Soyu Hotel

We stayed 3 nights in November 22 and had a mixed experience with this hotel. The positives were the staff- everyone we met during our time was friendly and helpful. They allowed us to check in early, and did their best to solve any issues we had. The hotel is also in a good location- close to shopping, restaurants and transport options connecting you to the rest of Busan and it's sights. The negatives- this hotel is likely more a Korean motel/love hotel than a traditional/standard hotel. When you search the hotel on Korean websites it gives rates for hourly/short stays which is a strong indication. There were also other small hints- a computer was included in our room, the bathroom had been remodeled to board up the glass wall that had originally divided the bathroom and bedroom, the hotel rooms all have doorbells and internal privacy doors. Our room was on the second floor- the only 'non-smoking' floor of the hotel, and yet our room was often filled with the smell of cigarette smoke and we found cigarette ash under furniture in the room. The staff were surprised to hear this, and did what they could to help, but the smell continued and our suspicions are that the smell wafts through the ventilation system from other floors. If you are sensitive to the smell of smoke (which we are) than I do not recommend you stay here. Our room was also well worn, there were scuff marks on the wall, power points and light switches didn't work, the TV remote wouldn't change channels, the controls for the toilet had fallen off the wall and were dusty. The beds were also quite firm, the shower loud and you could hear the toilet in the adjacent rooms flushing. As we were using the hotel more as a base to explore rather than looking for relaxation these points could be ignored (especially at the cost of the room) however overall we found that the hotel didn't meet expectations and due to the cigarette smell alone we wouldn't stay again.