Sheraton Seoul Palace Gangnam Hotel

“The hotel with top notch service”

It has been 3 months since my last stay when I remember to have tapped 4 (among 5) circles to rate. During the time, I heard that the property had new General Manager, Mr. Harrison Cho who has much experiences and leadership in hotel business. With good expectation, I had one stay again. Even tho… more

It has been 3 months since my last stay when I remember to have tapped 4 (among 5) circles to rate. During the time, I heard that the property had new General Manager, Mr. Harrison Cho who has much experiences and leadership in hotel business. With good expectation, I had one stay again. Even though the hardware of the property remained same, the software changed a lot (much better impression). From the express check-in process by Mr. William Oh, it was not so diificult to have eye-contact with staffs whenever and wherever I needed assistance. The service was top notch and room was clean, well prepared. The sky club lounge is one of the best in Seoul and the kindness and excellent service by Ms. Alice yoon was impressive. I felt safe staying and waking around at this urban property. I would like to highly recommend this high-rise property both for family and business.

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“A good place but far away from being outsanding”

This hotel is on of the better places I have stayed in South Korea. Upon arrival, a concierge opens the taxi door for you and takes care about your bags (like it should be in other high level hotels too but oftentimes is not the case in Korea). Staff at front desk is competent and speak good Engli… more

This hotel is on of the better places I have stayed in South Korea. Upon arrival, a concierge opens the taxi door for you and takes care about your bags (like it should be in other high level hotels too but oftentimes is not the case in Korea). Staff at front desk is competent and speak good English. Upon entering the room, some welcome fruits on the table, prepared for me as a Platinum member. Good old SPG style still lives on despite taken over by Marriott. That`s just nice. My room, 1203, was beautiful and not too small. Clean and comfortable. The design is not outstanding, more is definitely possible, but also not cheap or boring too, all in all a nice and bright room, with really huge windows. What I liked the most is the huge ceiling, maybe more than 4 meters high, almost like a hall, due to being on the top floor, where the executive lounge is, same height. The bathroom not particularly luxurious in space or design, but still nice, for a solo traveler at least. A real drawback is the air conditioning. Having cold temperatures due to bad weather, I was literally freezing inside the room, I was not able to set it to heating mode, the set temperature was never reached, in fact it did not heat at all and kept blowing cold air on me, as a result, after the first night, I got sick. I really hate this sort of stupid air conditioning where you are not able to fully switch of or set to heating mode. Especially due to the monstrous glass windows the room got uncomfortably cold during the night. 2 desks to do your office work, but unfortunately, not well equipped, some paper, a set of pens, rubber, stapler and such small office stuff would have been nice to have in a suite room of the highest standard. 2 sets of flat screen TV. Korean but also English channels, CNN was available, which isn`t normal in Korea. Due to Wuhan Covid facilities were not operating, such as swimming pool or gym. Also there was no buffet breakfast, just a set without much choice. Experiencing the executive lounge was the other drawback. It seems, there is a fundamental misunderstanding what an executive lounge should be. In this hotel the lounge is a restaurant, an eatery, where they serve a meal at a given time and then close the lounge after having eaten. For me, this should be lounge, a place to do office work on my notebook, a place to chillout and have a drink, a place to relax and let go. Not in this hotel unfortunately. Eatery. Full stop. So what do they offer? Unfortunately no buffet because Covid. Drinks? Well heavily limited choices, bottled drinks, 2 juices, beer and wine. The wine bottles opened long time, the taste not how it should be, besides that, ice cold red wine? Really?? I tried to take a glass of red wine to my room because didn`t have the time to finish it in the lounge. The lady at the lounge desk stopped me and wanted to give me a paper cup for the wine (my room actually was 5 meters from the lounge) in order to keep the glass there. Is there no feeling for style and quality? All gone? Thanks to Marriott? Or is it just the Korean style or lack of? The staff otherwise friendly, they give some service. But none of them is doing a remarkably good job, none of them is going out of their way to be friendly to guests, nobody seems to be interested to engage with guests, there is zero communication and zero smile, nobody shows interest in seeing a guest, welcoming a guest with nice words, in fact there is no staff name I could actually mention here. Everything Korean-cold and just average, nothing outstanding. And it is not the language skills, they all speak English. It is the will to care for guests which is obviously not too much present. In fact, while writing this comment, a bunch of very loud children are disturbing because the staff fails to enforce age limitations and does not even say something. I am expecting better in a Sheraton executive lounge, that one is not outstanding and therefore not enough at all. I believe this is, when the GM does not put personal care into it, does not motivate staff and does not put a system of rewards in place. No motivation to do a better than normal job. I remember, in other places, like in China, people were much friendlier, engaging in personal small chats with guest, trying constantly to be nice and receive a good comment from satisfied guests, those hotels were mostly under foreign, non Asian general management, GM and GSM from western counties, they have a sense for details and for quality, knowing well what Westerners like. I would love to see this in Korea, but it is an issue, the GM should be in charge of. All in all, this hotel is a good place to stay, offers some service, definitely more than most other Korean hotels do, but still far away from being an outstanding place. 4 stars because there is still a long way to go to be such a place.

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“One of best valued hotel in Gangnam, Seoul”

Best location close to Gangnam and city downtown Great service with comparable facilities For business travel, this hotel would be best choice Lounge quality is much better than average The only weakness is breakfast restaurant, which is not belong to hotel.

“Mid-quality, 4* level hotel”

I spent a week at this Sheraton and my experiences were mixed: To start with the positive points, the gym is very well equiped, not too full and enjoyable. The food in the lounge was good as well, and the standard room was not too small. And, the concierge team was very polite and helpful. The ho… more

I spent a week at this Sheraton and my experiences were mixed: To start with the positive points, the gym is very well equiped, not too full and enjoyable. The food in the lounge was good as well, and the standard room was not too small. And, the concierge team was very polite and helpful. The hotel cleanliness was not satisfying: when I entered the room I found hair in the bathroom and dust and pieces of paper on the floor. I reported it and was promised that it would be checked. When I went back to my room the hair in the bathroom were still there. The bathroom is much too old and too small. On 2 days the drain stank so intensively that I had to leave the window open through the night. Moreover, the temperature sensor was not working properly so that the room was either too hot or too cold. The service people in the lounge don‘t understand/ know what service means. Although they were walking back and forth the whole time, they didn‘t pick up the dirty dish for > 30 min, and this repeatedly. There is a shopping mall close to the hotel with several Cafés and Restaurants and a convinient store directly next to the hotel. Other than that you need to walk for > 10-15 min to find any shops. And, although I am Platin Elite Member, I didn‘t get an upgrade, which I normally get in all hotels of the Marriott Group.

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