Grand Hyatt Seoul — Hotel in Seoul

-This is got to be one of the worst 5-star hotels at this price range-

Day 1- While checking in, it was explained to me they're very busy during the period I'm staying, and I've been relegate to the 5th floor (I booked this stay about 3 weeks in advance), the check-in staff kindly asked if i wanted to upgrade to a different level but same room/same view for an additional fee. Which is very odd, considering most hotels either price their rooms via size, standard or view. After checking in, there was no attempt to help me take my luggage to my room by any staff member, nor any explanations about facilities, or in room amenities. Ok, that's fine, I've stayed at hotels before, I don't mind the lack of minor details in service standards. The room isn't great, a bit on the small side, but it ain't bad overall.

Day 2 - I hit the gym in the morning, it's a very nice gym, well fitted and larger than other 5-star gyms, but it's packed, I'm talking about close to 30 people in here. Wow, I thought to myself, it's great to see so many people here, possibly inspiring myself to worker harder during the session. I later notice it seems like more than half of these are not hotel guests all sporting a white members t-shirt, so they're some type of gym members, so this Hotel is selling gym membership??

One of the decision determinants for my staying at the Grand Hyatt Itaewon was due to its wondrous views. If you sit at the window side of the grand entrance cafe, you should see a panoramic view of Seoul. When I went there to have a tea and do some work, I was told these window seats are reserved for people who buy food & snacks. This was 3-4 PM in the afternoon, not exactly peak hour rush, just a simple effort to try to extract more money out of guests. This point, I'm getting annoyed, what exactly is included in my Hotel room fee? A bed in a sub-standard 5-Star hotel room?

Day 3, Both the gym and sauna is open to the aforementioned gym members, the sauna is pay-per-use for hotel guests. This results in a situation where it's similar to the your local budget gym where you wait for weights and machines due to the sheer number of people here. The members are given preferential lockers, while hotel guests get lockers that's in the full view of lower level lobby area. It's a tiny locker, no much bigger than the shoe box for a pair of boots I would say. For those of you who don't frequent saunas often, it usually means you strip down, underwear or birthday suit style, so the lockers in full view of everyone is not ideal; no attendant to help or explain about facilities, which is strange considering lesser establishments would have these.

The final point which made me write this review was as I just ordered a Spaghetti and Meatballs, informed the staff to not put cheese on top of the pasta, which she promptly understood. I receive my meal very fast, however, as I took the first bite, I notice I'm missing meatballs. I call the room service again to explain, which she understood me as saying I want to order a spaghetti meatballs with no meatballs.. After a slow and enunciated explanation, and a phone call to the chef and back to me, I was told meatballs had cheese in it, so they promptly took it out for me, without asking me.

Pros - The hotel itself is well furnished and expansive. The taxis waiting outside are always prompt, and the valet service is great too.

Maybe this hotel doesn't deserve a one star rating, and I know it makes me sound pompous to ramble on about all these really minor details. Added together it does feel like there's an overall lack of focus towards customer service throughout the staffing in this hotel, even a lack of customer service culture I would argue. I write this review just to inform fellow travelers about what you can expect at the 5-Star Grand Hyatt in Itaewon, while eating my spaghetti and meatballs, sans meatballs; 2 more days to go...

