Ein Bär auf Reisen

As you may have read, I spent a couple of days in Seoul, South Korea, recently.

The hotel of my choice was the ‘Millennium Seoul Hilton’, recommended by friends as well as good reviews on various forums.

A couple of days prior to my arrival I sent an eMail to the hotel to ask for an early checkin. Our flight arrived at 06:30 in the morning and the typical checkin time at hotels is 02:00 p.m. A couple of hours later I got the confirmation eMail. Wow, nice. Thank you.

Indeed, we arrived at 08:30 a.m. at the hotel and everything was prepared.

I found my room reasonable spacious and the bed was heavenly comfortable and large.

A large and very comfortable bed!

Work desk.

The Room Control Center :-)

Power outlets in the bath room. Even if I do not need the 110V sockets I like the availability.

Welcome letter and a box of chocolates.

View out of my window.

There was a large model railroad in the basement.

This a huge rotating tree.

The Hotel offers two Executive Lounges with soft drinks during the day and  Evening Cocktails.

HHonors Diamond members  are offered the choice for breakfast in the Lounge or at the regular breakfast restaurant. We choose the restaurant and it was a good choice. Plenty of cold and warm items, live cooking (waffles, eggs, omelettes etc.), healthy juice etc. Awesome.

Every single staff member was extremely friendly and attentive. Bell Boy, checkin staff, Roomservice, restaurant, Concierge. Everyone.

So I felt very comfortable at this hotel. Remember, it is ‘just’ a Hilton, not a Conrad. Crazy in comparison with the Conrad Istanbul.

You can find more pictures in my travel photo gallery.

Regards,
Dieter

A couple of days ago I stayed for one night at the Hilton family hotel Conrad in Istanbul. Until then I stayed only at two other Conrad hotels: Singapore and Tokyo. As I absolutely love the Conrad Singapore, my expectations prior to the arrival at the Conrad Istanbul were very high.

Unfortunately my expectations were way too high. I would rather see this property as a Hilton Garden Inn or at best a regular Hilton. Just my personal opinion based on the impression I got during checkin, Executive Lounge, Room and Breakfast.

The Lounge is relatively small for this huge hotel, it was in the evening and for breakfast difficult to get seats for three people. Breakfast was limited and hot items like scrambled eggs or sausages always empty.

Being only a Hilton HHonors Diamond guest I got as most times no room upgrade other than a small room in the Executive Floor. Compared to the regular room of friends of mine I could not figure out any difference.

Even during checkout I’d to debate about getting an invoice for my prepaid room charges.

Here some pictures:

The mattress quality was very poor.

They sell this bear….

Very impersonal welcome letter….

View out of my room

Roof garden executive lounge.

I always thought that the different little Bears I got in Singapore and Tokyo are kind of a gift representing the Conrad brand. I do not expect something nor am I dependent on some freebees but I’ll never forget the link between the bears and the corresponding hotels.

It’s not a hotel to return soon.

I am looking forward to my stay at the Conrad Singapore next week.

Regards,
Dieter