Mixture of good and not so good at the Shilla Seoul. Firstly, I was a bit disappointed to see that the Shilla Seoul was a not very nice looking brick eye-sore. From the photos, I had envisioned a low rise with traditional architecture. Perhaps this was my bad for not looking at the photos properly. Anyway, rooms are average size, comfortable bed, everything is in excellent condition and the shower is superb, easy to get the right temperature and just the right amount of pressure! Gotta start the day well with a good shower! Service is good, but honestly I felt this hotel was a little bit stuck-up, but nothing really too bad and not to the point of being a complaint. My one complaint would be I waited over 10 minutes for the concierge to explain directions to an elderly couple who, to be fair to the concierge, kept asking questions. There were other staff around that surely could have helped. Normally this would be ok, but I was with our 4 year old son and we were looking to head up N Seoul Tower and needed to know if it was walking distance to the top. We abandoned the concierge and then just walked up for an hour, not a problem but would have been good to know before leaving. Some of the staff are almost too attentive.
The best part of the Shilla Seoul is the breakfast, something for most nationalities and tastes, and the selection is huge. One Indian fella seemed to be disappointed – if you’re not pleased with this breakfast, you won’t be pleased with any breakfast at any hotel in the world. It doesn’t get any better than this. There are however, lots of people. The last day we were there, Sunday, I’ve never seen so many people eating a breakfast and when we left there was a massive line waiting to get in.
Would we stay here again at the Shilla Seoul? Actually probably not. Overall it’s a good hotel but the location is over an hour from the airport and apart from the breakfast, there was nothing that screamed “come back and stay”. If I had a business meeting near that area or we wanted to see attractions nearby on our next visit to Seoul, yes, we would have no problem staying here again, but probably on next visit I think we’d find a different place to stay. If you’re thinking about staying here, I don’t think you’ll find much to complain about and probably won’t be disappointed.
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