Sotasuite Sokcho World Sky

Good location and good value, plus there’s a convenience store on the first floor.

The location was good, and the rooms were nice, if a little small.

It’s a large hotel, with a convenience shop on the first floor.

The hotel and rooms looked great, and the view was stunning. My room had a huge refrigerator, microwave, and washing machine, and the location was very good. There’s a convenience store right below the lobby, parking was always available, and the staff combined my two separately booked nights into one reservation. Getting help was much harder. We arrived late at night to find no one at reception. The woman at the lobby convenience store pointed out a number to call, but they took a while to answer because I was calling from a non-Korean number. The man who picked up didn’t know English, though he tried to communicate. I know a little Korean, but not enough, so he eventually came over, checked us in, explained the parking, and sorted out the reservation. We used Google Translate and the chat GPT to talk. The next morning we needed to drive out and return at noon, but again nobody was at reception. Two Koreans working in the building helped call the man who opens the parking lot. The process depended on SMS messages, which we couldn’t send with our phone plan. The hotel staff member on the phone also didn’t know English, and it took a long time to get the parking opened. Since we wanted to go out again later that day, we were worried about getting stuck with the same problem, so we stayed in. That was very annoying. At checkout the following morning, there was still no one at reception. We had to plead for help and rely on awkward conversations in Korean and English, with my half-Korean doing what he could, to get the parking opened so we could leave and check out. I realized the whole setup was self-service for check-in, checkout, and parking by SMS, but I hadn’t received a text because I don’t have their app. I think it would’ve been different with a Korean phone number and stronger Korean. The hotel itself is beautiful and the rooms are great, but the service was too difficult for us. We probably won’t return.