Four Points by Sheraton Seoul, Gangnam — Hotel in Seoul

I wanted to try out a new hotel using SPG points for my stay in Korea. There are other places I could have stayed using same amount of points such as the Palace Hotel, Aloft hotels, and Glad Live, but I wanted to check out this property that just opened two months ago. Loved the stay but with one drawback: access to public transportation. I grew up in the area very close to this hotel so I am familiar with this area. This hotel is located on Dosan Daero which does not happen to have a subway line going through. You can walk to Hakdong station for line #7 and Apgujung station for line #3 but overall I’d stick to cab rides or if your schedule works with their shuttle schedule, utilize that as much as possible. For me, I utililzed Naver Map app for mixing buses/subways. I also did not mind walking to squeeze in much needed exercise throughout the day and since I didn’t have any business meetings to get to, walking was fine. If you do have such meetings, yes you will need cabs. If you are cabbing it or driving, this place is super central in Gangnam area with easy access to 88 expressway and a bridge that will take you to the north of the river. They also have cab drivers who are contracted with the hotel to get you to the airport, and they are SUPER nice. You can work with the front desk and they will sometimes take local trips as well.

As with most Four Points hotels, this hotel also has a HUGE plus: the laundry room! I LOVED the ability to do the laundry as I was on a 10-day trip to Korea and needed to do laundry and did not want to pay insane money to get my clothes washed. Washer and Dryer use will set you back by KRW 3,000 each and if you need coins, there is a coin machine inside or you can ask the front desk for coins. I also saw a commercial grade steamer for your suits if you need something like that. The laundry is located on the same floor as the gym, so I just went on the treadmill while my clothes were being washed. The gym is small, but has enough to help you exercise, with three treadmills, a stepper, a stationary bike, weight machines and plenty of free weights. They keep it super cold in there but hey, it is the gym after all and it was perfect for me after a workout.

My room was nice, the bed was super comfortable (my friend was visiting my room one day and dozed right off!!), and the view at night was nice as well. The rooms are on a bit smaller side, but since you are staying in one of the most expensive areas in Seoul, it’s understandable. The only drawback to the room was that there weren’t enough storage and the luggage area was too small to accommodate my large suitcase, so putting clothes away was tough.

If you want a nightcap, do try the lobby bar. Danny the bartender is super friendly and will take a good care of you! The selection isn’t huge, but they have enough stuff.

The next door, Sunshine hotel, has a club that’s swarmed by 20 somethings on the weekend. If you ever want to go for a jog at 5am, do not go behind the hotel as the club crowd will still be around. Dosan Park is in a perfect distance for a light morning jog so go towards that direction instead.

For my next visit to Korea, I am torn between Four Points and Palace hotel. Four Points has definitely made it on the top of the list with their amenities, brand new facilities, great services available and...

I have stayed in Four Points Hotel by Gangnam for 5 months+, from May to October 2020, when the world hit by pandemic.

This is the hotel take extra mile. Warm people. Great service. Best location. Superb View.

I am so fortunate to be there.

First, extra mile. Before out of quarantine, they were the only hotel out of more than ten hotels that I contacted, to take all the trouble to contact authorities, to get all necessary certificate and document, to fulfill pandemic government requirement for hotels. No one else did these, just refused me. And the person helping me, was Ethan.

Second, Warm people and Great Service. Ms Jennifer Lee, the General Manager, was so kind to meet me for insightful chat over coffee just before I left Seoul. I know each of front desk people. Jimmy Hwang, the manager, and his team would greet me every time see me, by my name “Mr Chow”. Jimmy helped me a number of things out of his capacity. Bruno helped me moving my lot-of-things when room change. Other staffs help me a lot too — Sophie, Josephine, Grace, Leah, Claire, Jinny, to name a few. What’s more, I was always surprised to find snacks, cake, or cheese platter complimentary from hotel when I got back room, even more surprising was the Chusoek paper fan, and Chuseok traditional snack that Jimmy personally brought over to me in the room, and Jimmy in traditional costume!

Third, Best Location. You can’t imagine how convenient it is. Walking distance to Garosu-gil, prime shopping and dining area for youngster and tasteful people; also nearby is Dosan park and Apgujeong area, where all the local and international luxury names are there, plus having highest density of Michelin starred restaurants. No trouble at all to get taxi in front of hotel, or subway / bus all are nearby. Last but not least, there is a nice park on a small hill opposite to hotel, where I had jogging every weekend!

Forth, Superb View. Four Points Gangnam is the tallest building in the neighborhood. Every room are with more than 180 degree panoramic view of several kilometers. Seoul tower, mountains, Breath-taking sunset!

I am sure I will be back Seoul, I am sure I will return Four Points Gangnam. It’s my home in Seoul!

I miss you, Four...

I enjoyed it. Nice location I think? Every building around here is basically a pharmacy or plastic surgery clinic. Plastic surgery means many wealthy docs which means you’ll see a lot of maybachs and supercars. It surprised me to see so many reviews comment about car noise. I hear those noises everywhere in Seoul. When I travel I always make sure to bring a white noise machine as well as non-obtrusive nc earbuds so I didn’t notice any noise issues.

The room was fine. Nice shower with overhead as well as handle showerheads. Big issue though was when you wanted to change from one to the other it wouldn’t “hold” it so it would switch back and forth rapidly causing an extremely loud machine-gun-like noise. Maybe it was just my unit that was broken… View was nice from 11th fl. There’s a convenience store right next to it. I asked the front desk for food delivery recommendations and they were able to place an order for me which I appreciated since I can’t really do it on my phone (I’m not a resident nor do I have a native Korean phone number)

The lighting options were sleek and varied. I hated the pillows. Every Korean hotel seems to use the same type of pillows. They are too plush so after laying your head on them for a few minutes they completely flatten and don’t retain any shape. The sink faucet is way too close to the wall of the sink so it’s not easy to wash your hands. Major design flaw. Also couldn’t figure out how to disable the bidet seat heating. The circular led desk light makes an audible buzzing noise. Sleek look but the noise makes it look cheap. AC seemed to work well. Room was nicely chilled.

Fitness room extremely small. Food wasn’t bad but you’re paying about 30k won for it. Bulgogi with rice was good enough for me. I asked the cook for a fried egg w toppings and he said he couldn’t. I’ve made hundreds of fried eggs… this is entirely possible and easy. Not sure why he said no.

Overall, enjoyed it pretty good quality I’d say for 4 star hotel. Found a nice Titleist store nearby and picked up some Korea-exclusive clothes. There’s a bunch of golf stores around the hotel. Lobby had a nice Christmas tree which I really liked. Attached also is a view...