Review Novotel Seoul Ambassador Gangnam

This was my 2nd stay in this great hotel. I enjoyed the 1st (2 years ago), but liked this one even better as the hotel has been renovated in between. It has received a certificate of excellence 2015 from TripAdvisor. I choose this one when I go to Seoul, as it is close to my local offices.

Location

It is located in the vibrant area of Gangnam, adjacent to the Ritz Carlton. It has a club lounge which has been extended with the renovation and I will give more details about it (+ pics) in the lounge thread (seehere).

Check In

A few days before stay, I had requested by e-mail an early check-in (9 am) which was granted without problem. When I arrived, I mentionned to the doorman who was bringing me to the front desk with my luggage that I was Platinum and so if we could go to the lounge. As soon as I had said the magic word platinum , we turned right to the elevators and within seconds, we were in the lounge (16th floor) where I was immediately greeted by my name (I have to say I was speechless !). Check-in was rapid. A letter explaining the Plat benefits was given (see picture : includes lounge access of course, 5 mini-bar items per day and 10% reduction on F&B outside room service). Drink voucher was given.

Room

I had booked a Premier Executive room and when I arrived in my room, I thought oh BTW, she didn’t mention any upgrade . The room was very nice for a Novotel and I liked it (see pictures below) but before doing any de-packing, I immediately went on-line and saw that the upper category (suite Premier) was available. So back to the lounge to ask, she checked and confirmed I can be upgraded and apologized for not having done it immediately (she told me that it was because I requested an early check-in and that they favored that versus the upgrade because they were not sure the suite would be available at that time. But as I arrived finally around 10:30, the suite was ready). My stuff was moved within minutes by the staff to the new room. And I was very happy with it. As I stayed 3 nights, I had time to enjoy it.

Pictures of the Premier Executive room













Pictures of the Premier Suite
The 1st room has independent toilets. The main bathroom has toilets, shower and bath tub. Bathrobe and slippers are provided. Plenty of storage place. Mini-bar and Nespresso machine (2 free capsules per day and not per stay as in Pullman Phuket Naithon beach !), a bluetooth speaker, 2 TVs.



























Look at the phone charger device placed on the bed side table. To all hotels : please put this everywhere !!!



View from the Suite :

Dining

One of the rare negative thing I have to say for this review is that they do not serve breakfast anymore in the lounge. So you have to go to the main BF restaurant on the 2nd floor. Very good buffet with a large choice.

Service

All staff with whom I had interaction was great and ready to help.

Overall

So, in summary, an excellent Accor hotel in Seoul which I recommend, if the location in Gangnam is suitable for your needs. Give me plenty of Novotels like this one !

This was a business stay for 4 nights. Third stay there but the last one was in 2015…Overall stay was good but a big disappointment about the club lounge (see below for more details).

The hotel has not changed at all since my last stay and everything is still in very good conditions after the 2014-2015 renovation and the covid period. The hotel was very busy when I was there (in March).

Room

I booked a Deluxe room and was upgraded to Executive Room on the Executive floor, close to the lounge entrance. The room decoration is quite pleasant compared to standards European Novotels. Atmosphere is much warmer. Room amenities included bathrobe, slippers, espresso machine. 

Welcome amenity and note :

Service

the hotel has a robot in the main lobby, for in-room deliveries. Welcome to Asia ! I saw it in operations when I was there.

Dining

The disappointment came from the lounge : it still exists but is basically useless. There is no service at all, even in the evening. The lounge is unmanned most of the time. There is a note at the welcome desk to pick-up the phone in case of any question and need. The breakfast is taken at the main restaurant on 1st floor and happy hour cocktail time is served at the main bar on ground floor (from 17:00 to 19:00), but nobody explained that to me neither at check-in, nor at the bar when I signed a check for a drink (and there was no sign at all at the bar mentioning this). In fact, I discovered the happy hour thing at the bar on the note I was given at check-in, but it was the last day and too late to benefit from it. Drink voucher can be used at this bar for the usual drinks.

The breakfast buffet offers a large choice of good quality items. Free Diamond breakfast was well respected, and it’s a valuable benefit when you see how much they charge for this (55,000 KRW = 37 € !!).

Another weak point is that dinner service ends at 21:00. That’s ridiculous in an international hotel, although room service remains available after that time. The main restaurant (where you have breakfast) serves also buffet lunch and dinner at insane prices (120,000 KRW = 82€)…

The bar on ground floor serves also (cheaper) food but a very limited choice and only western dishes (pasta, pizzas, sandwiches), which is a real shame, and also only till 21:00.

Overall

Overall, a good stay but they need absolutely to bring back the lounge to normal operations and work on their food offer price and time of operations. I don’t know if the hotel still justify this “by Covid”, but if the case, that’s ridiculous : occupancy was very high and things are definitely back to normal.