Need

The lounge is nice when the wait at the Zest is over 1 hour long. The selections at the lounge is a lot less than Zest, but there are 2 things they have the lounge that Zest breakfast does not have: soda and dragon fruits.

And to the person who asked about award stay on 2 queen beds.. yes it is possible. I booked a room with 2 queens on award stay for a week. I got a corner room that could see both the river and the state building (barely visible).

kikid

Thank you Need! It's very helpful !

bamboola

For those who remember my adventures with the Zest bear, the hotel just emailed me a photo of the bear dressed for the holidays.

monahos

Soooo nice! ^

FT-hss

I have booked the first night as free night reward and the Hilton phone agent gave us a 2Q DLX accessible room as it was avl. Works great for family. Then DW booked 3 nights at 72K + 350$ as standard king. I will call in to merge into the first night. We are both Gold. My question is is there a ticket system for BF downstairs if we do not get upgrade to EL. Asking since I want to know if my kids will have any issues. I know for prior EL experience is that access to EL was controlled by the room key so my 2 kids could accompany me to BF. How does it work for kids if we were only given Zest or whatever normal (non-EL) option?

Need

Zest may charge you. I was charged 1 morning for my kid out of the 5 I was there. I tried to tell them my son was registered for the room, but they kept insisted he has to be billed. I just paid it. But then another morning, I have a guest over for breakfast, so there were 4 of us, I was billed for 1 kid instead of 1 adult.

anchor79

From Gimpo Airport to Conrad. Is it possible to be done via Subway? How long is the walk from station (if with luggages)?

Is it faster via Taxi? How much the fare will be?

NewbieRunner

I took Subway Line 5 (purple line) from Gimpo Airport to Yeouido which is connected to the IFC Mall at one end with the Conrad at the other end. The walk through the mall might take 7-8 minutes but no problem with luggage.

I don't know how long it would take by taxi but judging by the length of time it took the airport bus to get from the Conrad to ICN (which of course is further away) I cannot think taxi is faster than the subway.

monahos

That is a best case scenario, walking at a good clip with no luggage, and knowing the way. The key is to go in the right direction at the subway station, which is not immediately obvious. The actual walk is no problem, moving walkways and even floor all the way.

For a first-timer with luggage I'd recommend the limousine bus.

Time depends on traffic, which, coming from the airports, is worst in the morning rush hour.

NewbieRunner

I didn't actually time how long it took the first time but I had never been to the Conrad (or Seoul for that matter) before and it actually took longer to find the subway station at GMP than walking through the mall once I reached Yeouido. The only thing I wasn't sure was which escalator to go up based on the map I found on the hotel's website but the description below the map helped. "Go to L1 by taking the escalator up, which is located in front of 8 Seconds > Entrance to Conrad Seoul is located between Stradivarius and Bershka."

Need

If I remember correctly, the IFC mall is like a triangle. With the 3 sets of escalators at the 3 points, 1 goes to subway, 1 goes down to Food court and theatre, the last one go up to Conrad.

pschafer

I'm here at the Seoul Conrad right now and must admit while it is a great hotel in most respects (we have an executive club room with view - highest rated room before suites). I am not too happy about a few issues which are probably more Hilton issues per se.

These are:-

- in room WiFi at $25 pd (free in lounge) - AFAIK Hilton is the only chain not to offer free WiFi to all (or at least basic level program members) guest. Hilton is now on my black list until this issue is resolved.

- on completing my online reservation I was offered a "guaranteed" upgrade for around 13,000 points per night (this would have been a suite) - I declined as my rate (an AmEx special) also offered an upgrade subject to availability. So when I checked in I asked about this upgrade only to be told that it did not include suites and the room I had booked was the "highest" before suites. Well the rate offered an upgrade - I should have been advised on booking that no upgrade was possible. I then asked about the points upgrade only to met with a 'blank' look and a denial based on who knows what.

So while I am paying $600 per night - these special offers and perks no not apply.

The final issue which is more amusing than anything - on checking in, I was given a letter stating that on weekends (our stay was over a weekend) you needed to pre-book use of the pool - one entry per room per day for 1h45m due to overcrowding. Also, it advised it was best to have breakfast in the lounge well before 9am as it became over crowded as well. I have certainly never encountered such a thing at any other hotel in any country in my life.

monahos

I don't want to be an apologist for the hotel, but those issues are not really its fault, as you mentioned:

- internet access is so far only free for HH gold and diamond, across the whole chain. I agree Hilton is behind the competition there.

- your upgrade subject to availability was an Amex offer, not a Hilton one. It was Amex' job to inform you their deal with Hilton didn't extend to suites.

- the ~13k points upgrade you were offered was the infamous 'NOR1' upgrade, which is subject to availability, and only made available prior to check-in. This program is run by an outside contractor and used by several chains with the aim of increasing revenue per room; the hotel has no access to it, which explains the blank look you got. I doubt many hotel clerks are aware of it.

- the Conrad Seoul does get overrun by locals on weekends, as mentioned upthread. While their letter may have been awkwardly worded, it is true that the lounge gets unpleasantly crowded, and presumably the pool too, by customers intent on getting their money's worth for their one night stay away from their stressful daily life. The limits on pool usage keeps it from becoming a playground for the unruly spoilt children modeling their behavior on their freeloading parents...

NewbieRunner

As I posted earlier in the thread it's very pleasant on a nice day to leave the the Yeouido subway station through exit #3 to the street level and walk to the Conrad (the grey building in the centre of the photo).

pschafer

Just to be clear on the AmEx upgrade offer - it was on the Hilton web site - not booked via AmEx travel as some of their offers are - I may take it up with AmEx but these are the sort of issues one tends to forget about quickly.

While the 'NOR1' upgrade offer may be famous or infamous to some - I've never heard of it and again it was offered by the Hilton web site on booking so the facts you mention certainly were not clear.

It's now Sunday AM and we've not experienced any overcrowding in the lounge even though there are some guests who 'appear' to be locals.