being tucked away

in the basement, the gym is located to overlook the

view of the paddy fields, so you feel as though you

were working out in nature. A laundromat is also

available, for the convenience of those who like to

travel light.