LOTTE City Hotel Jeju

I strongly believe this hotel who works with the taxi drivers to scam tourist. 1. I was quoted a flat rate I called the front desk. They redirected me to this woman at the concerned desk. She said 120,000 won for 5 hours and 200,000 won for 8 hours. She wrote it on her starch paper. The guy said he will call tomorrow. The taxi driver arrived and he said 5 hours. If go over time will be 20,000 won extra.  2. The ride & the unexpected charge I made sure to go from 7am to 12am (noon). I even went back early from my stops and stopped by money exchange. Even then we got back to the hotel before 12am (noon). But the, the taxi driver said that it was 150,000, but he was pointing to the meter he had on was 145,000. I at first I thought the meter was just there to show me I had a good deal.  3. The pressured payment I said the hotel said it is 120,000. We went in and talked to the concierge about it. There was one young guy and one older guy. The young one, I talked with for a bit saying, “why is he charging by the meter if it is suppose to be a flat rate for the taxi.” I told them the hotel quoted me one the price and that the taxi drivers also knew it was a flat rate. The hotel and the taxi drivers also knew talked together in Korean against me, pressuring me to pay 150,000 won. Then the taxi driver said 145,000 won is okay. The young one called the employees I talked to yesterday and I was quoted 150,000 won.  And for that moment, with all three of these men against me, I thought, maybe I misheard. I paid the taxi 145,000 to get him out and talk to the hotel people.  But then I look at my google search history and when I later went back to the hotel room I saw my writing said “120000 won for 5 hours, 200000 won for 8 hours”.  4. The moment I stood up & the hotel’s suspicious response I kept talking with them saying I want an email acknowledging what happened and a full investigation. They kept saying “I dont know” and sighing loudly. I asked the younger one for a email acknowledging that this situation happened and they will officially look into it, the older one disagreed in Korean in front of me. They called around and they got the taxi driver back. The driver gave me 25,000 won back, only after a solid 20 minutes of arguing about what happened. It seemed the hotel staff and him are very close. —-＞＞  Since if I was in the wrong why did they agree to a refund so quickly? Does that mean anyone who makes a scene doesn’t have to pay, it doesn’t make sense. I think they knew I was right.  They kept insisting the hotel has no connection to the taxi driver. Both the older employee and the taxi driver. The taxi driver said “the hotel has nothing to do with the taxi”, why does the taxi driver say that? 5. The aftermath I ended up getting a picture of the taxi driver agreeing that I had paid the full 120,000 won. Becuase I didn’t want any trouble since they have my credit card. Yet an email was something I didn’t push for anymore. I ended up standing there for 2.5 hours. It made my stay in Jeju very bad, and I ended up being late for my plane.  I am an American born 22 years old girl and I am traveling in korea with my teen brother. We had been using google translate the whole time and they had been speaking in Korean in front of me.  I would NOT recommend this hotel and I warn travelers to be careful of taxi scams. 

Located near Airport and very convenient to access the city and restaurants around. Lotte duty free mall is in same buildings. Reception could be more friendly towards guests instead of being robots just doing their job without any smile and welcoming feeling. Also if you ask them any query reply will not be so friendly. Jeju Lotte city experience was completely opposite to Seoul Lotte city hotel. Seoul team was awesome in hospitality. Jeju team doesn’t care.

convenient location (around ₩5000-5300 taxi from/to the airport); hotel staff called taxi for me to the airport when I checked put at 5am; room is neat but you can see signs of use on some of the facilities, say the shower head and the wallpaper; TV has OTT function requires to login with own account; staffs are fluent in English; you need to bring your own toothbrush, toothpaste, razors etc. though