Shilla Stay Haeundae — Hotel in Busan

Great location, rooms are spacious, oceanfront rooms have great views, bed are comfortable, premium amenities, daily housekeeping is good and the interior looks modern. There is even a 24hr laundry room in the basement. But the way the hotel is run and managed has some weird oddities and things that do not make sense , which are not fitting for a 4 star hotel. ||Check-in procedure is the weirdest I've ever experienced. They force you to get a ticket to que for the check-in BUT their machine only accepts local mobile number and a kakao talk app linked only to local number to receive your que number. Totally nonsensical. So, if you are a foreigner, you then have to que and just approach the front desk - and the staff will tell you off saying they only service customers by que number.....so I just had to rudely interject and tell them I cant generate a que number ticket since my kakao app is linked with a foreign number. The staff then had to briskly go over herself to the machine and give me a hand written number on a post-it then I was instructed to wait until my number was called. What is this? It was the weirdest system ive ever experienced. Felt like queuing for some revolving sushi restaurant or some bank...so odd. And the front desk staff wont even try to address anyone else without a ticket. Which clever manager came up with this nonsense should go back to hospitality school again. ||Another weird and nonsensical thing you have to note is, your room's AC is not individualized. There is a high-end looking climate control panel in your room that allows you to change functions from cooling to heating, fan speed and temperature but it does NOT work. The management or building centrally controls the system. The AC in your room does not actually cool to your desired temperature and in the evening they automatically and against your will, switch to mandatory heating. The room went up to 27.5 degrees celcius and you cannot control even the fan speed. When i called he front desk why I cant adjust my room temperature to my desired setting, they simply said the only thing I can do is turn it on or off. Then offered me a fan. Seriously? So, in a 4 star hotel room with a built in climate control.....I need to have a standing fan running....what is this? And careful when you leave the windows open since you may invite mosquitos into the room.||Its just a bit weird here. The hardware is 4 star. But the way this property is run and managed is just...

We must give a big thank you to Receptionist Ella for helping book rail tickets on the KTX to Seoul, we foolishly though the booking process would be similar to Japan shinkansen where we had booked our travel the day before without any issue on several occasions (there you go, different countries completely different processes), however, on Naver every KTX for the following days were full! Ella assisted in downloading the Korail app on my device and she found 2 seats on the 08:10 to Seoul the following morning. Service that is above and beyond!| We had a Grand Ocean Suite on 17th floor for 3 nights, nice and spacious accommodation. We had hoped to have access to the rooftop pool; however, the pool was closed for maintenance during our stay. We were room only; therefore, I can’t comment on the restaurant. The hotel is close to multiple restaurants, market food stalls and convenience stores. The beach promenade was a nice area to walk after an evening meal. There is good access to the public transport system, bus stops are 2 min from the hotel, there is a taxi rank outside the hotel if required. We used the bus network several times including a trip to Gamcheon village, which included bus changes, the map App NAVER was a god send (Google maps does not work in South Korea). We also visited the Haedong Yonggung Temple using the Beach Train from Haeundae Blueline Park and then we decided to take the 30 min walk to the Temple. We had considered taking the Sky Capsule; however, the train was immediate boarding, and the capsule booking would be for a time slot 2 hours away. We used the bus to return to Haeundae Beach after the Temple visit. We used the T-money card for transport in Busan and Seoul. We purchased the card from the convenience store on the ground floor of the hotel, you can purchase the card with debit/credit card, however, you have to add credit to the card with cash, most convenience stores offer “top ups” on the...

This was my first time staying at Shilla Stay Haeundae. Stayed 1 night. Location is great just in front of the beach. Hotel was modern and comfortable. There is a 24h convenience store on the 1st floor along with a small bakery. There is also a rooftop pool which can only be accessed by persons who additionally pay for usage. There is a gym which closes at 10 or 11 pm and re-opens in the morning. I did not have breakfast but I heard it was rather good for KRW 15,000. I instead chose to have breakfast just located across the street at McD. Room was clean and spacious with all the basic amenities. Bed was quite comfortable for a good night rest. If staying in Busan in the Haeundae area for the first time, it is good to stay nearby the beach. There are plenty of nearby restaurants and very nice to go for a stroll by the scenic beach. The only bad thing about staying here was the check-in experience. Normal check-in time is 3pm and we arrived at the hotel at 4:30 pm. There was a very long line for people trying to check-in, longest I've ever seen at any hotel. Ultimately it took 45 minutes. It seems that the hotel is fully booked due to its reasonable price for beachfront accomodations comparable to other nearby hotels. And so, you have a swarm of people trying to maximize there time at the hotel trying to check in as earliest as possible. I have never experienced such a long wait in a line to check into a hotel. I asked the sales person working in the back office who booked the rooms for me if she could help expedite our check-in but she could do nothing. Overall though, the stay was nice. The bed was very comfortble. I may not consider staying here again if I have to go thru the check-in...