I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Seoul in a suite for 5 nights since I was not ready to return to my home. When I interact with the front desk staff, I almost feel as if I am talking to a robot. The staff of the front desk are not fluent enough in English to accommodate foreign guest and require excessive reiterations of basic occurrences. I had to reiterate to the staff the most unceremonious and simple things due to their robotic need to stop at every single thing I say. The food in the restaurants were very delicious but the staff (again) were confused at the simplest request as if they have never met a human before. I asked for water and they asked me if I wanted sparkling. I declined and said I wanted regular water. The staff member pulled out his phone to use a translating app and wrote a lengthy paragraph to explain that they only serve certain types of sparking water. I’m not sure how difficult it is to understand “No. I want regular water,” but somehow he heard something completely different. It took almost 10 minutes of my time. The staff seem to not respect the time of the guest. To mislead guests as if they have such a attentive hotline on standby, regardless of whichever button you press on the phone, you will be directed to a single guest services department that cannot physically do anything and constantly needs to put guest on hold. It took 30 minutes to get connected with the front desk to request a late check-out. I asked for the restocking of the minibar and the staff came in to clean the room instead. The spa and sauna are worn down and feel like a old schoolhouse. The spa is humid and structured like a nail salon. There are so many unnecessary micromanaging rules put in place by the staff that I doubt it goes by Hyatt policies. To pay for the valet, you are directed to the valet desk only for the staff to explain in a very complicated and wordy way that you have to pay at the front desk. To sit by the window in the Lobby Lounge, you must order a bottle of wine but then suddenly the next day it is not required? To join the gym membership, you need to pay a commission to an existing member and 60 million won? The buffet is one price but to drink soda it is an extra charge? Alongside the “taxes and fees” explained on the website, there are additional “additional” fees that will be added? It seems the staff of the Grand Hyatt Seoul are not in the mood to serve guests but to flaunt power over 10$ fees and strange rules. Another issue is the attitude of the staff. In the morning, I requested by phone if I could extend my booking for 1 night and they were able to charge my card without me visiting the front desk. I explained that to charge anything else, they would have to wait a couple hours since I have a daily limit on my card. The staff consoled me and assured me that I could pay everything else upon check out. In the evening, I came down to extend my room key and was met with pure meticulousness and hardheadedness from a sassy staff member. He explained that I need to pay an additional deposit to extend my room key which I have never heard before since I have no outstanding charges. I had to ask my Korean friend to come explain the situation which made things worse. After he understood the situation, I asked the staff member a question. Instead of answering the guest who spoke directly to him, he rudely assumes that my friend would translate for me and spoke to...

The Grand Hyatt Seoul is a beautiful hotel, with spectacular views of Seoul and that's where it ends for me. I was supposed to stay for two weeks and ended up leaving early to go to another hotel.

The room was small, the bed took up most of the room. The design was expectedly Asian in style. The hotel rooms are in need of a refresh and they are currently renovating the rooms on the upper levels of the hotel. I was on the 7th floor. I was a bit surprised at how dusty the closet area was. They did not have a lot of hangers to hang clothing. This was problematic since they did not have a dresser or enough space to put your clothing in I ended up doubling up my clothing and leaving the remainder in my suitcase. The room did not have an ironing board or iron. The nightstands were not usable for storage. The safe did not work and was so small that you could not put a laptop in it if you needed to. The Wi-Fi worked well. The TV channel selection was limited. The bathroom was very small and only had room for one person, if two were to use the room only one at a time could use the vanity. The basin sink made it difficult to keep the sink area clean since you would drip water all over the counter. I did not like the massive mirrors in the shower. The water temperature in the shower was terrible. I had the hot on full blast and the water was still only warm.

They offered two complimentary bottles of water each day and an assortment of coffee and tea. The coffee pot was an electric water kettle inside the cabinet that could not be moved. They seemed to waste valuable storage space by putting the mini bar items, mini fridge and coffee pot in the cabinet that could have been used for clothing. The bed was quite hard. I did like the ease of use for the wake-up call system on the phone. The staff was friendly and helpful, be patient and listen as not many seem to speak English.

Bring your wallet because the hotel is very expensive. The first night I decided to eat at the hotel since it was late when I arrived and very cold and I didn't want to walk down the hill to town to find a place to eat by myself. I went to the hotel steak house and ordered a small Caesar salad and tuna tartar for a total of $55 dollars. That was without a drink, just water. They were charging $45 dollars for breakfast. One morning I decided to have coffee at the hotel deli; the coffee was $9 dollars and with two pastries cost $15 dollars. When I looked at the wine menu a glass of wine ran $22 dollars. Eating in town was so much better and there are allot of restaurants available at reasonable prices. The cabs are cheap and the hotel has a shuttle available to take guests to Itaewan.

The prices at the GHS were ridiculous. I would not stay there again as I don't believe the hotel was worth the cost and that was the main reason that...