I have a soft spot for Conrad. The soft spot led me back to Conrad Seoul despite a less than stellar
Check-in: 2016/01/08
Check-out: 2016/01/10
The Good Stuff
Before I start whining, here are the nice things about Conrad Seoul.
- Delicious food. Breakfast at the executive lounge was the only exception.
- Very thoughtful to provide toothbrushes in different colors.
- Bell hops, and others in the lobby were observant enough to anticipate guests' needs. Impressive.
Perks? No, Yes, and No
Conrad offers HHonors "Gold" members a free upgrade to preferred rooms (insert the usual fine-print here.) Conrad Seoul was the exception in that no free-upgrade was offered when I took advantage of the year-end (2015) sale and booked a prepaid, non-refundable "Premium Riverview room" via the official hiltonhotels.com site.
The HHonors app on my phone also said that upgrades weren't available at this property. That's fine, as each property has its own rules. So, I rolled the die and used e-Standby for upgrades. Though e-Standby upgrades weren't guaranteed, prices were reasonable, and the upgrade requests are usually granted. So far, only once out of 30 times was my e-standby request denied due to full capacity. I chose to upgrade from "Premium River-view room" to any one of these:
- King Executive with Lounge Access
- King Executive Riverview with Lounge Access
- Grand King Executive Corner Suite
I don't know why/when/how it happened but my reservation was upgraded to a "Premier Riverview Executive Room." I noticed it on the HHonors app a few days before the trip. Thinking it was a mistake, I left it.
I wasn't the only one puzzled by the mysterious upgrade. It also puzzled the nice lady who processed my check-in. Upon seeing my e-Standby requests, she said I "...already have access to the executive lounge..." implying 2 of the 3 e-Standby options were invalid.
As for my third option, the Executive Corner Suite was only available for 1 of the 2 nights I was there. She asked if I still wanted the Executive Corner Suite because she could offer it to me if I were to pay one night of the e-Standby upgrade fee. It was too good of a deal so I asked her why only one night of the upgrade fee and she said because the Executive Corner Suite was available for Friday night only, the night I arrived. I suspected that all corner suites were the same and by listing me in the lounge access list, she would make it an Executive Corner Suite. It was a good deal so I took it. I wanted the extra space for meetings.
I didn't realize my mistake till I saw the bill at check-out; I was charged 2 full nights of the e-Standby rates. That was the price if the mysterious upgrade didn't occur and I would have paid that much to go from a "Premium Riverview Room" to an Executive Corner Suite.
With hindsight, that lady must have meant the figure she had noted in the check-in form was a per-night upgrade rate. But I distinctively remembered that here was no "/night" or equivalent notation on that form which I'd signed. Also, why did she mention that the suite was available only for one night?
My
pet peeves with the mysterious upgrade are that (1) it confused all involved, (2) the upgrade had not affected the e-Standby rates. In my case, the price to go from an "Executive Riverview Room" to an "Executive Corner Suite" should have been less than going from a "Premium Riverview Room."
There is no free lunch after all.
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| Dislodged light fixture. |
Night 1 (Friday)
The spacious corner suite was impressive. Perfect for the intensive meetings I had planned for the weekend.
The "club sandwich" from room service was delicious. Service was prompt and courteous. A good start to the weekend. Unfortunately, the first of many something-is-wrong-with-this-picture moments occurred soon after.
Putting on the bathrobe after a shower, I first felt, then saw a long strand of hair protruding from the mouth of the right sleeve. I have always wondered how often those bathrobes get laundered. Apparently, not often enough. Found more strands of similar looking hair in the garbage bin. The previous female guest had left me an unwanted souvenir. Call me fastidious, but this was worse than finding hair in my food. Had to take another shower.
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| But, where is the bag? |
Before retiring for the night, I further noticed the following:
- Lighting fixture at the back of the shelf had dislodged from its intended location.
- Memo pad on the desk was upside down, and needed a refill as it was down to its last 2 or 3 sheets. Last time, I had whined about how there was only one memo pad in the room with two phones (not counting the phone in the bathroom.) This time, it was good to find a pad by both of the phones in the bedroom. But the sitting room was note-pad free. An improvement of sorts, but no cigar.
- The service menu, the one with room service menu, lists of restaurants etc., was filed upside-down in its binder.
- There was a "Shoeshine Service" card on the tray in the closet saying "Please place your shoes in the bag and call Conrad Service for collection." But, where is the bag?
- The wood wall panel next to the safe needed repairs. Like the above mentioned dislodged lighting fixture, it had become unstuck.
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| Upside-down pocket. |
Day 1 (Saturday)
Still Continental
Breakfast at the executive lounge was disappointing, for the lack of improvements since my March 2015 visit. It had the exact same, 2-choice western breakfast meats; lukewarm pork sausages and bacon. The cook-to-order egg station couldn't soften the disappointment.
I'd stayed at the Millennium Seoul Hilton in September 2015. Its executive lounge breakfast offerings were much better, with more western and Asian breakfast choices.
My previous verdict stands; Conrad Seoul executive lounge essentially serves continental breakfasts only.
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| Forgotten pillow. |
Substandard housekeeping, again.
Left my room around noon, returning a little before 15:00. Surprisingly, the room had yet to be serviced. Called Conrad Service to get it serviced, and left the room again. When I returned an hour later, the room was serviced, but in an obvious hurry.
- A pillow was left on the the day-bed/couch.
- Used bathmat, still damp, was left on the floor (though a fresh one was provided.)
- Hand soap was not replenished, though bath-soap was.
- Cotton buds were not replenished.
- Oily smudges were left on the window, possibly from the forehead of previous guest(s).
