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Reviews of Sono Hotel

2.5 out of 5
Sono Hotel
4, Hwarang-ro 38beon-gil, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang

Reviews

6.2
Rating 10 - Excellent. 15 out of 173 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 48 out of 173 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 63 out of 173 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 19 out of 173 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 28 out of 173 reviews" "

6.6/10

Cleanliness

6.2/10

Staff & service

5.0/10

Amenities

6.4/10

Property conditions & facilities

5.2/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

2/10 Terrible

Elizabeth

Travelled with partner
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The property was with typical amenities for a motel and not a hotel. Frustrated what we got with the price that we paid. Definitely over-priced and poor quality place to stay. Try to stay away from it. You could got much better place at different location or other apps comparing the price that we paid using expedia
Response from kim on 14 Nov 2023
투숙일이 주말이였고 당일 주변에서 가장 저렴한 요금을 셋팅 했습니다. 이점 이해 바랍니다.

2/10 Terrible

Natasha

Travelled with group
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The hotel is a sleezy, smelly and a bit scary. The towels provided are hand towels. The amenities pack provided comes with condoms. The room smells of smoke and feels unclean. There is no lobby. Our room looked nothing like the pictures. The staff are really rude and unhelpful. The location is pretty good, but was not enough to stay the second night we had booked.
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023
Response from kim on 26 Aug 2023
I requested free cancellation for the reason of schedule change, but I don't think this kind of review is acceptable because it was not accepted.

4/10 Poor

Jessica

Stayed 1 night in Mar 2022

2/10 Terrible

Luis

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Old dirty, totally run down motel advertised here as business hotel. No value
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2021

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Disliked: Staff & service
Stayed 3 nights in Jun 2017

6/10 Okay

iris, israel

Liked: Cleanliness, room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service
Not bed but odd
Relatively close to the bus terminal and near the local market. The room was o.k. but the corridor is dark and odd. The front desk is a small hole near the garage. The main entrance is throuth the garage. The recepcionists don't speak English. Breakfast is very poor and there is no place to sit and eat. All that feels strange and a bit sleazy. But in overall it was o.k.

6/10 Okay

Chris, Vancouver, BC

Liked: Cleanliness, room comfort
Love Hotel yes, but still a good value.
Even though the sign says Sono Business Hotel it is indeed a love motel as the neon exterior and interior light show will attest. As such you have to be realistic as to what to expect during your stay. These places are all about privacy so yes the lobby is tiny with a very small window to see the staff. And yes the staff will speak very limited English as they deal almost exclusively with Koreans and even then rarely even see them for again the privacy of the guests. Having said that the guys helped me as best they could. If you need tourist information, then use the very helpful information kiosks at both the train station and bus station. The location is very good - close to bus and train and two local markets. As a love motel don't expect a fridge, closet or hangers. My room however wasn't as new as depicted on the Expedia site but was still good. The room was big, very clean had a big TV and computer. The bed was comfortable and the bathroom was great. One big plus was that they give you a free mobile internet modem to take with you - awesome if you don't have data on your phone. They have toast and coffee in the morning. Good value for the money as long as you're realistic about what to expect.

8/10 Good

Scott

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

8/10 Good

Marna C, Eugene

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great Location
The location near the heart of downtown Gyeongju was perfect for visiting the market, the mounds, restaurants and easy to access bus route to the temple and grotto. The beds were typical Korean firm mattress and the bathrooms were the Korean tubless variety but you had everything you needed and the rooms were clean. Good choice for ease on the pocketbook.

