Review – Park Hyatt Seoul South Korea

Introduction

We stayed here at the beginning of April 2017 for 3 nights.  I had a friend use a Guest of Honor for my stay for 20K Hyatt points per night.  I believe rates were around $500 per night at the time.

 

Location

The hotel is in the Gungnam business district, so not the BEST location, but it is on top of a subway line, which does make it a bit convenient.  Each time we needed to take the subway, you literally walk outside the door and take 10 steps to take the escalator down into the subway.

 

Getting to hotel

We took the bus from the GMP airport instead of ICN.  After baggage claim, we followed the signs for the bus.  We weren’t sure which one to take, so went to an information desk who told us which route to take and which bus stop to stand at.  We then went outside and looked at the signs and told the man which bus we wanted.  I paid him roughly ~$15 USD per person, which was MUCH CHEAPER than Tokyo.  The bus took about an hour to get to the Samseong station, which isn’t a “station” per se but just a bus stop.  Once we got off the bus, we saw the Park Hyatt on the other side of the intersection and walked.

 

Checking in

We walked into the lobby and was escorted up to the 55th floor or so to the lobby.  While we were staying as a Guest of Honor, we did get “upgraded” to a park view.  I asked them for a suite upgrade, but the checkin agent told me they did NOT upgrade Globalist members into suites, even though this hotel isn’t on the exclusion list.  We were told about the breakfast benefit, but wasn’t told about the free happy hour from 6-8pm every night in the basement bar (we accidentally found out one day when we came back one day and rode the elevator with 2 men holding wine glasses.  When we got to the lobby level, no one was working there, so we decided to ride the elevator back down and the person getting in with us just so happened to work for the Park Hyatt and told us about the happy hour.)

I also found out from the concierge the first day that they also will give you a metro card loaded with enough credit for about 2 one-way trips.  This saves you from having to buy a new card.  I did top up the cards a few times since we rode the subway pretty often.

Another benefit I found out just by happenstance was that they will pay for a taxi to drop you off at the bus station for your trip back to the airport.  

 

Room

The room was pretty nice.  Great view.  I liked how you could take a bath and look outside even though you probably wouldn’t do that.  The wifi was fine.  When we got back from dinner the first night, there were some chocolates on a plate for us.  There was no recognition of our anniversary even though I had emailed with the general manager prior to my stay.

 

Breakfast

The breakfast buffet was very nice.  They had a huge buffet with Korean items like bulgogi and kimchi.  Plus, you could also order off the menu as well.  Definitely better than the Park Hyatt Tokyo benefits-wise.  The food was pretty solid too with some cured meats, fresh fruit, and freshly squeezed juices.  I’d argue it’s even better than the Andaz Tokyo’s breakfast minus the passion fruit.

 

 

Conclusion

I thought the room was nice.  Breakfast was GREAT.  Location was only decent.  The service was a bit lacking with me having to figure out benefits on my own.  I wish they had a sheet showing all the benefits.  Would I stay here again?  Probably not; I’d pick a hotel closer to the “action.”

 

Pictures