Indulge in a Breathtaking Spa Experience at Hotel Shilla
Hotel Shill is one of the operators of the duty free shops and the luxury hotels in South Korea. The Hotel is a significant member of ‘The Leading Hotels of the World’. The hotel started operating in March 1979. Since then it has expanded into the commission management of various fitness facilities along with the restaurant business. The vision of the hotel is to focus on the collaborative beauty and harmony of the tradition and modernism. In the year 2008, The Shilla has been selected as one of the top five hundred hotels in the whole world. The hotel has a spectacular view of the Mt. Namsan from the twenty three acre sculpture part in the heart of the city (The Shilla Hotels & Resorts, 2017). The hotel has an outstanding combination of the conventional Korean aesthetics with the modern facilities. The hotel is located in the Chung-gu district of Seoul, which is around 0.5 km from the National Theatre. The N Seoul Tower, The Dongdaemun Market, Namsan Park are around 1.6 km away from the hotel. The hotel has four hundred sixty two rooms that are divided into three categories, Standard, Executive and Suite. Hotel Shilla offers a highly acclaimed cuisine to its guests. The hotel has six restaurants that offer different cuisines around the world, such as, Korean, Chinese, French, Japanese and Continental dishes. The hotel also includes a high end arcade featuring the top twenty selected designer brands. It also has a duty free shop and an outdoor and indoor swimming pool. There are thirteen meeting rooms in the hotel.
The Unique Selling Point of Hotel Shilla is its life style zone. The life style zone of the hotel aims to offer the visitors a sense of serenity and delight. This zone reflects the vision of the hotel that is to provide its visitors a relaxing time where they can spend their time in a peaceful way and can pursue their personal space, therefore maximizing the quality of their life. In this zone, there is a spa service and fitness zone. The spa experience of the hotel is one of a kind as the Guerlain Spa experience also offers a breathtaking view of the Mt. Namson. The beauty and health experts in the spa are well trained by the French masseuses (The Shilla Hotels & Resorts, 2017). Each guest is offered a complementary fifteen minutes foot bath before their chosen spa treatments. This zone has ten treatment rooms comprising of the famous Vichy shower, cosmetic salon and a relaxation lounge.
Experience Traditional Korean Haute Cuisine at La Yeon
A fine dining experience is offered to the visitors in the hotel. The restaurant offers Japanese, Korean, French, Chinese and continental foods. However, the hotel is renowned for the traditional Korean Haute cuisine which is prepared by their executive chef using the high quality seasonal and domestic ingredients. This zone is called the La Yeon. The dishes are made following the conventional cooking techniques into the contemporary taste. This restaurant invites all the visitors to experience the essence of the traditional Korean cuisine. This has also been awarded the three Michelin stars (The Shilla Hotels & Resorts, 2017). The restaurant also offers a sophisticated and serene atmosphere in the Ariake zone where it offers the authentic traditional Japanese food with a touch of Korean sensibility. Some featured dishes of the restaurant are broiled lobster, abalone salad and sea urchin and yam.
- Package deal – Most business travelers do not have much time in their hand to search for other eating places other than their lodging places. Therefore these travelers can be targeted primarily and the hotel may offer a package deal for them which will include at least three meals a day, room charges and other services. These packages could be of three days or five days.
- Concession in the prices – The hotel may offer some amount of concession in the restaurants for the regular customers. This will attract the customers to the restaurants.
- Concession for the first timers – The first time visitors can be targeted as well. The hotel may offer a minimum amount of discount for them in the restaurants so that they think of coming back to the hotel in future.
The Executive Business Deluxe rooms in The Shilla are a combination of specious business deluxe rooms and the executive lounge services. The rooms are designed by the famous interior designer, Peter Remedios. These room services include the high class bedding and a private bar. There are several ‘in room’ facilities available in the Executive business deluxe rooms such as the 65 inch Satellite TV with 52 channels. The rooms are equipped with wifi, complementary tea bags, and a free of charge baby crib if necessary. Any extra beg charges ?30,000 per night (The Shilla Hotels & Resorts, 2017). The Executive Business Deluxe rooms come in a package deal that offers the visitors complimentary breakfast, all day complementary tea and afternoon tea. The happy hours offered for the guests are from 18.00 to 22.00. The guests in these rooms get one of the meeting rooms for one hour without any charge. The hotel gym is available for the guests without any cost. The usage of indoor swimming pool is complementary as well. In the pool the hotel only lets the children aged fewer than thirteen under strict parental supervision. The usage of sauna is complementary as well. The hotel also offers free parking for the guests during their stay.
- The Shilla can offer customized rooms for the customers. Different customers could ask for some special facilities at their rooms. Therefore the hotel can offer such facilities within a basic charge. This could attract more customers in the hotel.
- The location of The Shilla is quite enduring as most of the view points of the city is not much far from it. The hotel could arrange for a trip for the visitors within a basic charge. This could attract the consumers to avail the trip without searching for some other trip provider outside.
- The hotel could give out feedback forms to every room. Therefore the customers could mention their issues before leaving the hotel premises.
We planned to spend hot summer days with parents. The management was too craving for money to charge everything at horrendous price. It was crowded with children. It was full of ill-trained staff. This is not the place for tourists, nor locals. Only for Samsung employees at discounts or ostentatious bugger heads.
Relax in Hotel Shilla’s Executive Business Deluxe Rooms
Stayed August 2016, travelled with family
Dear David J, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences regarding your recent stay with us. Please accept our sincere apology for any disappointment you experienced in our service during your stay. We genuinely appreciate your feedback and will take your comments into consideration so we can provide you with better service in the future.