8/10 Good

Paul

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

4/10 Poor

Kameron, Spokane, Washington

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
This is a Love Motel
Was in town for a family trip. There weren't many options during the time I was in town but needed a place for the family to stay for that period of time. I read previous reviews mentioning that it was a "love motel", which I thought would be an exaggeration. Hotels.com wouldn't list a love motel would it? Well, that is exactly what this place was. What made it a love motel? The discreet parking with the blinders at the entrance. The elevator has a key drop for those customers with a short stay. The room has a used tube of toothpaste and other toiletries for those unplanned for stays. The clientele and everything else in the hotel overall gave it the love motel feeling. The hotel was not clean. Picked up the remote control and the it was covered in grease or some type of jelly, which I didn't want to know what it was. The bathroom had a frosted glass door which the frosted area of the door was covered with greasy handprints. I had a room with one full size bed, and one twin bed; the bed was similar to sleeping on a stack of flattened cardboard boxes. No cushion whatsoever, and the edge of the bed cut into my legs. There was one good thing about the room, they provide a free wireless router for internet that you can take with you for the duration of your stay. I'm not a picky person when it comes to hotels, but I would not recommend this place to anyone unless there was nothing else available. Other love motels would be better than this place.
Response from sono hotel on 26 Dec 2015
Dear kameron. I`m sorry If we ruined your trip, really sorry about it i will make my hotel so that you can be satisfied. im sorry again and thank you for message. from sono hotel manager

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
A cheap and nice hotel
We spent two nights in the hotel. It is near to Railway station and 1.5 Km far from Bus terminal. The staff was very helpful.Location is fine. Breakfast was included in the room charges but was not served with breakfast on the last day.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Good location, design a bit 'over the top'.
The hotel was clean and had good facilities. The location is quite good in relation to transport connections etc.. The design is a bit 'over the top' but in keeping with other MOTELS in the area. This is my main point, these places are listed on Expedia as HOTELS but only have room facilities. They are known locally as 'love motels'. People should not be misled in this way.
Response from sono on 7 Sept 2015
Anonymous Thank you thank reviews submitted that bookings in Sonora Expedia deurimyeo Our hotel is located in the center and the race did you not feel uncomfortable camp in transportation and use? We highly appreciate that given the highest rating in the future, do not forget the race in Korea hope

6/10 Okay

Randall, Princeton

Liked: Cleanliness
A little language difficulty, but comfortable
It took a while to check in. I showed my ID, the front desk women kept putting me on the phone with a translator, just to say I had reservations and my name (even though she had my ID in front of her). After about 10 minutes of this- she finally put the sheet of paper she had been looking at in front of me. I just pointed to my name, which was on a very short list of guests they had reservations for. Then I was in. Good Parking, comfortable stay.
Response from yang on 31 Oct 2015
Good morning. We hope to be comfortably used as a better service. Thank you.

8/10 Good

Alon, Melbourne

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Cool M(H)otel in down town Gyeongju
This place is trying to be cool and it kinda works. Electronic locks, big shower head, water and juice free in the room, great A/C. I took the Korea Ondol room, with mattress on the floor. If you like hard mattress this is great. Location wise it's ok, you can walk to some of the sites and to the tour agencies. There's a nice market a few blocks away. Mobile WiFi unit in the room works great and good internet speed. Only issue is that they don't really speak English...

6/10 Okay

Tourist, Hong Kong

Worth the price
Very nice motel for this price. The hair dryer is excellent and makes my hair looks really smooth and shinny.

10/10 Excellent

Mark, Sydney

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Way more than I expected for price!
Great location near bus terminal. Great big room with good shower and English movies and very clean! Amazing for the price and they let me use their machine to wash my clothes!

8/10 Good

karen, ireland

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
quick visit
Stayed one night room was clean and comfortable. Area a little far from train station but close to bus station. Nice staff

4/10 Poor

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Cheap but filthy
I guess you get what you paid for. This place is pretty filthy. The front desk doesn't speak any English. But when you are traveling in a small town of Korea, you can't really expect too much. If you are really traveling on a budget, this place is pretty cheap, but you need to overlook the dirty bedsheet with hair and blood stain,and the opened shampoo, toothpaste, and soap in the bathroom.

8/10 Good

Guylaine, Quebec tcity

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Nice surprise.
Despite the arrival where we had to pay in cash (bad suprise), everything was perfect. The room is clean and comfortable. t is near of many attraction in Gyeongju. The view was so-so but we werent't there for the view.

