Hotel Skypark Kingstown Dongdaemun — Attraction in Seoul

I stayed in the hotel for two weeks. The staff at the front desk, especially the young women on the staff, with whom I seemed to interact exclusively, were absolutely top notch professionals. A hotel could not have better staff than those young women: amazing in at least three languages, too; Korean, Japanese, and English. Whether changing my booking or reprogramming a card, or extending my stay, or giving me a few extra minutes at check out--everything they did was first rate, top notch: superb staff, superb professionalism. As a global traveler of many decades, I have stayed in hundreds of hotels worldwide, among them some of the best hotels in the world, and the staff here were as good, perhaps even better, than anywhere. Very admirable team of young women! The cleaning staff, also, on my floor, 17th, were total sweethearts: always friendly and charming, always helpful and accommodating. Again, this was excellent team work by the hard working and meticulous staff cleaning the rooms: they were also very flexible. As a writer, I often keep very irregular hours, sometimes working through the night and getting up in the afternoon. This is often a problem at other hotels, even famous hotels, where they want me out, say, by noon, to clean the room. But Skypark's lovely ladies cleaning the rooms--they never once complained about the different times I was asking for the room to be cleaned and even when I asked them not to clean the room, they were solicitous: didn't I want new towels or water? etc. Many top hotels don't seem to like my irregular Clean the Room requests or flat out deny them, but the Skypark team, again, were better than anywhere else: excellent service and concern for the guest, always with a charming and friendly greeting: I couldn't have asked for better. One reason I stayed in the hotel for two weeks was that I was so comfortable and felt so at home there. One final thing: the work out room was excellent and had excellent hours. Here again, I keep irregular hours and prefer to work out in the gym between ten and midnight. This is often not possible at other hotels, but the Skypark kept its room open till midnight and never once made me feel like they wanted to close the gym at 11.30 or 11.45: another excellent feature of my stay, which kept me wanting to stay longer. I had returned to this hotel because I had liked it on an earlier stay, but this time I realized how excellent the staff were and how well they run this hotel. As a smoker, having smoking rooms on every floor was also very nice, the hours not limited. Other smokers clearly appreciated this service, too. I think I only have one suggestion for improvement: the ventilation system for the smoking room is not very good. Other guests commented on it to me. That is perhaps one small area where this wonderful hotel could improve a bit. But the staff and service are unbeatable! I will be back...

My husband and I chose Korea as our honeymoon destination, since we are both Korean and haven't been here in a long time (basically the first time for my husband). We love our heritage and culture, and wanted to immerse ourselves. We found this great location, which is why I'm even giving 2 stars. Besides the location, the actual hotel and lack of service is just astounding. This is the 3rd hotel we've stayed at during our trip here, and it's the worst. Every hotel acknowledged and welcomed us so kindly. Once we stepped foot in SkyPark Kingstown, we were not even greeted with a "hello" but just, "check-in is upstairs." When we got upstairs to "check-in," someone just pointed at the self check-in machine. I asked if their happened to be any upgrades available, or at least with a nice view, and mentioned we were celebrating our honeymoon. The person barely looked at me while saying that nothing else is available and just take the room you have since we booked a room with a balcony. No congratulations or acknowledgement that we were there for a special occasion. We get up to the room and the "balcony is more like a dog pen. You can't see anything because the wall is high and not see through. Also, there are the absolute bare minimum of "amenities." 2 pieces of towels, q-tip, and the thermostat is automated, so you can't set it to a comfortable temperature of your own. The lamp by the bedside also doesn't work. If you want more "amenities" then you have to purchase them from a vending machine. So any lotion, soap, toothpaste/brush, slippers, etc. must all be purchased.

Also, we decided to do laundry at their coin machine laundry area, and the detergent and dryer sheets were also at a cost. That's fine, but while we were in there, another couple asked someone where to get detergent (all speaking in Korean, which we also speak and understand), and the employee said that he would just give it to them for free! And we had already purchased it, on top of everything else we were already unhappy about, it was just another thing that makes this 6 night stay, to be a sour one. The other hotels we've stayed at in other parts of the country (and another one that's in this same city) is so much better. If we hadn't prepaid for the stay here, we would've left. But we kept trying to give them a chance and stick it out. Such a bad way to end our otherwise, fantastic honeymoon. We've enjoyed our country so much, except...

Great Location, Mixed Experience but Amazing Service from One Staff Member

A few weeks ago I stayed at the Skypark Kingstown Hotel in Dongdaemun. Overall, the room was slightly smaller than I expected, but it was still quite comfortable.

The real reason I’m leaving this review is to highlight the service, both the good and the bad.

Unfortunately, the front desk staff didn’t speak or understand English at all. I speak English with an Australian accent, and they couldn’t understand me, which was very frustrating. Honestly, I was surprised. How can a hotel not have English-speaking staff at reception? When I asked for a nail clipper, I think they misunderstood and thought I was asking for slippers. So late at night, an engineer came up to my room and politely handed me a pair of slippers.

But here’s where things turned around.

That engineer, who told me to just call him Lee, turned out to be fluent in English because he had lived in California for a long time. What a coincidence — I also live in California. I had already translated my request using Google Translate, but to my surprise, I didn’t need it at all. Lee and I had a great conversation, and he even took the time to explain nearby restaurants and convenience spots.

What really touched me was that I had a bad stomachache that night, and even though it was past midnight, Lee helped me find medicine using his own break time. I don’t remember his full name, but he said his Korean name means “today” in Korean. It really felt like he was someone who would help me anytime, any day.

If you're a foreigner who speaks English and needs assistance, I strongly recommend asking for Lee. The front desk staff weren’t helpful, and to be honest, I was quite upset about that. But thanks to Lee’s dedication and kindness, my stay ended up being much more comfortable than it could’ve been.

Also, the location is fantastic. You can see the famous DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) right in front of the hotel. K-pop Demon Hunters fans will definitely...