We stayed at the Vabien 1 from May 10 - 23.
We went to Seoul for our son's wedding. The location of the Vabien 1 was excellent. The bus will bring you to and from the airport for only $8,000 Korean Won. Stops about 1/2 block from the front door. It was close to the Anglican Church where the wedding was and the Koreana Hotel where the reception was. There were numerous sites to see right in that area. But it was fun to venture out to other parts of the city. The Vabien 1 front desk staff will provide you with a card for the taxi. They will write on it the location you wish to visit (in Korean). You just hand the card to the cab driver. On the back of the card are the instructions to the cab driver to get you back to the Vabien 1. We used this service a lot. It was a great! The cabs are very inexpensive (the grey cabs are the cheapest as the black cabs are more of a luxury cab). We also took the subway and the bus.
The day after the wedding we booked the rooftop barbeque area. The Vabien 1 provided a barbeque, table & chairs at no cost! We were able to entertain our Korean friends and new family with a 'Western' style barbeque. It was a perfect setting. There is a putting green up there too.
We also attended a bibimbop cooking lesson at the Vabien 1. It is a favourite Korean dish of ours, so we were glad to learn how to make it. There was no charge for this! They have a calendar of events provided by the Vabien 1 and scheduled shopping trips. We were able to book tours through the front desk. We ate at the restaurant once and at the Outback a couple times. We also had coffee and pastries from the bakery. All were wonderful.
As there were 5 of us we had the 3 bedroom suite. The master bedroom had a queen bed and the other 2 rooms had single beds. So we did need an extra cot. They only have floor mats that are quite thin. This is a common Korean sleeping mat. So we just fixed it up on the couch which worked well.
The kitchen had fridge, stove, microwave and dishwasher (we didn't use it though). There was a coffeemaker (it has a reusable filter and we prefer paper cone filters which were easy to find), but no toaster (we just borrowed one). There weren't all the cups & cutlery that are listed on the website (but again - we just borrowed some) The laundry is an all in one. Clothes need to be hung to dry, but they have a drying rack that lowers from the ceiling - very handy. We bought extra hangers over at the LotteMart - they have a section like our Dollar stores. We also had to pick up our own dish clothes and towels.
The CD player didn't work properly. We didn't have much TV watching time anyway and I don't think we even reported it to the front desk. I'm sure they would have fixed it.
We tried to keep all our recycling separated for the housekeeping staff. They cleaned the suite 3 times per week. We had 2 spacious bathrooms and lots of closet space.
We absolutely loved the Vabien 1. We are hoping to be able to stay there again.
We were very lucky in that we had our son there to guide us around. We also had his wife and family and other Korean friends we have made over the past few years. We were treated like royalty wherever we went. Korean food is awesome. We were able to try all kinds of unique dishes and enjoyed them all. The shopping is amazing! You can walk through the markets for hours. I loved all the purses and shoes!
Be sure to buy the Seoul Lonely Planet - it will help you get the most out of your stay in Seoul.