10/10 Excellent

peg, washington dc

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lovely room and walking distance to everything.
We stayed in four hotels during our two weeks in Korea and the sono hotel had the nicest rooms. Ours had a beautiful modern bathroom with an open shower, nice dark-wood furniture and an elegant velvet loveseat. The hotel has a large sign on the main street so if you have a tendency to get lost (as l do) it's a good landmark. We were a short walk to the city bus terminal and the tour bus office, where we booked a 5-hour tour of some of the areas national treasures.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Cozy and On-Par with Neighborhood
The hotel was just about exactly as described--a quaint business hotel in the middle of Gyeongju. We used the Japanese-style room with a mattress on the floor. As a Westerner, the 3"-thick mattress was uncomfortable but would be fine for an Asian person with a smaller frame. The hotel front desk is an office behind a small window in the wall, but that is typical for a small Korean hotel/motel. The surrounding neighborhood is peaceful and quiet, and there are many "motels" in the area. The room was clean and quiet, although the hallways could use some work--didn't bother us though. There was free WIFI and the television station selection was decent. For the price of a Korean hotel in Gyeongju, no real complaints here.

6/10 Okay

Jeremy

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Room comfort

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service
Easy starting point to the sites of Gyeongju
It's a good place, relatively cheap and convenient. It's close to lots of bus stops and you can visit all the sites Gyeongju has to offer. Don't expect much hospitality from the staff, but honestly it's not a huge deal. It's a bit hard to communicate if you don't know Korean, but the front desk did call a translator for us. The room was nice, a bit retro but clean and comfortable.

6/10 Okay

deb, Singapore

Liked: Property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Love motel but does fine as tourist hotel
The hotel is conveniently located within walking distance from the bus terminal. The condition and cleanliness of the suite room we stayed in was fine. My only quibble is the place is not as brightly lit as I would have liked it to be (being a love motel). Note also that the hotel does not provide bedroom slippers and toothbrushes.

6/10 Okay

Jane, Chicago

Liked: Cleanliness
Disliked: Staff & service
This is a “love” hotel
I am not joking. Love hotels are very popular in Korea. They advertise it as a “business” hotel and removed pictures of all the different room-types offered from the outside wall of the building, and included a desktop computer in the room, but it is a love hotel. It is located in the midst of the red light district. There is no lobby as such. Someone sits behind a closed window. When you knock, they open it just a sliver, zero english. They offer all sorts of rooms, entire room in neon red leopard room, for example. I saw it when the cleaning lady had it opened to the hall. Halls are pitch black with blue neon lights for some sort of semblance of where you are walking. They gave us a black room with blue neon lights, somewhat conservative. Everyone’s windows are covered in black film, so it is always pitch dark in the room. Lights are on dim only, you cannot make them brighter. Mattress is like sleeping on plywood. One night there was so much s... noise going on in the adjacent room, we couldn’t sleep. Shower/bathroom is very large. Rooms are spacious. All regular amenities are there. Towels are threadbare and you get one larger towel with two tiny towels, that’s it. They don’t change sheets either if you stay more than one night, but that’s all common for any hotel in asia. It was clean.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Convenience
It is pretty close to JunGang Market, and there are several stores, shopping streets nearby. You can walk to the train station (the old one, not the KTX new station) within 15 minutes. Nearly all buses pass the train station, so even you can find the buses you needed just at the JunGang Market. It is also close to all must-see sights, especially the historical ones in the city -- they are in the walk distance. For other ones, you have the buses just outside the road near the motel.

4/10 Poor

Linda, New Zealand

Disliked: Staff & service, room comfort
This hotel was clean and well located to centre of city, easy walking distance. However when we arrived they could not find our booking we communicated through an interpreter on the phone. Which was a bit stressful. Our booking finally sorted out. The room was extremely hot and stuffy and had to sleep with air conditioning on to cool room down. Was ok hotel for the price.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great location great price
Stayed with child, had lots of space all home comforts great location for bus station and tourist information would stay here again!

