Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas

This is our go to hotel for our annual girls beauty shopping trip to Seoul from Hawaii. They never disappoint. Beautiful affordable luxury with superior service! Super convenient location and amenities. It’s connected to underground shopping and two huge malls so it doesn’t matter if it’s freezing or 100% humidity outside. This year was extra special though. Upon checking in the front desk noticed that I would be staying during my birthday and presented me with champagne and a teddy bear!!! Such a wonderful surprise. A few days later a beautiful birthday cake and card was presented in the room! This was beyond anything I had experienced before especially since I felt we were already getting amazing deal on the nightly cost. We wake up to the most amazing breakfast buffet, access the weather and decide to venture out or explore underground. We always make reservations at the Chinese restaurant at least one day in advance to ensure we get the Peking Duck. We know the many concierge because they’re always so helpful with translation and logistics. We’ve stayed in much more expensive places but always come back here because of the value and comfort and how it makes us feel. Highly recommend if you’re in the area or in the fence at all.

We stayed four nights in InterContinental Grand Seoul Parnas. As always, we have been very happy with the venue and the friendliness of all staff. Food was great, Club Lounge was very well organized. Must also mention the gym. It was excellent. Looking forward to coming back. Thank you all.

Amazing team. I felt pampered from the moment we stepped onto the property. The hotel is beautiful and luxurious. Jake the hospitality manager and his team were all so attentive and helped us manage our daily itinerary. Since we spoke little Korean this service was incredibly valuable. Our experience was delightful, memorable, and delicious! We went to all the places suggested by the team and they scored 100 out of 100. Thank you for a lovely stay.

The overall feeling is okay, though there are a few points that are unsatisfactory. First, I booked the hotel using FHR but didn't upgrade my room, and there weren't many guests staying; there were still plenty of empty rooms available. Next, the types and flavors of breakfast were rather ordinary, leaving little room for choice and not tasty, which was quite disappointing. Additionally, the $125 voucher given by the hotel is rather weak and there's nowhere else to use it.

I have stayed in this property before in the late 1990's so it was a pleasant surprise that the rooms as well as the club lounge was completely updated. We stayed in the Grand Suite, although it was not really a suite as I normally experience in a five star property...it was essentially one large room with bed on one side and a living area with a couple of couches at the other end. Another rather strange feature of the room is that the sliding door between the bathroom area and the bedroom area is semi-transparent, which means whenever someone goes to the bathroom at night the whole room is illuminated. The most outstanding part of staying at the club level is the club lounge. When we arrived, we were just in time for the afternoon/high tea which was exceptional. The cocktail hour at the lounge was the most extensive of any property we have experienced. In addition to a nice light buffet, the wait staff came around to take orders on a proper main dinner dish, which was very good, and the choices changed every night. The breakfast was also exceptional with the wait staff coming around to take orders on anything you wanted. One downside of this was that we rarely needed to go out to eat, instead choosing to go eat in the club lounge because the food was so good. Before this experience, our favorite hotel in Seoul was the Four Seasons..but the Intercontinental is now on our list as one of the top hotels in Seoul, in large part due to the club lounge. Of course, one of the best features of the hotel is the location with many shopping areas and extensive restaurants nearby. One additional pointer if you are a cigar smoker, in the basement of the Park Hyatt across the street (where we have stayed before as well) next to the bar is a small smoking room...not exactly a cigar bar but better than smoking in the designated area outside.