Nouvelle Hotel Seoul Itaewon

Joe was great and very accommodating, and the service was otherwise pretty good. The front desk guy never smiled, though I later found out he’d worked three shifts in a row, so I can excuse that. Breakfast and the rooms were okay, and the hotel is close to the subway as advertised. Still, this is definitely not a family place, and I wouldn’t bring children here. The street is dark and small, with bars and nightclubs along it. There were no bath towels, the robes were worn out, and the shower curtains had mold.

The only real convenience was the location, right in the middle of the main street. My wife and I booked a room with two beds, but it was unbelievably tiny. I had to turn sideways to squeeze between the bed and wall to get to the window, and duck under the wall-mounted TV, which seemed bigger than the room. Soundproofing was awful. We heard all kinds of moaning through the night, and the place felt more like a quickie motel. Hygiene was poor too. I sprayed the toilet seat as I normally do in hotels, then lifted it and saw dirty stains all over.

The hotel itself was fine, but I’m traveling for work and had booked five days. A few hours before I was due to arrive, I learned that the company I was meant to meet on my fifth and final day had to cancel because of the US government shutdown. It was outside my control, and I was already staying four nights, so I hoped the front desk might understand and offer even a small refund, maybe 50% or something. Banks around the world are letting people affected by the shutdown defer payments and such. They ultimately said no, which was really frustrating. A little flexibility would help guests feel welcome instead of like transactions. I can’t give a great rating because of this, but I’d be happy to update it if they contact me and discuss it.

The hill up to the hotel is really steep, so getting a suitcase there was extremely hard. The bathroom was full of mold, and I couldn’t sleep because of loud moaning and nonstop noise from next door. The front desk staff felt cold and didn’t even smile. I won’t stay here again.