Review of Shinchon Ever8 Serviced Residence

To prepare meals for our toddler, we needed an accommodation with kitchen. Better still, if it’s at a convenient location. It was a tough search before we found Shinchon Ever8 Serviced Residence (www.ever8.co.kr) that best met our criteria.

Location

Ever8 Serviced Residence (“Ever8”) is in a central location near to Ewha Women’s University, Hongik University Street and Myeongdong district. Within a walking distance to Ewha Women’s University metro station (Line 2, Green), you can easily hop on the metro and explore Seoul.

From Gimpo airport, you can reach Ever8 with a 40-minute drive and 55-minute ride on the metro. From Incheon airport, it will take longer with a 55-minute drive, and 1.15 hour metro ride. The timings are an approximate.

If you prefer the airport bus to Incheon, you will be glad to know that the bus stop for it is only about 10 minutes’ walk from Ever8.

Address: 7, Sinchonnyeok-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 03780 South Korea

Building and Lobby

We almost missed the accommodation because the building doesn’t look like a hotel. It’s more like an apartment or office building on the outside. Inside, we thought we had entered into a residential lobby.

We had to walk past a 7-11 convenience store, letterboxes, and security guard “counter”, before we pushed open the glass door to the hotel lobby. If we had entered through another entrance, it would have been a shorter walk. The lobby is neither cosy nor luxurious, it’s clean, simple and business like.

The location is quite near to the train station, however, the rugged terrain between the hotel and train station/bus stop, make it hard to push our luggage and stroller.

Customer Service

In line with the vibes of their lobby, the receptionist also came across as courteous but business like. Throughout our stay, we mainly interacted with two receptionists and both are helpful but not particularly friendly.

On our last evening, we lost an item in the taxi and got the receptionist to help us find them item. She sort of tried to help us out, but we didn’t really feel like she was sincere or trying her best. Oh well.

Our Reservation

We reserved a Deluxe Double Room, with 1 Queen size bed, for 2 adults in October 2018. There was a free baby cot (60cm x 100cm) provided upon request.

We stayed for 7 nights and on average it’s about S$111.68 per night, S$135.13 if you include the taxes and fees. After applying UOB promotion, we paid S$867.75 in total, and S$124/night.

We actually paid lesser than this because we booked through Shopback, getting cashback on our reservation. Sign up for an account if you don’t have one, this Shopback referral link gives you a further S$5 cashback!

Our Room

The room is of a comfortable size to move around. However, with a baby cot beside the queen sized bed, the room is not spacious enough for open luggage to be lying around.

Our curtains were closed all the time because our room was opposite another apartment building. And it’s near enough to look in.

Other than that, the air-conditioned room has everything we needed – a fridge, a washer, and a kitchen that includes microwave, stove and kettle. The toilet is well equipped with basic amenities including a mini hairdryer and towels. It is usable for one person at any one time though.

The room is so well equipped that there are actually residents staying in these apartments. Every weekday morning, we see people dressed up for work taking the lift. And the apartment next to us is stocked up with living essentials like a home. We could peep in because the owner often opened up her door when she cooked and strong spicy aroma would waft out.

Facilities

There’s no facilities such as the pool, gym or shuttle service. However, there’s free WiFi, free parking and a 7-11 convenience store on first floor. One the second floor, there seems to be a study area for students.

Ever8 provided baby cot for us, although they “forgot” about it until we called them to bring it in. We also had to wait for the handyman to set up and then come back a few times to adjust and lower it, because of wrong configuration.

Breakfast

The hotel serves buffet breakfast but we didn’t opt for it. We thought there’ll be plenty of choices nearby and we wanted a variety. However, it turns out that Seoul sleeps and wakes up late. We’re always too early for breakfast places and usually had to settle for bread, because only bakeries open early enough for us.

Verdict

With a baby/toddler, serviced apartment like this is great to prepare meals. But wanting to have a kitchen sorely limit our options. This apartment meet our expectations, I’ll probably give it a 7.5 out of 10. Not full marks because of the rugged terrain when making our way to and fro hotel, and the lack of room space and view. Nevertheless, will consider it again if we go back with a toddler.

Let me know what you think or other options you are considering. Leave a comment below. :)



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