Location

Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre is in a central location in the city, sitting right in front of the entrance to Bujeon Subway station, with numerous amenities within minutes walk from the hotel. However, if one is coming with large luggage, the entrance to the subway station with lift facilities lies across the road from the hotel. The hotel is also well connected by numerous bus lines, providing additional convenience for its guests to explore the city. In terms of amenities, there is the traditional Seomyeon market just across the street from the hotel, and there is no lack of 24-hour convenience shops, restaurants and cafes within a stone’s throw from the hotel. There is even a Starbucks cafe on the ground floor of the hotel. Despite being located one subway stop from the hotel, it takes us about 5 minutes to walk to the large Lotte Department Busan Main Shopping Mall from the hotel. The check-in reception is on level 17 of the Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre.

The Room

We checked into the Deluxe Room, one of Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre’s largest rooms. Occupying 30㎡ of real estate, there is only one Deluxe Room on every floor.

Entryway

The entryway of the Deluxe Room in Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre gave us a good glimpse of the room’s decor. Although the Deluxe Room did not scream of luxury but functionality, we still found it comfortable and clean. The entryway has simple furnishings, with a full-length mirror on the wall opposite the bathroom entrance.

Bathroom

The bathroom in the Deluxe Room at Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre is large, taking up about ⅓ of the real estate of the room. Like the rest of the room, the white tiled bathroom was not luxurious but functional. The standalone sink is positioned in one corner of the bathroom, with a large mirror placed above it. The bathroom is mainly illuminated by the pair of wall lights mounted on the sides of the mirror, which, surprisingly, were bright enough to light up the bathroom. There was not much countertop space at the sink, but the hotel placed a glass ledge above the sink, which gave us sufficient space to stow our toiletries. As Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre is a 3-star hotel, bathroom amenities such as dental kits, shavers and facial pads are not provided. There is a hairdryer mounted on the wall next to the sink. Sitting between the sink and the bathroom entrance is the toilet bowl, where I was surprised to find a Japanese-style bidet toilet fitted. The walk-in shower occupies most of the space in the bathroom, opposite the sink and by the entrance. The space afforded by the walk-in shower, which is only fitted with a regular shower head, was excellent. The hotel provides good-quality bath amenities instead of the all-in-one shower amenities, which we would have seen in similar category hotels. The only flaw in the bathroom is the lack of hanging space, especially for used bath towels.

Sleeping Area

A single-seat armchair and a small coffee table next to the full-length mirror in the entryway mark the beginning of the sleeping area. This beige coloured leather armchair provides the Deluxe Room’s occupants with an alternate place to sit other than the couch in the other corner of the room. The wardrobe is placed a little further into the room from the armchair, occupying the space at the corner of the room. The wardrobe facing the room next to the coffee table is meant to be a utility wardrobe. Designed with four tiered shelves, this is where we found the in-room safe, mini bar facilities and minifridge. With these facilities taking up three of the four shelves, we can only use the top shelf to place our stuff. The other wardrobe, facing the side of the first wardrobe, is fitted with a hanging rack. We found the space afforded here a little small, but it did not bother us as we did not bring too much clothing for our one-night stay at the hotel.

I like how Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre maximises the space in the Deluxe Room. Instead of having standalone furniture that takes up the space, almost all of the furniture in this room is fitted on the wall. The work desk in the Deluxe Room extends from the wardrobe to the TV cabinet and is placed in front of a window. The long, narrow work desk provides sufficient space for some work. There is also a power outlet fitted on the work desk to keep laptops juiced up. Along the wall, next to the work desk, sits the TV cabinet. Placed facing the king bed, we found entertainment on the TV is limited to mostly local Korean channels, with a handful of English channels. A red leather couch took up the rest of the space along the wall next to the TV cabinet. This long couch, which we mainly used to place our backpacks on, provides extra sitting space for guests. There are some drawers fitted below the couch to provide guests with additional storage options.

The king bed sits opposite the TV, flush to the wall. A tree artwork above the headboard of the king bed decorates the otherwise plain wall. I found the sleeping quality on the king bed to be surprisingly good. Despite the mattress being a little thin and the pillows not being as firm or fluffy as I preferred, I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. I’m not sure if the tiredness we felt the night before contributed to the good quality of sleep I got from the king bed. A couple of bedside tables are mounted onto the headboard on both sides of the bed. I found these bedside tables to be a little small, and they only had space to hold our mobile phones. Only one of these two bedside tables has a power outlet underneath.

Service

The service we experienced at Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre was good, which exceeded my expectations for a 3-star hotel. There was a queue during our check-in as one of the guests was holding up the line with some issues. Upon seeing the situation, another staff quickly popped out from behind the reception and invited the guest to the other counter so the check-in line could move. Throughout her interaction with the guest, I witnessed the staff being patient and providing some solutions to the problem (I only heard something that had to do with printing an email). The staff who checked us in gave us a warm welcome to the hotel and was apologetic for the wait (despite not being his fault). He efficiently processed our check-in and explained the breakfast timing and room allocations. He also recognised my friend’s ACCOR status and took the time to explain how to redeem our welcome drink. The staff we interacted with during our short stay at the hotel were welcoming and always had smiles on their faces.

Hotel Facilities

Breakfast @ Taste

Breakfast is served in buffet style at Taste Restaurant on the 17th floor of the hotel, opposite the reception. The restaurant is very thinly manned during breakfast, with one staff member at the entrance confirming our room numbers and another two running the restaurant. The restaurant is operated in a self-service manner, where we had to look for an empty seat and clear our table ourselves. The restaurant feels like a cafeteria and is jam-packed with guests, as a Taiwanese tour group was staying at the hotel during our stay. We had difficulty looking for available seats and had to share the table with some from the Taiwanese tour group. Breakfast served at Taste was fairly simple and had rather limited options. A small section has some bread selections and five warm food options, with one being porridge. There is also a section where cold cuts, pots of coffee, and tea are located. Due to the number of restaurant guests, topping up food is a tad slow. Our breakfast experience was somewhat marred by the tour group, who were often seen cutting queues. Although chaotic and underwhelming, the breakfast was decent for a 3-star hotel, which filled us sufficiently to explore the city of Busan.

Overall

Our one-night stay at Ibis Ambassador Busan City Centre was decent. The room decor looks like a typical motel, but still comfortable. The Deluxe Room was sufficiently large (Ibis hotel rooms can be very small), and the sleep quality was surprisingly good. The hotel is very central with excellent public transport connections, and the service we received was good.