RAMADA HOTEL SEOUL

According to its web, the Ramada Hotel Seoul was renovated in February 2004, although the bellboy who brought my suitcase to the room, told me the room had been recently refurbished, so... everything was new.

The hotel is in the heart of Kangnam business area, Samsung-dong, within a short walk of COEX. Location is good for business, but far away from the city centre. It is close, however, to a main road where there are plenty of shops...

My first experience was not positive. I arrived at 2.30 pm, and was told the room was STILL not ready. But they sent me to the Executive Room to have a complementary drink and some nibbles... which made my wait really short and bearable.

Staff was extremely helpful and all spoke good English. If you go to Seoul and you need to get a taxi, you need to have as much information in the local language as possible. So the extremely helpful lady in the Executive Room wrote for me the addresses I needed to visit for work.

I wanted to be adventurous and catch the Underground, but I though that with so little people speaking English, and the underground being a bit confusing to get to, (7 minute walk from Seolleung Station, Subway Line 2 or 10 minute walk from Gangnam-gu Office Station, Subway Line 7) I would probably have some problems... So opted for taxi.

The bellboy told me the room had been recently renovated, therefore everything was new. The bed was comfortable, flat TV, the bathroom well equipped. Big towels, soaps, tissues, complementary water... Even the reservation I had included free broadband Internet connection. The room was really quiet, despite the fact that there were construction works just opposite the hotel. It even had a PC available in the room, so you need not take your laptop... (but I used my own...), specially having no mobile phone. The band used in the country is still not compatible with our system...

Like with many hotels in Seoul, the Ramada has a Limousine KAL Bus shuttle (3B) that takes you from the Airport to the hotel in about 75 minutes, and drops you just outside the hotel. It costs 14000 one way and on the way back to the airport, you can get it in the same place, although it takes you to the Intercontinental hotels (COEX) prior to heading to the airport.

I would go back, without any doubt.

RAMADA HOTEL SEOUL
112-5 Samsung-dong,
Kangnam-ku,
135-090 Seoul,
South Korea
Tel: 82-2-6202-2000 Fax: 82-2-6202-2001

CARLTON HOTEL SINGAPORE

It is clearly a no-way-they-are-going-to-see-me-again-there hotel. Was I glad to get away!!!

A stop over in Singapore, with Singapore Airlines took me to this Carlton Hotel, in the Raffles area of the city. The first thing is that is undergoing expansion works, therefore, there was no reception in the ground floor. Staff were waiting for you in the entrance to take you to the provisional Reception Desk on the 6th floor... This was the beginning of the nightmare. The concierge took control of my luggage, while I got to reception. I was promised it would be sent to my room later.

Reception staff was hardly helpful. In fact, after 3 weeks in Asia, where by politeness, everyone says yes to anything that comes out of your mouth, staff here, were the "NO" Type. They put me in a twin room. I asked to get a big bed instead. No... Hotel is full... As if... The conversations were as if I was talking to trainees. They were all extremely young, I suppose cheaper to pay and there was no one who seemed to be the senior.

I asked if they could add points to my frequent flyer card, as advertised in a panel in the reception. No, the booking has been done via a travel agent

They told me that breakfast was not included... When my reservation clearly stated the price included breakfast... "No... reservation is done without breakfast".

I was given the key and sent to the 11th floor. But my key didn't work, so back to the 6th floor to get it fixed. New key given and back to the 11th. This time, I was lucky. It worked. My room was 1116, next to the lifts, so the "Cliiiiiing" of the lift arriving was noticeable all the time. My room, was facing the works, therefore, it was noisy, as the windows, clearly were not properly isolated. In fact, you could even get the noise of the planes taking off...

As my suitcase didn't arrive, I decided to go to get something to eat. On my return, about 1 hour and a half later, my suitcase was STILL NOT THERE... I had to call the concierge to ask for it...

The room was rather basic. The carpet looked really old, slightly dirty, and there were no sleepers available, so, I was a bit concerned to walk barefooted. Asia tends to offer complementary water... Over here, not even a "mirage" of it.

I had a shower and when going to get dry, noticed that the towels were unpleasantly stinking, as if they had been washed with dirty water and got dry. That made me go and complain, yet again.

They key kept not working, which made me quite worked up about it, having to go to reception to complain and complain. In the end, they came to my room with me "to show me I didn't know how to use a magnetic key". It worked for them...

The cleaner came in the morning, asking me if she could come in and do the room. I told her I was leaving that afternoon, and she said... "It's ok; I can do it for you, if you want". I said... help yourself. Strange... Nothing to complain about... (1st thing).

If you wanted to stay in, you had an old TV with some TV stations, most of them Chinese and the odd one European and English speaking. Unlike most hotels, if you wanted to see a movie, there was no free movie channel (HBO, Star, AXN...) that normally are available. Over in the "generous" (not) Carlton, you had to pay to watch a movie. Not even MTV or similar was available.

From the window, I could see the swimming pool and its floor was way far from being clean...

The worst part of it is that it wasn't cheap and I was staying there on a Stop-over from Singapore Airlines. Clearly, this airline would really have to reconsider whether to allow this hotel to be somehow related to them. Very poor image they are giving. Maybe it is also a sign that Singapore Airlines could be changing?

CARLTON HOTEL SINGAPORE

76 Bras Basah Road

189558 - Singapore

Tel: +65 6338-8333

SHERATON TAIPEI

The Sheraton Taipei is a very good 5 star hotel. Welcome is extremely friendly and efficient. Rooms spacious. There are up to 9 restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French...) to choose from. Although breakfast buffet has wide choice, but oriented mainly to the Asian...

Location is good. Only 5 minutes walk from Central Station, where you can get the Taiwanese High Speed train. And... if you don'r feel like walking you can get the MRT to the station... o to the 101 proximity... The station is... just there.

While the corridors are rather dimmed, the rooms are very tastefully decorated. Flat TV in the room, (my reservation included free broadband), a very comfortable bed, little livingroom, comlementary water and fruit in the room... The bathroom included all sorts of bits and bobs... Funnily, the bathroom was very modern decorated, whereas the room was a bit more classic.

I requested an early call in the morning... and they were on time. I hate when the call me 10 minutes earlier than what I say. As I say... staff really efficient and helpful.

I recommend this hotel, without any doubt.

SHERATON TAIPEI HOTEL
No.12, Zhongxiao East Rd. Sec.1,
Taipei 100,
Taiwan, Republic of China
Email: sheraton@sheraton-taipei.com
Tel +886-2-23215511
Fax +886-2-23944240