Ananti at Gangnam — Hotel in Seoul

The exterior of this hotel looks stunning, and at first glance, the duplex-style rooms seem impressive. Unfortunately, the actual stay experience is very disappointing and far from what one would expect from a so-called luxury hotel.

Room & Facilities: The temperature cannot be set lower than 24°C. During summer months like August or September, this makes the room unbearably hot, especially with the large floor-to-ceiling glass windows trapping heat. Sleeping becomes impossible unless you open the window—but then you’re kept awake all night by the extremely noisy street below. Cleanliness is another serious issue. The room is large, but not properly maintained. The toilet looked so unclean I felt I had to sanitize it myself before use. Towels appeared worn and not fresh. For showering, the hotel provides only a single bar of soap to cover everything—shower, shampoo, hand wash. No proper shower gel, no shampoo, nothing else. Good luck with that. Toothbrushes and toothpaste are not complimentary and are charged at a rate higher than many true 5-star hotels. Slippers are not disposable either, which feels unhygienic, especially given the poor cleaning standards.

Service: The service is shockingly poor for a hotel of this category. When we arrived by taxi, the bellboy did not want to help unload our luggage. Even the taxi driver had to call him over. He reluctantly brought a cart but just stood there, making no effort to load or assist further. In every other luxury hotel in Seoul that I’ve stayed at, staff automatically help with luggage and even bring it to the room. Here, staff seemed uninterested and unwilling.

At the front desk, there was no warm welcome, no polite greeting—just cold stares as if we were disturbing them. When asked for passports, one of my friends who was only there to greet us did not provide one (since he wasn’t staying), and the staff member reacted rudely and with suspicion. That kind of attitude is unacceptable in hospitality.

Later, we were told our luggage would be delivered to the room, but instead it was left unattended on a sofa in the lobby, right next to other guests. Completely irresponsible and unsafe.

The next morning, we were rudely woken up twice by phone calls from the front desk asking if we had ordered coffee. When I said no, the staff member questioned me again and again in a doubting tone, as if I didn’t understand English. Only after I firmly explained did he say he would “check” — with no apology for waking me.

Amenities: Do not expect complimentary water or coffee in the room. Most high-end hotels provide this freely, but here you’ll be charged extra. Even simple conveniences that are standard elsewhere are missing or overpriced.

Overall: It is hard to understand how this hotel maintains its rating. Perhaps because of the building design and the swimming pool facilities. But the service and cleanliness are nowhere near acceptable. Unless management replaces or retrains the staff, improves the air-conditioning system, and raises the standard of housekeeping, this hotel cannot be considered a true luxury property.

If you expect proper service, cleanliness, and comfort, look elsewhere. Out of all the high-end hotels I stayed in during my trip to Seoul, this was by far the...

CONSIDER THIS YOUR WARNING! Do not stay at this hotel if you care about your personal belongings.

We stayed at Ananti earlier this month and my childhood teddy bear was taken from our bed. When we notified the front desk staff, she wasn’t apologetic at all. She called the housekeeping staff and started laughing on the phone to them when asking if they found anything. When she got off the phone she asked us “this is for your daughter right?” But it was clear on our reservation we had no children and there was also no children with us. When we clarified that it was mine, she laughed at us in disbelief. They let us know that they outsource their linen cleaning to another company and when we asked if we could speak to them directly, she laughed in disbelief again and said “they don’t speak English”. At the end of this conversation we had to leave for the airport so they just left it at: “if we find it we’ll let you know”. Still, we received no genuine apology on their end.

As soon as we arrived at our next destination, I sent an email asking to speak to the manager, the laundry company that they outsource their sheet cleaning to and the location of their garbage disposal. They responded saying everything was confidential. How could the contact info of the manager be confidential? I was told I had to wait for him to reach out to me first so I waited.

Finally when I received a response from the manager Billy after following up several times, he explained that they conducted an extensive search but couldn’t find my bear. I can get past this if they are truly being honest with me but what I can’t get past is the service we experienced. To make matters worse, Billy then proceeded to explain that they wouldn’t be able to compensate us with anything at all because “the lack of evidence doesn’t prove that the bear was lost on hotel premises” and “they are not responsible for customer negligence”. I was in shock reading this because I didn’t even bring up compensation, I just wanted my bear back. I never stuff my bear deep into the sheets or into anywhere that would be hard to see, it always rests above my pillow so I fail to understand how that could be negligence on my part. Additionally, we never ever take my bear out and as it isn’t in our luggage, it was most definitely taken on hotel premises. When we responded to this email, Billy ghosted us.

I could go on about all the other little things we experienced here but the review would be too long! Hotel is beautiful but not at the cost of how horrible the staff treat you as a human and as a customer. I felt like I was being judged at a time where I was extremely upset about losing a sentimental item that has been with me...

Reached the hotel early and asked if I could get an early check in (2 hours) as my kids were tired from a red eye flight and my wife was pregnant and wanted to rest. No compassion at all, just a straight no. Didn't even give me the option to pay.

Rooms were beautiful, so was the hotel, but it ends there. Noise from the road was pretty bad. Location of the hotel is inconvenient with the nearest metro station at least 20 mins away, had to uber every time.

Asked for a late check out, all about money again. Every hour 30k won, can't even extend an hour as my kids wanted to swim in the morning. As I am typing this, my breakfast order is already 1 hour in the making an nowhere to be seen.

Nice kitchenette until you realise its practically useless. There is no electronic stove or microwave, so you can't even do any simple cooking. Bathroom had bar soap/shampoo, ended up buying my own as that wasn't very practical for kids.

After reading all the reviews about theft, decided to pack and lock our luggage everyday before we headed out. Warning to other future guests to do the same.

The most hilarious thing about the hotel? The standard template reply that will follow up my review. Goes to show how much they really care about improving their standards and their reputation.

Post edits: just a call to tell me my check out is at 11am when they told me it was 12pm earlier when I called for a late check out. In room dining just arrived at 1030am and I'm expected to finish everything and wrap up my packing in 30 minutes. If check out was indeed at 11am they should have highlighted this when I ordered the in room dining?! They finally relented and told me check out is at 12 after I...