Lotte Hotel Seoul Review: Three Stays, Two Towers, and a Lounge That Stole the Show
I stayed at Lotte Hotel Seoul three times: once in the Main Tower in 2019, followed by two visits to the renovated Executive Tower in 2020 and 2021.
The complication is that none of the stays involved my own money.
Complimentary accommodation is unusually effective at improving a hotel’s value proposition, so this review focuses on the experience rather than a precise return on every won spent.
The Main Tower was already very good. Then the Executive Tower added larger renovated rooms and a lounge pouring actual Taittinger Champagne rather than merely something sparkling. The Main Tower was perfectly good—until I learned how much better the same hotel could be.
Across the three stays, my overall rating is 8.8/10. The 2019 Main Tower visit earned 8.5/10, while my favourite 2021 Executive Tower stay reached 9.0/10.
I am not assigning a separate score to the current hotel. The Main Tower is being renovated, the Executive Tower lounge arrangement has changed, and the property is preparing for a rebrand in August 2026. I revisited the public areas in 2026, but I have not stayed in the updated product.
Looking for the essentials? Jump to the Quick Verdict, tower comparison, current changes, or Final Verdict.
Quick Verdict
Lotte Hotel Seoul is one of Korea’s defining five-star hotels and the largest major luxury property in the Myeongdong area.
Its location is exceptionally convenient, its service is consistently well trained, and its restaurants, lounges, shops and wellness facilities form part of a vast Lotte complex. Once you understand the passages, almost everything is close. Before that point, it can feel like a retail maze with hotel rooms attached.
The Main Tower delivered traditional luxury; the Executive Tower added a dedicated 15th-floor lobby, larger rooms and a much stronger lounge. Its room was good on its own, but the lounge made the premium feel purposeful.
Stay Details
- February 2019: Main Tower Club Deluxe Room
- July 2020: Executive Tower Premier Room
- May 2021: Executive Tower Premier Room
- 2026: Exterior and public-area revisit
- Payment: All three stays were complimentary
- 2019 score: 8.5/10
- 2021 score: 9.0/10
- Overall score: 8.8/10
- Current product: Not scored
Location and a Hotel the Size of a District
Lotte Hotel Seoul sits beside Euljiro 1-ga Station, with Myeongdong, City Hall and central Seoul’s main shopping areas within easy reach.
The hotel is connected to Lotte Department Store, duty-free shopping and an extensive network of retail spaces and underground passages.
This is enormously useful in poor weather or on a shopping trip. It is less useful after entering the wrong building and trying to locate a lobby that may be on the ground floor, the 15th floor or beyond another corridor. Everything is connected; understanding how takes longer.
The Main Tower lobby feels like the entrance to a major convention hotel: spacious, formal and frequently busy.
Peninsula Lounge occupies part of this public ground-floor environment. It is the hotel’s lobby lounge, not the private Club Lounge I used during my 2019 stay.
The adjacent indoor waterfall adds a surprisingly resort-like feature to a hotel otherwise surrounded by offices, roads and department stores.
The Main Tower in 2019
My first stay was in a Main Tower Club Deluxe Room.
The room felt classic, which was both a polite description and an accurate one. It was not modern, but it remained comfortable and recognisably luxurious in the traditional large-hotel sense.
The room and bathroom both belonged to an older generation of luxury-hotel design.
That distinction matters now. The Main Tower guest rooms are undergoing a major renovation currently scheduled to continue until mid-September 2026, so my photographs should be treated as a record of the former product rather than a guide to the completed new rooms.
The weather was poor when I arrived, and the city appeared mostly as rain and illuminated office windows. By the following morning, the sky had cleared enough to reveal more of central Seoul and a partial view toward Bugaksan.
The private Main Tower Club Lounge was traditional in both appearance and operation.
Happy hour included beef bulgogi, sausages, grilled shrimp and bacon-wrapped items. The beer selection consisted of Lotte-affiliated brands, because corporate synergy occasionally arrives in a glass.
