Hilton Gyeongju — Hotel in Gyeongju-si

Mixed feelings. The hotel is absolutely beautiful and some of the rooms have spectacular lake views. However, a number of issues occurred when I and friends stayed here. First, it's important to state that if you expect air conditioning in your room, you better call the hotel to ensure it's not been switched off for the season. In other words, there is air conditioning in the summer but not the rest of the year even though temperatures in your room may exceed 80-85 degrees due to windows that face directly into the rising or setting sun. Calls to the front desk about the air conditioning? My friends and I were both told to make sure the black out drapes on the windows were closed if we thought our rooms were too hot. Not by one person, by several. Since we had our black out drapes closed and were still too hot, we were told to turn off the lights. Laugh out loud if you want, but this is exactly what we were told and expected to do, so much for enjoying the view. Our view was of closed drapes. On the second night of the four night stay my friends finally told the hotel staff it was too much. Their room was 85 degrees,.so the hotel sent an engineer who pretended to change an air filter--while actually checking to see if they had the black out drapes closed and the lights off. SERIOUSLY, WTF????

Finally, the air conditioning for the hotel was turned on at around 6pm and just when things started to cool down in our rooms, the air conditioning was turned off in the middle of the night. The rooms quickly went back to 80 degrees, even though we opened the windows--well a small panel in two windows that opened about 30 degrees. Enjoy ourselves, no we did not.

The air conditioning remained off again into the afternoon, until my friends complained to Hilton directly via their diamond membership. Thus my friends returned to their room that afternoon to find the air conditioning on and all the lights on-- as if to prove a point, but that night the air conditioning for the entire hotel was switched right back off. And again the temperature in the room went back to stifling.

Now if 3 days of hell enduring 80-85 degrees in our rooms wasn't bad enough, my friends and I had other problems with our stays. For example, in the executive lounge, which is btw the only diamond perk my friends and I actually use, we were told exactly where we could and could not sit. So in this massive chamber that occupies one whole wing of the top floor with dozens of comfortable couches and couchy chairs, not to mention more than a dozen big roomy tables, for example, my friends, a couple from Seattle, were told that they could only sit at a tiny table for two. Meanwhile, couples with a child or a group of 3 -4 were given a living room size area to use that had a very large couch, two cushy armchairs, a large rectangular living room size table, and more. My friends explained to the host that the room was practical empty--there were in fact more than 8 living room/couch areas open as well as many roomy tables, but no no my friends were told they could not sit in those areas "because the lounge was too busy". LUDICROUS!!!!

I couldn't believe such a ludicrous policy was possible, until they called me upstairs to see it for myself. If you ever see the massive lounge at this hotel, which is shown as the K9 dining area in hotel pictures, and it's easily seating of 100, such a thing would boggle your mind as well. After enduring 4 days of this, my friends were offered 20,000 Hilton points as an apology--that's basically $20 for a stay that cost them $1000+. Shame on Hilton. If you treat diamond membership like this, how do you treat others? Why don't you just spit in our faces.

My friends and I have traveled all over the world for years--some of my travel reviews are right here. As you can see from my other reviews nothing like this has ever happened to us. With 8 or 9 of us traveling usually that is important to note. And this response from...

Well I looked at the first 15 reviews and honestly I thought the ones I reviewed were poor in terms of review quality.. So here is my experience and honest review.

The Good: Clean, friendly staff, nice grounds, immediate access to the trail/path that goes around Bowman Lake (~5 miles), comfortable beds (for South Korea)...

The Bad: Food is expensive and not good quality. Dinner Buffet is $50! A latte is $7. I had sea bass that was over cooked, dense and dry. Compared to Sea bass I have had prepared in Hawaii, Newport RI and San Fran, this was bad. The other fish choices ended up having all kinds of bones. Got it, I’m in Asia but this is a Hilton that caters to an international crowd. The sushi (tuna) did not look like anything that would be served in Japan or Hawaii. I stayed away from that. The lamb was decent as well as the Korean short ribs. The deserts were fantastic! Coffee was oK but they do not have half & half or cream. Only milk! Not even a flavored Powdered creamer! Overall for a $50 Buffet - the quality and taste for most things on the buffet menu - not good.

So after paying roughly $180 a night for the room and long walk around the lake after dinner in July- you might want to take a dip in the pool! Right?!!! Sorry folks, closes at 7PM. It gets better....you have to pay and extra $30 a day if you want to use the pool or gym! What? Yep! Not happy. The hotel booking sites don’t tell you that and I never had to pay extra ever. If this is a new Hilton thing I am not sure. Is it a Korea Hilton thing ? Who knows but my wife and I thought this was a mediocre Hilton experience. We stay at quite a few when we travel and this has been the - well- most unexpected experience.

I cannot say how this location compares to other hotels in the area and if this is the Norm for Gyeongju. But I certainly will look elsewhere first when traveling through this part of the country again.

I really hope this review helps you in your quest when booking a stay in this area. I would say food cost and quality at the price your paying in addition to being charged for basic amenities such as a pool should be a major consideration especially for the western traveler whether your American, Canadian, British, Aussie, Kiwi, French, German...

The unexpected construction noise severely impacted our stay. Loud drilling in the walls began at 8 AM, abruptly waking us. By 3 PM, it was still ongoing, leaving our ears ringing. No explanation or apology was offered, nor any indication of when it would cease.||Check-in was cumbersome, requiring us to take a queue number and wait. The staff's limited English and Chinese proficiency made communication challenging. Despite booking through Booking.com with breakfast included, staff initially insisted we were entitled to only one breakfast per room. A manager's intervention was necessary to resolve this misunderstanding, setting a poor first impression.||The hotel seems intent on charging for every amenity. From squash courts to basic toiletries like toothbrushes, everything comes at an extra cost. Pool usage is strictly regulated, limited to once daily for a set duration. We missed the sauna on the first day (it closes at 9 PM) after a long, cold day exploring, adding to our disappointment. The next day, I learned that that requires an additional charge as well.||The dining options are overpriced and unremarkable. We found far superior restaurants in town, making hotel dining unnecessary. The rooms are underwhelming, lacking essential conveniences such as bedside electrical outlets or easily accessible light switches.||If you're expecting something special due to the Hilton brand, prepare to be disappointed. In our opinion, you could likely find comparable or better accommodations at half the price elsewhere...