Courtyard by Marriott Suwon — Hotel in Suwon-si

Wanted a 1-night staycation from Incheon and chose the Courtyard Suwon.  Ratings are pretty high at all the travel websites, including Marriott's own.  First-time stay at this hotel for my wife and I.||||As platinum, we were a bit disappointed by check-in.  The staff didn't seem to be very sincere or forthcoming.  They only upgraded me to executive floor (20th floor), and that's when I asked whether suites were available.  She told me that "there were no suites available" and then didn't say anything more.  Then I told her that I had searched on the Marriott website just 5 minutes ago and I found suites still reservable.  I also asked her whether it would have been better for me to use a "suite night award" the night before, because suites were included in the SNA offer for this hotel.  She said she didn't know, because suites were allocated by corporate.  Then finally, after asking her so many questions, she told me that I would be able to get a suite if I checked in at 4pm.  I wish she had been more upfront with me to say that in the first place, instead of initially telling me that "there were no suites available".||||So, the bottom line is:  if you have an SNA, it may get you the suite upgrade.  But don't expect a suite upgrade if you're plat and want to check-in before 4pm.  Next time, if I come back to this hotel, I will burn an SNA and see whether it works.  As it stands, if you're plat, you are likely to get more reliable recognition at a variety of other Seoul-area Marriott hotels, including Botanic Garden and Courtyard Pangyo.  (At those places, I barely blinked and the front desk gave me my suite upgrades, even when I checked in early.)||||The hotel is next door to the Galleria mall, which is really quite a cool good-sized mall.  It has nine floors of really very good shopping.  The 9th floor has a nice food court and several restaurants, and B1 also has another even bigger food court and supermarket.||||This hotel's proximity to the lake and the shops/restaurants around the lake is where this hotel really shines.  It's a very pleasant walk.||||The Executive Lounge is OK.  During our night's happy hour, the lounge had toast, fried rice, spicy bulgogi, stir-fried veggies, a couple salads, shrimp chips, some snack-like foods (like nuts), a few kinds of fruit, and a couple cake-related desserts.  There was also Cloud beer on tap, a red wine, some housemade sangria, and a few liquors.  But the food wasn't very warm, which was disappointing.||||Breakfast is pretty good.  The selection is quite extensive, especially for a Courtyard-branded hotel.  There are the standard American-style warm breakfast foods, a handful of different danishes, some bagels, sliced bread, baguette, salads, smoked salmon, and many different kinds of fixings; then there are the Asian/Korean breakfast foods, including rice, banchan, and DIY noodle soup.  The only problem, again, was that the warm foods were basically room-temperature.||||Halfway through the stay, my Marriott app indicated to me that the "mobile key" was activated. Sure enough I could open my room door with my phone instead of the key card.||||The room itself was a bit uninspiring, and we heard noises from people upstairs moving furniture around (perhaps housekeeping?), but overall the hotel room was basically brand new and very clean.||||Online check-out was my first time and very easy. I clicked check-out and dropped my keys...

After my 4-bubble Sept 2021 review and the GM's response, my wife and I decided to give the hotel another shot.||||(Note to Marriott Bonvoy members: This time I paid with points and then also burned an SNA, and was upgraded to the Premier Suite. Check-in to the Suite at 2pm on Friday (last time I stayed Sat-Sun) went very smoothly.)||||The Premier Suite was really pretty fun, and a nice place for a Friday night staycation. Overall, there are two rooms -- the bedroom and a sitting room, separated by a quite-heavy sliding door. The bathroom is connected to the sitting room (not the bedroom!) via another heavy sliding door. So, it means that activity in the bathroom really can't be heard by anybody in the bedroom, and so there's good privacy in that sense.||||The separate bedroom and sitting room is great if you are a party of 2 and both of you want to have your own separate space to work or watch TV (there is a large screen TV in each of those two rooms). While the bedroom has a regular table for working, the sitting room does not. Instead the sitting room has a coffee table, so I ended up laying on the couch and working on my laptop there.||||The bathroom is spacious, in the sense that the bathtub/shower area is very big. Haha you could have a party of 3 in there. :-) But there is only one sink, which was a bit of a downer. The picture on the website is not accurate, because actually the shower area is separate from the bathtub area. I have attached a picture that might help.||||During check-out, we requested an extension for our parking time, and we got it. That was great too.||||Once again, we enjoyed the Galleria and walking around the lake. ||||This time, we also hailed a taxi to get to "Gwanggyo Cafe Street" (you can google it). It's just about 5 minutes away by car, and a nice place to hang out for an evening. Just be aware that you may have a tough time hailing a taxi on the way back to the hotel, and if you drive after all, parking is not always so easy either.||||We booked for a late Friday evening in April, about 10 days ahead of time. This hotel seems to be very popular at this time of year due to its location near great shopping and the lakeside environment. Although we booked via points, 1-2 days before our stay, the price had risen to about USD $350 per night. So, when the weather is good, definitely recommended to book this hotel early!||||Overall, we were happy with the stay. (Again, if you're a Bonvoy member, and you have an extra SNA to burn, this is not a bad place to burn it. Just make sure to pick the...

As Marriott Bonvoy elite for many years, I have stayed in many Courtyards in Korea and also globally. I have reserved my compliments for Courtyard over the years so far. As I explored this new Courtyard facility to be closer to a few of my key customers, I want to compliment this hotel for helping make my business trip successful and memorable.||||I was greeted with classical Asian hospitality by room director Stephanie, with a upgrade to Premium suit to start a very memorial stay. The hotel itself is brand new with design for all modern convenience. It is simply a 4-star hotel with 5-star service in very way.||||it is a great hotel for long-term business travelers who need to stay closer to a few key customers world-wide well-known to be efficient and productive. One can start the daily routine with a warm-up workout session in the gym not very large in size but never seems to be crowded, and then a great breakfast buffet to get energized for the day. After a full day of hard work, one can relax and recover in the executive lounge with variety of drinks and food.||||I am glad I have chosen Courtyard Suwon to reach my Bonvoy Ambassador status for this year. I am sure I will be...