I tried to make a reservation via accore group website. As a Korean with American green card, I knew that non-residents in Korea do not need to pay hotel tax (10%). When I tried to make a reservation in the website, the sum included 10% tax. Hence, I called the hotel to make sure about the tax policy. The reservation desk told me that I have to pay tax due to my nationality (Korea). I explained about the regulation and prior experiences in other hotels. She said, "other hotels might do a favor for you. But that is not our policy." I explained all legal stuffs regarding that zero-tax program and she simply ignored it. Then, the issue was not about money at all, but the attitude problem and incapability to deal with government regulations that favor visitors from outside. I formally wrote an email letter to the hotel. Three days later, a 'complain specialist' sent me an email, apologizing their mistake. The problem was that he added a line that "we found out the mistake immediately after your initial call and tried to reach you via phone to offer a proper explanation. But you did not receive our phone calls twice." It was an outrageous white lie as I stayed in my office until 11 pm (until 6 pm in Seoul). If they did call me, why not receive a message? The email was something like, 'it was your mistake not receiving our call.' The email was formally polite but extremely arrogant in its implication. I was one click away from making a reservation but decided to stay in another hotel. I have never been there. But, my reservation experience proves that this hotel is not accurate in information and not honest in their attitude.

My husband and I visited Korea for our first part of the honeymoon and sofitel made it better. We had originally booked our stay in Dragon Hotel in Young San and we were very disappointed with the hotel we decided to change our plan. We searched online and came across really good internet deal from sofitel. We stayed for a week and it was awesome.
The staff was very friendly, helpful, spoke very good English. Not to mention to room. The room was very clean, a bit small, but had everything you needed. The bathroom was very nice, clean and the room was made everyday just like the way we walked into the first day. The room service was amazing! My husband and I had ordered two room services while we were there and the food was amazing! Great Korean food as well as great sandwiches and soup!
We took subway and taxi mostly, but very easy to get to anywhere. We did use the hotel's free shuttle service to couple attractions and took limo to airport. Very convenient and easy.
We're definately staying at Sofitel the next time we visit Korea.

I have to give this hotel only an average review. I try to be a pretty flexible guest, and try not to complain about anything. I was not happy overall with my stay and wouldn't recommend it until renovations to the fitness center are complete. The Sofitel is supposed to be the top of the line in the Accor chain but I was disappointed with this property. I had a colleague who stayed at the Ibis near the COEX convention center at the very same time, also an Accor property. He had a good experience at that hotel.

Be warned, the fitness center is undergoing renovation and is closed. This fact was not mentioned at check-in, nor was there anything in the room that noted this. I didn't know until the 2nd day after I called to try to book a massage, and later went there to use the facility. Access to a fitness center was a main reason I booked this property.

I would recommend this hotel if you are there for business meetings, but not tourism or shopping. It is close to the subway so that is a plus, but there are hotels which are more convenient.

The clerk at check convinced me to pay 22000 won extra for an "upgrade" which included a room on the Club foor and breakfast, although later I was told by staff that I couldn't use the Club floor lounge and would have to use the Business lounge. Despite being on the club floor my "upgrade" was for the business floors and not the club floors.

The breakfast was not bad, there was a large selection of Western, Japanese and Chinese options, but there was very little change from day to day, e.g. the same scambled eggs or pancakes or fruit salad every day. Service at breakfast wasn't great as they wouldn't go out of their way to offer you coffee or tea or see what you needed. I guess I was spoiled by some of the three star hotels I stayed at in China where service was better.

I had problems with the A/C in my room, temperature was between 73-75 even after running A/C all day. This wasn't a problem during the day, but at night it was a little too warm to be comfortable. I asked (politely) I thought if they could fix it or move me to another room but they did neither.

The rooms were very nice and comfortable on the club floor. The floor of the room was hardwood with a small carpet near the bed. There is a widescreen LCD in the room. The bathroom included both a tub and shower. All in all I was happy with the size of the room and amenities.

I wrote a review a few days ago describing my stay in the Sofitel Seoul. I have to update my review. The hotel did perfectly dealt with my complaint and reacted in the way, that the redeemed the overnight expenditure for the missing reservation and the more expensive upgrade they gave me instead.

I think this is a perect case to show that dealing with customer complaints makes the difference. I added this comment for Sofitel Ambassador because I would like to to give a full and fair rating. Very good experience.