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Excellent Value
Overall not a bad stay, conveniently located in a shopping area, with bus stops near by and easy to find off the main road. Had to wait an extra half hour to check in to have the room cleaned, but managed to find an eatery close by. Room was clean and comfortable, the waterfall shower head is always an amazing thing to me. Excellent value, inexpensive stay considering me and my friend really only need thte room to shower and sleep in for a night.

6/10 Okay

AkiTsu, San Francisco

Sono Hotel
Your basic love hotel experience. The low rating for staff is because I only saw one person through a tiny window. Since I had booked online with Expedia, they had the info, and so there was little conversation required (plus I don't speak Korean). That was the only interaction I had with the staff, hence the low rating. It was more like nothing to rate. The hotel is in a decent location, close to bus lines, restaurants, convenience stores etc. It is actually farther away from the bus stations than the other love hotels, so I liked that actually. Quiet, clean, nice bathroom. The mattress sucked, and I slept ON the comforter rather than under, for the padding. Only stayed here because it was cheaper, and I was doing the tourist thing for a couple of days and nights.

10/10 Excellent

wong, malaysia

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
very luxury hotel with reasonable price
overall statisfy with the service.very luxury hotel with reasonable price

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service

8/10 Good

Henry Kwok

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
전반적으로 별로 였어요
방에 들어가자마자 담배 쩐내와 화장실에는 곰팡이가 피어 있었습니다. 기본으로 주는 물도 맛이 별로 였습니다.
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

2/10 Terrible

SANGIK

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

2/10 Terrible

Cheon Seok

Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

6/10 Okay

JONGMIN

Liked: Room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

2/10 Terrible

KiBong

Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2023

6/10 Okay

Hoon

Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

4/10 Poor

기명

Travelled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
침대시트도 더러웠고 화장실도 더러워서 씻는데 아주 힘들었음. 다시 가고 싶지 않음.
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023
Response from kim on 9 Oct 2023
제발 지불한 금액과 해당일 주변 시세를 생각하시고 리뷰 부탁합니다.해당일 연휴였고 인근 숙박업소 트윈룸의 경우 28만원 부터 시작이였고요.. 저희는 그나마 금액이 너무 과하다 싶어서 10만원 정도 낮게 책정했습니다.해당일 저희 업소보다 상당히 오래된 모텔도 원베드룸 24만원이였구요. . 손님께서 원하시는 정도의 급을 갖춘 호텔은 보문쪽에 해당일 80만원 으로 알고 있습니다.제가 확실하게 말씀드릴 수 있는건 해당일 손님께서 인근 지역에서 트윈룸 제일 싸게 가성비로 이용 하셨습니다.그리고 더럽다고 하셨는데 저희만큼 침구류 확실하게 세탁하는곳 잘 없습니다.

4/10 Poor

YOUNGSOO

Liked: Cleanliness
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
금액을 낮추거나 숙소의 청결을 원합니다.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

6/10 Okay

Soo Min

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
핸드폰 충전기가 있어서 좋았습니다 친절해요
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

2/10 Terrible

CHUANFU

Stayed 1 night in May 2023

4/10 Poor

Sookyung

Travelled with partner
Disliked: Cleanliness, amenities, property conditions & facilities
가격도 비싸고 주차장폭이 좁아너무불편했고 방이 없어 온돌 했는데 바닥 쿠션감이 없어 허리 아프고 달랑 이불깔은거 말고 간이 식탁 쇼파도 없고 좁고 너무 불편했어요 통영가면 더저렴한 호텔이 너무 많은데 경주에서는 자고싶지 않네요
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2023

6/10 Okay

DONG JOON

Stayed 1 night in Mar 2023

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
그냥 모텔입니다.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2022

2/10 Terrible

JINWOO

Stayed 1 night in Oct 2022