The Grand Sumorum — Hotel in Seogwipo-si

I am a regular resident of this hotel (I've spent my holidays in this hotel for about 6-7 times..), and the thing I particularly loved about this hotel is that it is located in a small local town which is not yet commercialised like other big towns, such as Jungmun; in Jungmun all you can see is a number of restaurants, cafes, and other types of extremely commercialised stores, whereas Sumorum is sitting on a place where genuine locals live, too (during my recent visit, I recognised that some new cafes and restaurants are there, but still it feels like very local..)||||The hotel's location provides a perfect view of Bum island, and the hotel has recently expanded its facilities, and not it has two main buildings; each building has an outdoor swimming pool with temperature-controlling; from April to November, the swimming pool's water temperature is managed to be warm for swimming. ||||I had not used the hotel's restaurant before, but I had one dinner there this time, and the food quality was good enough, and the price was not crazy expensive (pastas were about USD 15, whilst beef steaks were about USD 30; the wines were pricey, which is unavoidable in Korean restaurants). I am willing to have a couple of dinners in the hotel's restaurant next time (whilst I will have some takeaway Sashimi picked up at a local market which is 10-15 minute's car drive from the hotel, but this option would be quite tough for internationals who cannot speak Korean though..)||||The hotel's restaurant is on the ground floor of the new building, but in addition, a separate pub/cafe is located just in front of the hotel - Pub Soluna (I hope this is the correct name...), where I had a couple of Gin&Tonic; there was no range of Gins available, and only bombay sapphire was served, but the place was not bad, too.||||The cons are the staff though. I understand that this hotel is managed by a hotel franchise group in Korea (not big one but still a group..), but most of the hotel's employees were not sufficiently trained, and it felt like there were all newly employed and no "manager" is on site. House keeping was not done for the 2nd day despite my multiple requests; at the restaurant, it is extremely difficult to make any order or request to the waiters, as they do not pay attention to the guests; as it is extremely difficult for a Korean like me, it should be super-difficult for internationals; I saw one international gave up ordering an omelette in the morning, as no one listened to him during the buffet session; I also ordered a glass of red wine during the dinner, but the waiter tried to just pour that "different" wine into my wine glass without changing it..||||Ah lastly, there are feral cats which hovers around the facilities, and it is quite noisy at night.. this should be managed by the hotel, too, as those cats even get into the hotel facility and attempts to steal guest's food left at the patios..||||I really wish to give 5 stars to this beautiful hotel, but it needs some training to its staff and improved management; well-organised training and improved HR management will lead to 5 stars. The infrastructure...

Originally I planned to travel with 3 couples and we booked 1 panoramic suite (2 bedrooms) and 1 double room. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, 1 couple's parent was critically ill in the hospital just a few days before our flight. I had to cancel one of the double room and was billed with a cancellation charge. I wrote to the hotel about the situation and they were very kind to waive the charges. |We drove to the hotel and the route to the hotel was good except the entrance to the hotel driveway was very tricky. It was hidden by a relatively deep slope and no signage to direct us to proceed down the slope. We were quite hesitant to drive through as it looks like a narrow running path. Eventually, one of us had to walk down the slope to check and we found the driveway with a small signage. Would suggest the hotel put a bigger sign and another before the slope.|On the day of check-in, I arrived at the wrong lobby (old wing) as the signage was not too clear. Plenty of carpark lot though.|The check-in was very smooth and we went to our panoramic suite (old wing). The suit is beautiful and big. However, we discovered that both bedrooms do not have an en suite bathroom. There is only one interconnected common bathroom shared by both rooms. We booked the room through booking.com and the description was not clear.|We then decided to change the room and we spoke to the staff (JW Kwon and Zoey) about cancelling the suite and getting us 2 double rooms instead. We tried to cancel the booking through booking.com and re-book a double room and it was not available. Finally, JW and Zoey were polite and excellent in their service. After a few minutes of wait, they managed to get us 2 double rooms. The hotel is perfect and excellent. Quite and perfect for couples and families. The onsen (sauna), and breakfast were perfect. The seaview was exceptional. The 4 nights stay was a real pleasant and enjoyable. Thanks again to JW Kwon and Zoey for their great...

Originally I planned to travel with 3 couples and we booked 1 panoramic suite (2 bedrooms) and 1 double room. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, 1 couple's parent was critically ill in the hospital just a few days before our flight. I had to cancel one of the double room and was billed with a cancellation charge. I wrote to the hotel about the situation and they were very kind to waive the charges. |We drove to the hotel and the route to the hotel was good except the entrance to the hotel driveway was very tricky. It was hidden by a relatively deep slope and no signage to direct us to proceed down the slope. We were quite hesitant to drive through as it looks like a narrow running path. Eventually, one of us had to walk down the slope to check and we found the driveway with a small signage. Would suggest the hotel put a bigger sign and another before the slope.|On the day of check-in, I arrived at the wrong lobby (old wing) as the signage was not too clear. Plenty of carpark lot though.|The check-in was very smooth and we went to our panoramic suite (old wing). The suit is beautiful and big. However, we discovered that both bedrooms do not have an en suite bathroom. There is only one interconnected common bathroom shared by both rooms. We booked the room through booking.com and the description was not clear.|We then decided to change the room and we spoke to the staff (JW Kwon and Zoey) about cancelling the suite and getting us 2 double rooms instead. We tried to cancel the booking through booking.com and re-book a double room and it was not available. Finally, JW and Zoey were polite and excellent in their service. After a few minutes of wait, they managed to get us 2 double rooms. The hotel is perfect and excellent. Quite and perfect for couples and families. The onsen (sauna), and breakfast were perfect. The seaview was exceptional. The 4 nights stay was a real pleasant and enjoyable. Thanks again to JW Kwon and Zoey for their great...