Shilla Stay Mapo — Hotel in Seoul

My experience at Shilla Stay Mapo was mixed. While the room had some positives, several issues made the stay less enjoyable than expected. I rarely leave negative reviews, but I hope this feedback is helpful

Booking & Arrival

I originally booked for four nights but changed my flight to arrive Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday night. I messaged the hotel to inform them, and they confirmed it would be fine. Instill paid for 4 nights as I wanted to check in as soon as I arrived on the wednesday. I also requested an airport pickup, shared my details, and received confirmation.

Unfortunately, no taxi showed up. The hotel didn’t respond to my messages, so I took the metro instead. When I arrived, I was met with a rather stern check-in and questioned about being “late,” despite showing proof of my prior messages. The response was simply, “Oh, right, OK.” Not a great start after an overnight flight.

They handed me three coffee vouchers and a late check-out option—unclear if these were standard or an apology. Late check-out didn’t help as my return flight was early.

The Room

The room was clean and the bed extremely comfortable with good-quality linens and pillows—definitely a highlight. However, there were multiple inconveniences:

Temperature: The room stayed hot - I'm aware there was a heatwave, but, the air conditioning wouldn’t go below 25°C, and the fan was barely audible.

Toilet: The Japanese-style toilet was broken—it flushed but poorly.

Layout: The room felt cramped. The desk chair didn’t fit under the desk, so to reach the sofa, I had to climb over the bed or move the chair.

Mirror: There was only one mirror in the bathroom. Drying or styling my hair required using the kettle area as a makeshift vanity.

Safe: It didn’t work, which was concerning as I had valuables.l

Service & Communication

Reception wasn’t proactive. After reporting the issues and even showing messages about check-in confusion, the response was passive at best—“Oh right, OK.”

On Day 2, I reminded them about the toilet and was told it would take four hours to fix. I left for the day, but when I returned, nothing had been resolved. Neither the toilet, air conditioning, nor safe were fixed during my entire stay. I simply didn’t have the energy to keep chasing.

At checkout, I mentioned this again and received the same casual response: “Oh really? We can give you late check-out.” Again, this was useless as I was leaving. Other Issues

Lifts: Waiting for a lift to the 25th floor often took 10–15 minutes. For a business hotel, this is impractical.

Wi-Fi: Internet worked in the mornings (9–11 am) but slowed drastically afterward. I eventually had to go to a nearby café to work. For a hotel marketed as business-friendly, this is a major drawback.

Overall

The location is good (Mapo is about 10 minutes away), and the bed was very comfortable. But overall, the stay was disappointing: poor communication, unresolved issues, and facilities that didn’t match a 4-star rating. I’d rate this between 2–3 stars based on service.

Would I stay again? No. South Korea was wonderful, and I’d happily return—but not...

Rating: 4.2 / 5 stars 🤩 : comfortable, modern and spacious rooms 🤧 : a little pricey at my time of purchase, limited service

Shilla Stay ticks many boxes for a “bleisure” traveller like myself. While it is positioned as an affordable business hotel that doesn’t cut corners, I can see it being very popular among the leisure travellers too, and rightfully so.

The hotel is strategically located near Gongdeok station. While certainly not as accessible as the Lotte City Hotel / GLAD located right at their respective metro exits, a 5 minutes walk is very reasonable, even in the middle of Korea’s summer. The hotel has a fairly large inventory of rooms, but occupies a very small real estate footprint. As such, the lobby is small and amenities are limited. The 7-eleven on the ground floor sufficient keeps guests supplied with Ramen, packet coffees and banana milk.

Due to the hotel’s popularity, you may not be accorded early check-in. However, you are welcome to store your bags at the reception. Do note that Shilla Stay does not provide bell service, as such, your bags are not stored in a room and there is no assistance provided for sending of bags to/from your room. While generally helpful, the front desk team’s English competency is a little lower than expected, making it challenging at time when communicating requests or inquiries.

The basic room that I booked was pleasantly spacious, leaving me room to have my luggage left open during my stay. The large working desk and sofa provided more space for lounging or storage. The spacious room was not made possible by compromising the bathroom. The bathroom came equipped with a large counter, powered toilet seats with seating-warming and bidet functions. While there is a lack of a bathtub, the shower stall was adequate for a comfortable shower after a long day of work or play. Shower amenities come fully stocked, together with other hygiene products. Do note that for sustability, the use of the dental kit is chargeable.

Other room amenities include a fairly good iron and hairdryer, an ironing board, electric kettle, bottled water, and some sachets of instant coffee and green tea.

Overall, a good pick, given the right price. I will certainly be back, especially if I am able to secure a room at USD150 (or below) per night. The Mapo area is not a typical pick for international tourists, especially those who do not speak the local language, or is visiting Seoul for the first/second time. While there is a lack of tourist attractions, the localised nature of Mapo provided a very authentic stay. I had the opportunity to mingle with the working lunch crowd, grocery shop among locals, and dine in restaurants and bars only filled with local folks. If this is what you’re looking for,...

the hotel was located near gongdeok mrt which was a pretty okay walk, there was nothing much surrounding the hotel but there were some food behind or opposite the hotel. it was one stop away from hongdae and a few stop away from myeongdong, it would be far if u wanted to travel to gangnam. the cleanliness was okay, they provided shampoo conditioner body soap and lotion, they had combs shower caps and cotton buds too. they would change the sheets and towels only when requested to save the earth. on one of the days when they came to clean the room, the cleaner forgot the towel that she used to clean on the sofa and the sofa was wet as the cloth was wet. they only cleared it two days later. their service was pretty bad, other than finding us a room when we reached an hour early, we rented a car to travel to alpaca world and we couldnt return the car on time, so we wanted to park it at the hotel. along the walkway of the hotel, we saw that there were many cars parked there, so we decided to park it there and we informed the hotel staff, cindy, she told us that we were not allowed to parked there and told us that there was parking space in the basement. so we went down to look. we were greeted by two man in a hostile manner they kept asking us what our car number was when we were not even parked there yet. but they did tell us that there was no more space in their basement. so we went up and told cindy. she told us the same thing but she did call to ask if it was really full downstairs. she didnt tell us anything after that but she just pushed us to her manager called sean park. i told him that we would be returning the car tomorrow morning to the car rental place at 8.30am. he told us that those cars parking around the hotel were just there to have dinner and would leave by that night. he was very rude and kept telling us to drive the car downstairs, we told him that there was no space and he continued to tell us that they would park our car somewhere else and when we wanted to collect our car he would pass us a map and we would have to go get the car ourselves and pay the parking fee there, we had some bags with us that we wanted to put in our room first and we told him we would move the car later, he just kept telling us no move your car and he even asked for our room number. it doesnt make sense when we pay so much for the hotel but we still have to pay for the parking ? they were only friendly to their locals and not foreigners. i would not recommend, there are other hotels...