Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Seoul

View from the Wing highlighted an amazing promotional fare yesterday, roundtrip on United Airlines from the US to Seoul. If you took advantage of the deal and are planning your trip now, what hotel will you stay at?

Last summer I decided to make the Park Hyatt Seoul my home base for a few days while exploring South Korea. It is smack dab in the middle of the Gangnam financial district and directly across the street from the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX). After an easy 60 minute ride on the subway from Incheon airport,  the subway conveniently stopped two minutes away from the hotel at the Samseong station.

I checked in to the hotel via the lobby on the 24th floor. The inside of the stone and concrete structure felt cool and welcoming on a scorching summer day.

As a Hyatt Diamond I’d used a confirmed suite upgrade. The room was ready, but when I entered I found two Twin beds instead of a King as requested. I was traveling with my husband but we were tired from the long flight. I accepted the room just so we could have a quick meal and a good sleep, but once in the room we found heavy boxes scattered around. An inquiry to reception resulted in a staff member immediately dispatched to remove the boxes. It seemed they had been using the room as a storage location for bottled water and other goods.

During the box-removal process, we were told that another room had suddenly become available with a King bed. The room layout was identical, and now we had our preferred bed type!

Hyatt Diamond members get the option of either a food/beverage amenity or 1000 Gold Passport points upon check-in. I decided on the food/beverage which was waiting in the new room. It turned out to be a bottle of traditional Soju with some drink cups, cracker/cookies, and a little card describing the drink. The amenity was very interesting, and I was glad I hadn’t chosen the points.

For our earlier room troubles, I was also surprised to receive a very nice bottle of Perrier Jouet on ice. Cheers!

The cupboards in the front room were full of dinnerware, and some fresh fruit had been laid out. There was also a very well stocked mini-bar.

The suite was designed in an open fashion, so that full-length floor to ceiling windows lined one full side of the suite, and you could easily pass into the bedroom from the other rooms on either side of the bed.

The views were entertaining since the hotel sits at the corner of a busy intersection, but the hot sun streaming in the room heated things up quickly and I left the blinds closed for most of the day.

The closet was thoughtfully hidden in the wall, so that when closed it appeared to have disappeared.

Staring straight in to the shower and bathtub from the bedroom added to the open feel (also in the room with two twin beds), but if two people were  traveling together and needed more privacy, a different room would be a better choice.

The bathroom was a combination of glass, chrome, and rustic rock. It was large, totalling about a third of the suite. The bathroom amenities were Aesop, and there was a loofah and salts for the bath. There was also a mirror TV placed at the foot of the bath at just the right height so you could watch TV while taking a bath.

Because there are different elevator banks used to access different floors, if I was in a hurry to get from the room to outside I had to allow some extra time.

In conclusion, I really loved this hotel. The room was clean, the staff was courteous throughout our stay and seemed genuinely happy to have us there.  I was glad to have tried this hotel and enjoyed the hospitality, but in the future I think I’d pick a hotel closer to my planned activities. The only disappointment was that even though the hotel was centrally located for businesses, most tourist activities were not nearby.

Park Hyatt Seoul