It gets a little confusing here, don’t mistake Hotel Victoria Seoul with another accommodation with a similar name, Victoria Hotel Seoul. Victoria Hotel Seoul is located much further away from Seoul city while the accommodation I finally decided on and booked for my Korea trip, Hotel Victoria Seoul is located within Seoul city.
Hotel Victoria Seoul (formerly Hotel Tong Myeongdong) is hidden in a small alley, in between Subway and a Korean BBQ restaurant. It isn’t difficult to get to Hotel Victoria Seoul from Incheon International Airport with the many transport options and unlike Japan, transportation isn’t that expensive in Seoul. I booked a shared airport transfer from Klook and used the same service when I headed back, it cost about S$37+ per person for a one way trip.
I’m afraid this is almost like a complaint post about Hotel Victoria Seoul, the actual state of the single room I booked is quite different from the photos on Agoda. It may have been in a better condition, what is actually shown in the photos on Agoda when it’s under Hotel Tong’s management, I don’t know.
Hotel Victoria Seoul is still considered reasonably spacious with a walkway once you enter the room and basic amenities are also available but the room is a little dusty. The double-sized bed was clean and comfortable enough.
The dark green tiled bathroom of the single room at Hotel Victoria Seoul was old with bad ventilation so it gets misty in there quickly when you have hot showers. It reminds me of the old accommodations in Hong Kong.
The rubbish bin is too small. There’s a small bathtub which I will not use because it looks as if it hasn’t been cleaned or scrubbed in a long time, a shower and even a rain shower but the water pressure is low and small.
Hotel Victoria Seoul provides shower gel, shampoo & conditioner, toilet paper and towels which are sometimes not clean. They don’t do daily housekeeping or not that I know of, I have to self-service and get fresh clean towels from the storeroom outside on the same floor myself.
You can also find a kettle, cups, some instant green tea or Maxim coffee mix and bottled water. Once you’ve finished the bottled water in the room at Hotel Victoria Seoul, you can get more bottled water from the reception at the ground floor daily.
Because the single room at Hotel Victoria Seoul isn’t exactly soundproof, I hear a lot of noises from the corridor all the time. In the mornings, guests lugging their baggages and checking out from their rooms. At night, rowdy drunken men running up and down the corridor, I don’t even know what they were doing, people talking loudly, the worst is crying children. Luckily, I am not a light sleeper.
Hotel Victoria Seoul uses the old school metal keys for their room door locks. I remember there was this evening, I spent about half an hour trying to fix the main door lock for my room because I couldn’t close the door at all.
The condition of the room at Hotel Victoria Seoul isn’t the best around and let’s be honest, when we travel, most of the time isn’t spent in hotel rooms, it’s spent on exploring the place. We just need a comfortable place to clean up and have a good night’s rest.
I won’t deny that Hotel Victoria Seoul’s location is actually very good and convenient. It is very near the City Hall Subway Station though I have to walk up four flights of stairs from the subway at the basement when I go back every time, always spending some time catching my breath when I reach the top ground floor.
There are a lot of cheap and good food or restaurant options around. There’s a GS25 convenience store, Starbucks, Paris Baguette and Hollys Coffee where I get my favourite Sweet Potato Latte. In front of Hollys Coffee, there’s a bus stop with direct buses to Gyeongbokgung or Anguk areas. There’s also an Olive Young and Aritaum for you to get beauty essentials or do some last minute shopping. All within walking distance.
I think Hotel Victoria Seoul is considered at a CBD area with offices all around. It can be quite crowded in the day, especially on weekday afternoons when all the working people are out for lunch. At night and on the weekends, it’s much quieter and a lot of the F&B shops close earlier once it hits the after work hours at about 7pm to 8pm.
There are pros and cons staying at Hotel Victoria Seoul, after all I only paid about S$400 after the credit card promo code discount for 8 nights, that’s about S$50 per night, breakfast not included. I feel for that price, you can’t really ask for much, you’re not in Bangkok.
If it’s not because it’s a peak period where it’s cherry blossom season, I may have had better accommodation options. Though the Chinese speaking aunty and granny staffs tried their best to help me when I asked them things, I personally won’t stay at Hotel Victoria Seoul again or recommend anyone to stay there, unless you are budget conscious.
Address: 66, Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Myeongdong, Seoul, South Korea 04526
Directions: 5 minutes walk from City Hall Subway Station Exit 8.
Rating: 2.5/5
Cost: $$$$$
