Golden Tulip Incheon Airport Hotel and Suites — Hotel in Incheon

What a nightmare this was. Honestly if you need to stay for a long stopover just stay in the airport it will probably be nicer. Stay anywhere rather than here. Went to check in about 3:20 cause my son was tired and needed a nap. Check in counter was fine until he said you are in the other building and gestured outside. Now there are 3 entrances I saw to this place. Went to the one on the right I thought he meant. So I drag my baby and 3 suitcases across to the B Gate. Card won't work. Drag everything across to C gate. Card won't work. Drag everything back to reception. Tell him card doesn't work and he says can you try it again. I say no it doesn't work I tried both buildings. Which one should it work on and can you fix it. He redoes the card and points to B. So I head over there and this time it works. Drag everything up to the room and open it. Windows and blinds were open which seemed weird for a hotel in peak summer. Shut them and turned on the AC. Tried to put my son down for a nap but the room stank of urine. Thought maybe it was the baby so changed him,.nope, check my clothes, nope. Check our bags. Nope. Back of the room near the window stank. Pick up baby and head back to reception. Tell staff the room stinks of urine, he says I'll have the supervisor for check and let you know what we can do. I say fine I'm taking my son for a walk to try to get him to nap. Come back 30 mins later and ask reception. "Oh the supervisor is up there now, just wait a moment here". Stand there for 20 minutes and nothing. Get angry and go up to room. Nobody there and still stinks. Go back to reception, "let me call and check". He calls someone and then says "housekeeping checked and said it's the AC." I say no way it stunk before the AC and it's in the other side of the room. Can you move us or have someone grab my bags and we'll go elsewhere. He says "oh you want to switch rooms. Let me check" then goes and gets someone else and they find us another room. Hands me another card and says ok, so you should still have your other card, move your things to the new room and then bring the old card down to us. I just stared at him for a minute with a crying baby on my arm. Then said ok I'll move the things just needed somewhere to put the baby down. Go up and manhandle all the bags and baby to new room. At least this one doesn't stink and the windows were shut and AC on like you expect. Walk back down to reception and ask them to move the baby crib up to the new room. It's about 5:30 now so I'll feed the baby and get some dinner then put him to bed. Get back at 7 and crib still isn't in room. Storm back down to reception and ask them to get it moved now. Thankfully the do so 4 hours after checking in can actually get into room and get baby to sleep. Now about the rest of the hotel. The AC is like an asthmatic toddler blowing on you. After several hours the room went down from 25 degrees to 23 with the AC set on 18 and high. You'd be better off with a pedestal fan. Good food options nearby and a convenience store in the hotel are the only reasons it gets points...

I apologize for the long review as I try my best to go in detail to warn you about this hotel. I will not be recommending Golden Tulip to anyone nor will be staying here again.

Front desk staff are extremely unhelpful and unaccommodating. I had asked the lady working on Friday evening, November 15 for a plug to charge my phone and was informed they need a 10,000 KRW deposit. I was surprised because I had stayed at 3 different hotels in Korea and borrowed a plug from front desk every-time and never had an issue. I went back to my room to get my credit card and returned to the front desk to talk to the same lady as she already knew what was happening. When I approached her, she ignored me and when she finally decided to acknowledge me, she gave me an annoyed look and told me to wait. I look over and noticed she was just on her phone. I had to wait a few minutes until she finally catered to my request and it was not busy. She proceeded to give me the plug and grab my credit card. When I was waiting for her to charge it, she said it was all good and she was putting my credit card in a folder with my room number on it. I was very confused as I thought it was just a 10,000 KRW deposit and was unaware they wanted to keep my credit card during my whole entire stay. This is NOT a deposit as a hotel deposit is an amount of money that guests pay and will be refunded at check-out, but it seems like the girl did not know what she was doing nor did she care to at least explain the hotel policy properly. Who would be comfortable to leave their credit card at the front desk, which is unsecured, for a few nights? It seemed completely unreasonable and instead of apologizing for the misunderstanding or miscommunication from her end, she just kept repeating that they need a deposit or asking if I had cash, which I did not bother with as I didn't trust her or the hotel anymore. Other front desk staff also don't know how to smile or say thank you whatsoever and when I spoke to a different lady working on Saturday morning about the airport shuttle, she said 2 words to me (just asking for my room number) and that was it. I do not expect everyone to be super jolly, but I expect to at least be treated like a decent human being and not like I was always bothering them. The overall service I received during my stay was very unwelcoming.

On the other hand, the room was dirty and I noticed there were 2 stains on the bed and I even found a nail. I felt disgusted and I knew that if I complained to the front desk, they would not do anything to help me so I took care of it myself. Please see photos of the condition of the bed.

I was extremely disappointed as I loved the layout and amenities of the room when I was looking online and the location and airport shuttle is convenient. However, it is definitely not worth the trouble we went to and will not be...

We were in Korea for an overnight layover. Arrived around 3 pm and flying back out at 9 am.

What to expect: easy access to/from the Airport via the All Stop Train since it's across the street from Unseo station, many nearby restaurants to dine, simple hotel room with basic amenities.

The Golden Tulip was easy to get to from Incheon Terminal 2. Just 3 stops away at Unseo station. That's about 15 minutes, depending on when the train picks you up. However, to get to the Golden Tulip to Seoul Station, you're looking at around an 1 hour via the All Stop AREX line. That part wasn't as fun.

Our flight out was at 9 am and breakfast wasn't available until 6:30 am. The coffee shop onsite at 7 am. The rep who checked us in actually provided us with coupons to the shop that we never used since it wasn't open the morning before we left.

Luckily, there were some restaurants about 2-3 blocks away that were open at 5 am. Including this delicious Korean BBQ spot (조마루감자탕 - https://maps.app.goo.gl/9Kr6Aq9sNen77EZP9) that we stumbled on. We got beef rib stew, veggies, pork belly, steamed egg, and salted duck. The salted duck was chewy so we likely would not get it next time but the rest were yummy.

Our biggest issue was the Shuttle reservation for our flight. When we checked in, the person who helped us asked about a shuttle. We said yes please and told them our flight was to be at 9 am. They recommended 6 am. We said that sounds good.

The next morning, when we arrived for the 6 am bus, the driver asked if we had a ticket, which we were never provided with one. He refused to take us. So we went inside and I told the person at reception about the issue. He told us we didn't have a reservation. This made me confused since the person who checked us in made it seem like we were good to take the 6 am shuttle. Eventually, the person that morning said, it looks like my reservation was for 7 am instead. I'm pretty sure our reservation was never documented and I was just being provided an alternative Shuttle option.

I believe this issue was likely a miscommunication between all parties involved due to language limitations. Outside of that, the rest of my stay was as good.

In case it's useful for your future planning, since I didn't want to wait for the 7 am shuttle in case we'd end up late for our flight, we left the hotel around 6:05 am, took the All Stop train to Incheon Terminal 2, returned a hotspot device we rented from KT via Klook, and got through security and customs by 6:50 am. It left us with plenty of time to spare...