- Last time, I had suggested Conrad Seoul to consider using less plastic. So, it was encouraging to see the laundry bag was now made of cloth. Sadly, housekeeping had replenished it with a plastic one. Is Conrad Seoul in transition from plastic to non-plastic ones?
Moreover, the dislodged light fixture, the upside-down service menu, the upside-down notepad that needed a refill, were left exactly as the night before. The missing shoe-bag was still missing. Alas, the housekeeper didn't forget the tip I'd left for her/him.
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| Upside-down pad. |
Day 2 (Sunday)
Decided to skip the disappointing executive lounge breakfast service and opted for an early working-lunch before leaving Seoul. A little before 11:00, asked Conrad Service when Atrio would open. The helpful lady said lunch service was from 11:00 and that she would proceed to make a reservation for me. Before hanging up, she corrected herself and said Atrio opened from 11:30. That was fine and she made a 11:30 reservation for me.
When my client and I showed up at Atrio for my 11:30 reservation, we waited a tad to be met at the door. When the maître d' finally appeared, she said the restaurant would open from 12:00 p.m. I said I had a 11:30 reservation, a reservation made by Conrad Service. She repeated that lunch is from 12:00 and gestured for me to see a few wait staff busy cleaning up after the just-finished breakfast service.
Returned to my room and phoned Conrad Service. A few minutes later the person who "made" the reservation phoned me and apologized for the mix-up. She then made a 12:00 pm reservation for me. No explanation was given as to how she could have "made" a 11:30 reservation when the restaurant didn't open till 12:00. I wondered if she had actually made a reservation. If she had, she would have caught on earlier, and would have called me in my room before I left.
When we showed up again my 12:00 reservation, all the desirable tables were already taken. I asked if I could take a table close to the window. The helpful waitress suggested another one as a baby was expected to join the table next to the one I'd wanted. We were then led to the middle of the restaurant. I noted that we weren't shown to a particular, reserved table. We were just led to whichever one available. I wondered again if Conrad Service actually made a reservation for me.
A very bored, annoyed, and loud toddler was seated next to our table minutes later, making conversation difficult. (His parents were trying to entertain him by playing music or video loudly.) It's ironic that the original table I'd wanted by the window was actually quieter as the baby there was peaceful. I wonder why I was advised against taking the preferred table and the wait staff then proceeded to seat a toddler next to me, especially when less than half of the restaurant was filled.
Just when I thought the loud toddler was distracting, a very loud announcement in Korean came over the hotel-wide, P.A. system. It was so loud that it drowned out all conversations in the restaurant, the background music, and the toddler's crying. Not understanding Korean, I thought there was an emergency and that we had to evacuate. My client, a native Korean, explained that the announcement was for summoning guests to a wedding party as the ceremony was about to begin.
My client further added that it was unusual, actually surprising, for such an announcement to be made in a high-end hotel. Apparently such announcements are often heard in wedding halls.
A few minutes later, the same announcement repeated, with the same loudness. Only after the second time, did the wait staff go around to apologize and explain to non-Koreans like me what it was about. I was just glad it wasn't an emergency.
The wait staff seemed overwhelmed, as there were plenty of running around, and service seemed rushed. Our waitress asked my client at least twice if she was done with her food when obviously she wasn't. Obvious because of how my client had positioned the knife and fork and that there was still food on the plate.
The food was delicious and the ingredients were fresh. Quality food wasn't enough to save the day nonetheless.
On the way out, my client pointed out the open/close times which were stenciled on the glass door; "Lunch: 11:30 ~ 14:00" Much later, I noticed that on the back of my room key-card folder, it also stated that the lunch service at Atrio was from 11:30.
From the ghost-reservation, to the very loud Korean announcement, it was a bizarre experience.
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| Panel needs glue. Arrows point to gap. |
Changes
Here's the list of suggestions from last time and their
current status.
- Shape up housekeeping. No change, needs a lot of work.
- State that executive floor room guests are entitled to "complimentary continental breakfast" It's better to pleasantly surprise guests with the limited hot dishes than to disappoint them. It's commonly referred to as "manage expectation." No change.
- Going hi-tech is good, but don't forget about low-tech stuff, like providing more than one memo pad. There are two phones in the room so why not provide a memo-pad next to each phone? Why only one memo pad next to the bedside phone, and not the desk? Partially improved and there are still questions.
- Use less plastic; replace plastic laundry bags, and plastic bags the slippers come in with paper/cloth ones. Not sure about this one as both plastic and cloth laundry bags were sighted.
Get group addresses for customer-facing personnel/groups. Staff members should answer emails with "on behalf of" function of corporate email systems. Well done!- Re-instate the Conrad-signature rubber duck and Conrad Bear. No change. The photos of various rooms on the hotel website still feature the Conrad Bear prominently. Either reinstate the bear, or update the photos.
- Built-into-bathroom-mirror TV struggled to stream cable/satellite stations. Improvements of sorts, as it had fewer cable/satellite channels. The Discovery Channel looked smooth. There were many blank, tuned-to-nothing channels. Also, the same terrestrial station would appear multiple times on the clicker.
New Suggestions.
- Introduce turn-down service.
- Make your guests feel welcomed. It's all in the details; like the fresh fruits and the "welcome" message found in Conrad Hong Kong. Or, in the case of the Millennium Seoul Hilton, a hand-written "welcome back" note from its general manager for returning guests. They didn't have fresh fruits but the few pieces of chocolate was a nice touch.
Conclusion
My second stay at Conrad Seoul was, like the strand of hair on the bathrobe, full of surprises. Like my lunch at Atrio, it was at times comical. I still have a soft spot for the Conrad brand. But it isn't soft (strong?) enough to take me back to Conrad Seoul for the third time.
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| Nice details at Conrad Hong Kong. |