Breakfast was conventional but satisfying. Beef appeared again, and the strawberries were particularly good.
I reasoned that they were probably closely related to the strawberries being served at the hotel’s expensive lobby strawberry buffet, so eating several felt financially responsible.
The Main Tower stay earned 8.5/10. Nothing about it felt unsuccessful. Its age only became more apparent after I stayed in the Executive Tower.
The Executive Tower: Almost a Different Hotel
The Executive Tower reopened after renovation in 2018. Its dedicated lobby is located on the 15th floor rather than at street level, and that shift immediately changes the arrival experience.
Service did not differ dramatically between towers. The hotel’s long experience showed in consistent training across the front desk, lounges, kitchen and housekeeping.
Both of my Executive Tower stays were in Premier Rooms. They were newer, more polished and considerably more spacious than the Main Tower room I had previously used.
The renovated bathroom made the difference especially obvious. Diptyque amenities were supplied during my stays, an efficient way of confirming that I had moved beyond the older Main Tower product.
The view was less impressive. A neighbouring office building occupied a considerable share of the window.
South-facing Namsan views are generally the more desirable direction. I received more building than mountain, but fortunately I had not come for landscape appreciation.
Le Salon and the Taittinger Vacation
The real centre of both Executive Tower stays was Le Salon.
The lounge had the visual advantage of being newly renovated: clean, orderly and more aware of what year it was than the old Main Tower lounge.
Afternoon tea was neatly presented. The sandwiches were good, although refills were not part of the arrangement.
For a brief moment, I found myself missing the more generous lounge service at the former Le Méridien Seoul.
Happy hour removed the complaint.
The spread included LA galbi, chilli shrimp, roast beef, freshly prepared pasta, cocktails and enough substantial food to make dinner entirely unnecessary.
One pasta dish was far better than hotel lounge pasta had any obligation to be, and the cakes and desserts were excellent. I cannot confirm whether they came from Delica-Hans, but the quality matched the hotel’s broader strength in pastry.
The defining detail, however, was the Champagne.
Most hotel lounges I had visited served sparkling wine. Le Salon poured actual Taittinger.
By 2021, I knew enough about Champagne to understand why the bottle mattered. I drank the entire bottle over the evening, which may have reduced the precision of my later notes but did not alter the conclusion. The stay became my own small Taittinger vacation.
The Champagne selection has since changed, so Taittinger should be treated as part of my 2020–2021 experience rather than a present-day promise.
Breakfast at Le Salon was more ordinary. There was an omelette station, fruit including watermelon, and a standard selection of Korean and Western dishes.
Breakfast did its job. Happy hour had already done considerably more.
On one morning, my omelette contained an unwanted extra ingredient in the form of a hair. I mentioned it quietly. The head chef apologised personally and sent over a plate of freshly cut melon.
I had not been particularly angry, but I was not about to reject the melon.
The minor problem and polished response together reflected my broader impression of the hotel’s service.
Shared Facilities and Complicated Journeys
The Executive Tower feels almost like a separate hotel until you decide to use the pool or fitness centre.
Both are located in the Main Tower, requiring Executive Tower guests to navigate the internal connection.
I used the indoor pool between lounge visits. I did not bring a tape measure, but it felt slightly shorter than a standard 25-metre pool.
It was adequate for a swim, though the journey between towers made the Executive Tower feel less self-contained than its dedicated lobby and lounge suggest. In a resort, long internal journeys can feel like part of the experience. In a city hotel, they mostly feel like navigation. Guests who prefer quiet, compact hotels may find the scale exhausting.
What Has Changed Since My Stays
The hotel is currently in an important transition period.
Main Tower guest-room renovations are currently scheduled to continue until mid-September 2026, and the former Main Tower product shown in this review is no longer a reliable guide to what the completed rooms will look like.
During both of my stays, Premier Room guests used Le Salon. The current arrangement separates the Executive Tower experience more clearly by room category.
Grand Deluxe rooms may be sold with Le Salon access, so guests should check whether their selected rate specifically includes the lounge rather than assuming that every booking does.