I hope that you will give us another opportunity to welcome you back.
Warmest regards,
JeongHo Lee
Vice President
Marketing Division
Listen: As a manager, I would meet the guest as soon as possible and I would listen to him or her attentively. I would listen to the entire issue first as listening to the guest and follow each word will give me the opportunity to picture the issue. I would only talk when the consumer is done with their issues or take a pause. If there is some clarification, I would politely ask them about that. If I wait till the consumer is finished, it would be easier for me to convey the message to the customer that we value their opinion and we have sufficient empathy for having a bad experience in our hotel.
Empathize: I would try to make the consumer understand that I emphasize with him or her in this situation. I would use phrases such as ‘Yes, I understand’ or ‘I would be as angry as you in such situation’ so that the customer understands that it I can convey the message that I am empathizing with them.
Apologize: I would apologize to the customer sincerely saying honest apologetic words such as ‘I am so sorry that we were unable to deliver you our best service. Please accept my sincere apology’.
React: I would assure that this complaint has some effective reactions to it. I would immediately talk to the team responsible for that specific job. I will discuss this feedback with the leader of the team and will ensure that this does not get repeated in the future. It is our responsibility to offer the guests a flawless experience during their stay, but this complaint indicates the exact opposite to it. In addition to that, I will offer the guest some incentives as the compensation to this awful experience like a free lunch or dinner at our restaurant or a free trip to the airport from the hotel. We may also offer rewarding discounts for the next stay of the customer.
Explore the nearby Myeongdong Market
Notify: After the problem is solved apparently, I will take effective steps for providing immediate feedback to the customer. I would apologize to the consumer over and over again so that this event does not discourage the consumers to visit our hotel again.
This market is the home of several shopping malls departmental stores, street shops, cafes, restaurants and numerous hawker stalls. This place is a must visit for the people who loves shopping. This can be considered as one of the major shopping places in South Korea and one can find a huge range of reasonably priced shoes, clothes, jewelry, accessories from the international and domestic brands. Apart from that there are numbers of shopping mall in this market including Lotte Young Plaza, M Square, Noon Square Shopping mall where one can get international brands such as forever 21, Zara, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren etc. There is Seoul culture and Tourism Centre and the performance hall where the live concerts and various cultural programs. The shopping enthusiasts can also enjoy the market to het the recent cosmetic and skincare products as there are around thousands of Korean brands available in the market. However, this market is not only about fashion, but one can get excellent Korean delicacies in the food stalls such as tteokbokki which is a rice cake with stir fried vegatables in the sweet chili sauce, fish cakes, bulgogi which is the grilled beef sirloin, soondae which is Korean blood sausages stuffed with the soy bean sprouts, bean curd, green onions, mushrooms and starch noodles and many other Korean delicacies. The Myeongdong market also includes several tourist spots and the Myeongdong catholic cathedral which is made in gothic style.
The Namsangol Hanok Village is a Korean village that is located in Pil dong neighborhood I the Jung- gu district. This place is around 1 km far from The Shilla Seoul. In this village the traditional Korean houses has been restored. This village offers the visitors to experience the cross cultural activities of the Joseon era citizenry, from common people to royals. This village was a natural summer resort of the Jeonghakdongs. This means “the land of the fairies for the blue crane where the Jeonugak Pavilion stands along the stream in the valley”. This whole area is boasted with beautiful scenery. It is also considered to be one of the most beautiful places in Seoul. After a survey in the year 2011 by the Seoul Development Institute, this place was voted as the most scenic place in the entire city following the other ones Gyeongbokgung Palace, Han River and Mount Namsan. The admission is free here, but each Tuesday is considered to be a day off.
Visit the Namsangol Hanok Village for a Cultural Experience
The N Seoul Tower is the first radio wave tower in Korea that provides the radio and TV broadcasting in Seoul. This tower has been designed by the architects from the time when the interior facilities were not even finished. This tower now broadcasts signal for several Korean Medias. The tower is divided into different floors where numbers of amenities are available. There are observatory, museum, food court, restaurant, children’s theatre, light garden and several other amenities are available. The tower is also known as a national landmark for the cityscape.
Since the beginning of its performance the Jump has been extremely popular in Korea. This innovative martial arts show includes several martial arts of Asia including the Taekkyeon and Taekwondo. This show tells a story of a family of specialists in martial arts that protect their house from the thieves. This 80 minutes show is open to all; therefore the tourists could watch this show to experience the authentic Korean culture.
For generating extra revenue the Shilla can arrange a one day tour to the Mayeongdong market. The consumers would pay extra for the transportation and meal service for the day. The hotel can arrange for a shuttle bus that would carry minimum of twenty people together. For food, the hotel could offer food basket to all the visitors which will contain high quality food. Thus the hotel could save the extra labor cost for the day and earn some extra revenue from the trip.
Shuttle tours are quite common in Korea as most of the travelers take the shuttle tours to travel around the city. The K shuttles are very much useful for those who are the first time visitors who are also looking for some best attractions around the city. The shuttle tours also arrange for a multilingual guide who mostly covers all the visitors need to know.
In respect to the corporate social responsibility, Korean organizations lack behind, however, they have made this their primary responsibility. In this hotel the CSR rating history is quite average (Martin, Rosenbaum & Ham, 2015). The hotel maintains most of it incorporating the organic and local food, recycling of the products, power conservation etc.
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Enjoy the Scenic View from the N Seoul Tower
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The Shilla Hotels & Resorts, (2017). Shillahotels.com. Retrieved 20 April 20, 2017, from https://www.shillahotels.com