Seoul City Hotel — Hotel in Seoul

PLEASE READ MY DETAILED REVIEW. ||Location-wise, Seoul City Hotel is recommended since it is at the center of the shopping district. Just took us about 5 minutes to reach Namdaemun and Myeongdong. You can even hike up NSeoul Tower from this place. It has surrounding cafes and restaurants, malls, 24hour convenient stores, and it was near the bus/train stops. ||||The room has its own wifi router and has a good signal. TV and Aircon both works. The size of the room is just enough for 2 people. However, there is no window and you can't really tell what time of the day it is since the room has no wall clock. We simply rooms. ||||They offer free self service breakfast at 8-11AM which includes milk, cereals, soup, bread with butter/jam, instant noodles, and you can choose from coffee or juice. In a way this really helped us save up a little for food and we don't need to actually go out and eat breakfast. We just wished there was a variety of food everyday or atleast every other day. ||||The hotel also has connections to tour companies if you want tour packages all around Seoul. You can book upon arrival. Price depends on the package you choose or you can even customize your own which comes with a higher price of course. They offer airport van transpo for 4 people at 70,000 KW, which is advusable if you really have huge luggages such as in our case. ||||Kijoo and his brother were both helpful in entertaining our questions. They were both accomodating in booking our tours and transpo, as well as our problems with our Korean Simcard. ||||Our flight was late night and the problem in terms of check in is that no one was there at the information desk when we arrived. We kept ringing the bell but no one answered. We assumed we can get our room card with my name on it and did self check in. ||||Since day 1, we asked Kijoo if our stay at the room really comes with everyday supply of bottled water, toiletries and new towels just like in other hotels and Airbnb homes. He said yes. On our 1 week stay, everything went smoothly except on the last day. We brought our own toiletries and figured we can keep the daily supply. However, while packing our bags, the 2 cleaning ladies rang the bell to clean and saw our stash of unused hotel toiletries and yelled at us. They were shouting in Korean which we cannot decipher and pointing at our hotel toiletries. They were pointing at us and gesturing we cannot take them home as if accusing us of stealing. We didn't want any more arguements and said they can take them anyway.|| ||What was really inappropriate is that they were the ones who took it from our luggage and we did not hand it back to them. I think it was disrepectful and mean to treat guests like that when there was no written rules that you cannot take your own daily supplies of toiletries. We did not even ask for room cleaning the whole week even it was for free. ||||This was an unpleasant encounter that we were being shouted at by cleaning ladies. Will they do that to us if we were of western race and not asian, specifically Filipinos. Though they were elders, I dont think it is the right way to treat customers and guests of your country. What's worse is that they were still murmuring words and angrily staring at us even when we said sorry. ||||Mind you, they were not even cleaning the rooms. Sheets were not changed. They do not sweep/mop the floors daily. They didnt clean the bathroom. They were not even changing their gloves after touching dirty towels or garbage. ||We did not ask for a special treatment but these ladies are really mea. We didnt feel from them the Korean hospitality. ||||In terms of location and proximity to all landmarks I would love to book this...

This is one of the times when you should let the first impression not be the final impression. Our initial impression was pretty bad. We got an Uber from Gimpo Airport. He couldn't navigate us to the precise hotel, as it didn't show on his maps. Google Maps doesn't work for walking directions so after stumbling with 4 luggages and 30 minutes of figuring where to go, we arrived at seemingly run-down building which was our hotel. The check-in was pretty smooth and we headed into our room through an elevator with foul smell. We realized the bathroom has an adjoined area for shower and toilet, and couldn't find toilet soap or accessories. We were thinking we made a terrible decision to stay here for 4 nights, but from here things just went uphill to the point we'd consider it one of our best stays in Japan/Korea trip. ||||I went down to the reception to ask on toilet accessories. Turns out they have put next to the TV in what looked like tea bags. And there are actual tea-bags too. And an electric kettle too in the room. And a computer. The guy came to our room to help us find everything out. He spoke better English than any of the hotels we stayed in Japan. Their service continued to be exceptional, as if we needed anything they would just drop it in our room immediately. The room size was pretty reasonably big too, definitely larger than any Japanese hotel. There is also free breakfast everyday- not gourmet food, but bread-eggs-butter-jam with soup- stuff you'd find in a US motel. The room itself has robotic entrance which is amusing and very secure. They also provide weighing machines next to the elevator of every floor so we could weigh our luggage before going to the airport. On our way back, we reserved taxi to Incheon airport from the front desk itself and the taxi driver was there waiting 30 mins before itself, and helped us lifting luggage. We were charged flat rate of 70,000 KRW which was lower than rate shown on Uber and reasonable for a very long drive. ||||The front-desk went above and beyond helping us with our requests as when we were trying to take a taxi to Cheongdukgung Palace and neither Uber nor KakaoTaxi was working for us. The guy at the front desk used his own app to call a taxi for us immediately and let us access it. As for the bathroom, they had seperate slippers provided for walking in the room and bathroom so the toilet being adjacent didn't end up being much of a nuisance and we're happy to have the extra amenities. Room cleaning everyday was exceptional and everything was replenished for us. Overall we liked our stay at the hotel a lot, and our initial negative reaction was replaced. ||||As for the location, once we figured our way we realized what an excellent location it was. We could just walk to Myeongdong Market (strongly recommend once in the day and once in the night), Namdaemun Market and Hoeyheon Station was just 2-3 minute walk. A word of advice: use Entrance/Exit 1 of Hoeyhoen Station for commuting as it's the closest. Also if you take a taxi like we did and the driver can't find the location, try getting them to drop you out at this exit and then walk right from the exit towards C4U shop. Install Kakao Maps on your phone for directions.||||Overall this hotel was an excellent example of how good service can overturn initial negative impressions, and if I were back in Seoul (which I wish to because it's an excellent city) I might choose...

Overall: amazing stay for the price. Extremely convenient location. 15 minute walk from Seoul Station, Myeongdong shopping area/station, and lift to N. Seoul Tower. 20 minute bus ride to palace district. Room was sizable, bigger than we expected which was nice, TV is pay to watch, but there is YouTube and Netflix you can log into, or use guest for YouTube. There's some mosquitos in the area, but 6 days we only had 1 in the room and maybe 2 drain gnats. No roaches or anything nasty like that, which was nice. Floor isn't carpet, but this ended up being a good thing as it rained a few days while visiting. The bathroom is a shower room, which is specific to turn on. You need to push the handle towards the wall and pull out, the water pressure will be low and take about 5 minutes to heat up, but it works well. There is the ability to go on the roof, but you might have to ask, I tried during the hours of 10am-10pm like it says 3 days in a row and it was always locked. No eating cup ramen in the hotel according to the kitchenette area downstairs, not an issue as theres plenty of places within walking distance to eat or grab snacks. The street is mostly quiet, unless you are here during any holidays, but you can keep the window shut and it'll help (it does get humid though, so the AC is needed a lot). 3 different convenience stores within 5 minute walk (GC25, 711, Good 2 CU) as well as a vegan donut/coffee shop right next door (only donuts and coffee though). Go up the hill a little bit and there is a laundry stop and a store that carries most things you might need too (tea, hand/body soap, frozen...