Jakarta hotels sub-standard, say Korean athletes at Asian Games

Unified Korea basketball players finish the second quarter of the women's preliminary group A match against Taiwan in Jakarta, Friday. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

South Korean athletes competing in Asian Games 2018 Jakarta Palembang are unhappy with their hotel amenities in Jakarta, with some players suggesting that the accommodation for the international event is sub-standard.

Basketball players ― with an average height of nearly two meters ― say the beds at their hotel in Jakarta were too short for them to use, according to Chosun Ilbo, citing a national delegation official there.

“The hotel provided an extra sofa for the players, but the extra 30 centimeters didn't stop the players from complaining,” the official said.

These photos from “18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang 2018” Facebook page, posted Apr. 3, show visitors to the athletes' village checking out the pavilion and trying out a bed. Facebook

Rooms in the hotel also reportedly had no refrigerators. One coach phoned the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee at home asking for edible ices to be sent. There were also no television sets, it was claimed.

“I sometimes saw cockroaches inside rooms,” the coach said. “It is worse than a penitentiary. It feels like we came down here for a boot camp, not the Asian Games.”

The hotel advised athletes to use special drinking water, not tap water, to brush their teeth.

Another hotel that the Games organizing committee recommended to Korean journalists had a different problem.

As well as having no refrigerators or television sets, the rooms had no remote controls to adjust the air-conditioning temperature.

When journalists asked the concierge for a remote control, they were told, “The entire floor is sharing one remote controller so you cannot take it up to your room. Call us when you want to adjust the temperature in your room.”