Shilla Stay Gwanghwamun — Hotel in Seoul

Good hotel. It is close to many historical attractions. You can find out their location on the hotel website. In the reviews for this hotel I saw comments that there is little room in the rooms. My opinion: if you look closely, the compactness of the room allows you to find ways to solve the problem to deliver things accordingly. If of course you came with three or five huge suitcases to the room for one or two people. The staff is good. The most important thing I learned is that the relationship between the client and the hotel staff does not end after being discharged. The staff will help you in any way they can. This is very important for the client. My wishes to the hotel: Consider obtaining a hotel sim card for customers during their stay. Sim card can be given when you leave the hotel. Receiving a sim card at the airport does not always provide convenience, as there are queues in receiving or returning a sim card, and in case of late return flight the person will think not return the sim card, but will think how to get on the plane faster. Consider providing the hotel customers with Samsung card issuance services when making payments in public places during their stay. Foreigners who do not live permanently in Republic of Korea are not eligible for discounts or bonuses at Emart and Everland stores. The customer could use this card in public transport or in a taxi. The customer can hand over the card when they are discharged from the room. Consider installing vending machines in the hotel as part of the taxfree refund. In my opinion, if necessary, the hotel staff can check the validity of the operation by the hotel client. The difficulty of carrying out this procedure at the airport has similar situations, which have been indicated in the request in the part of the sim card. Consider providing the hotel to customers with K-ETA services for foreigners who have booked Hotel Shilla. Not all foreigners manage to obtain electronic permission to enter the Republic of Korea on their own. The cost of the service can be set in the area of 15,000 to 25,000 Korean won. To sum up, I can say that the Hotel Shilla network has appropriate opportunities for the implementation of these services, namely well-trained staff of Hotel Shilla and technical capabilities of Samsung Corporation. Well, that's my subjective opinion personally. In principle, I am happy to stay...

I am currently staying at Silla Stay Gwanghwamun since this Monday for work. The location of hotel is great for work as everything is near by. Far from that, there’s few negative things which made me feel so uncomforatbel to staying in this hotel.

The first day, I could smell the drainage from the toilet when I turned aircondition off and I was waited over half an hour but the smells gets worst so I have requested to change my room. The reservation staff (men) who was working in between 8pm-11pm on Monday 28 May- (can be supervisor I guess) was rude on phone conversation and the second room he has changed for me have ongoing noise from outside or machinery (aircon) so I have re-requested room for a good sleep. But the way he explained me on the phone, he cannot help me anymore when I get 3rd room so don’t even try to think to request. I would understand this if he explain it in a nice manner but he was very rude and the ton of his voice was very unhappy when I was really nice and feel sorry to ask to re-request a room. And normally the staff come up with keys to escort to a new room but he asked me to come to the reception to get a new key. And when another staff (lady) helped me with a new room and I greet nicely and on the way back to the room, I could hear the men nagged or complaint loudly to another staff (lady) who helped regarding to my room but I wasn’t able to hear clearly so I didn’t make any issue on this. Luckily, the 3rd room had no issue so I didnt need to deal with this rude staff again on the night.

Far from the above, the reception staff hang up the phone over twice today and no return call too- I gave up at the end. And every morning housekeeping staff having chat in open room or on walk way so it was very disturbed in the morning.

I thought the “Silla” is a big brand name so expected a professionalism but unfortunately couldn’t able to find from it every staff.

Definitely, need an urgent staff training for this hotel and never recommend or stay here in the future. Very disappointed.

FYI- the one star I gave is from the kindness of another front desk staff and the...

Contrary to their name, this is NOT a place you EVER want to STAY. Earlier this month my wife, son and I booked one week at this hotel because of its proximity to the US Embassy and Palace. The very first night we learned of our huge mistake when at midnight it was 82.5 degrees (28 Celsius) in our room, with absolutely no way of cooling it off. That’s right, the leadership team at this hotel is so committed to saving money, they turn off all air conditioning after 6pm, every night. In fact we were told the hotel only has air conditioning run 4 hours a day (2-6pm). You CANNOT cool your room, not even one degree, at night since the buildings central air is turned off. The front desk teams are very aware of the misery inflicted upon guests and therefore tried their best to find us another room that was cooler. However all 4 sides of the hotel have the same issue. Also the operational failures don’t stop there. The hotel promotes a wine and snack package where you pay for a bottle and tray of fruits and cheeses to consume in your room. But you shouldn’t be surprised when you pick up the white wine and food from the restaurant and find the bottle is 85 degrees. They aren’t even willing to spend the costs to refrigerate the white wine for the guests. And if you think the small refrigerator in your room will do the trick, you’re correct, if you can wait 24 hours. That’s exactly what we had to do. We had the fruit and cheese the first night and the wine the second night after it cooled off. In summary, this hotel is flawed with poor decision making from high level management and could use an entire overhaul of their SOPs. The one plus, is the front desk staff is superb, but they are of course limited as to what solutions they can provide. And therefore this hotel gets 1 star and is to be avoided at all costs, until they make the guest experience a priority over saving money. Attached is a photo from our room the first dreadful night we...