Premier rooms and higher categories are now associated with La Cime, the newer top-tier lounge on the 34th floor.
Photographs and published descriptions suggest that La Cime offers a more elaborate presentation at a substantially higher price. I have not used it, so I cannot judge its food, atmosphere or value.
The property is scheduled to introduce the new name The Grand Lotte Seoul on August 14, 2026. The official renovation schedule currently extends into mid-September, so the rebranding and construction timelines may overlap.
The renovated Main Tower may narrow the gap, perhaps while wearing considerably more expensive clothes. Whether it has become a different hotel is something I would rather verify than assume.
Main Tower or Executive Tower?
The Main Tower offered a complete traditional five-star stay. The Executive Tower delivered the better room, bathroom, arrival experience and lounge.
All three stays were complimentary, so my price threshold is hypothetical. Paying personally for two people, I could justify an Executive Tower premium of approximately KRW 150,000 over the Main Tower.
Without lounge access, much of the reason I would pay extra for the Executive Tower would disappear.
If your actual dilemma is not Main Tower versus Executive Tower, but Lotte Hotel Seoul versus The Westin Josun Seoul, that question deserves its own comparison. So I wrote one.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Exceptionally convenient central Seoul location
- Direct access to department-store and duty-free shopping
- Stable, professionally trained service
- Large Executive Tower Premier Rooms
- Strong bathrooms and premium room finishes
- Excellent Le Salon happy hour during my stays
- Extensive dining and wellness facilities
- Suitable for business, shopping and first-time Seoul visits
Cons
- Large, busy and initially confusing complex
- Long internal journeys between the Executive Tower and Main Tower facilities
- May feel overwhelming to guests who prefer smaller hotels
- Not part of a major international loyalty programme
- My historical Le Salon experience no longer matches the current Premier Room arrangement
- Current Main Tower rooms cannot be judged until the renovation is complete
Final Verdict
Lotte Hotel Seoul represents a particular kind of Korean five-star hotel: enormous, professionally run, convenient and capable of feeding a great many people without appearing concerned by the challenge.
The Main Tower was already a satisfying stay. Its traditional room, steady service, private lounge meals and central location earned 8.5/10 in 2019.
The Executive Tower moved the experience higher: larger Premier Rooms, properly premium bathrooms and one of the strongest lounge happy hours I had encountered in Seoul.
By 2021, with Taittinger understood and consumed with appropriate commitment, the experience reached 9.0/10.
My overall rating across three stays is 8.8/10.
I cannot yet rate the current hotel. The Main Tower renovation, the opening of La Cime and the approaching rebrand have altered too much for an honest current score based only on older stays and a public-area revisit.
It may be too large for some guests, inconvenient for international loyalty enthusiasts and more difficult to navigate than a city hotel reasonably should be.
But when the room is good, the service is steady and the lounge is pouring real Champagne, the hotel makes a persuasive argument for its own scale.
Related Myeongdong and Central Seoul Hotel Reviews
- The Westin Josun Seoul Executive Suite Review — a smaller, more contained classic luxury hotel nearby, with Marriott Bonvoy participation.
- Le Méridien Seoul Myeongdong Review — a newer full-service option with a Club Lounge, indoor pool and a more compact footprint.
- Aloft Seoul Myeongdong Review — a simpler select-service hotel with a strong sightseeing location but far fewer on-site facilities.
- Courtyard Seoul Myeongdong Review — a practical Marriott option between Myeongdong and Namdaemun.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the Main Tower and Executive Tower very different?
Yes. During my stays, the Main Tower felt like a traditional large luxury hotel, while the renovated Executive Tower offered more modern rooms, larger bathrooms and a substantially stronger lounge experience.
Which tower would I choose?
I would choose the Executive Tower, particularly with lounge access. However, the Main Tower is being renovated, so the completed new rooms should be assessed separately.
Does the Executive Tower have its own pool?
No. Executive Tower guests use the swimming and fitness facilities in the Main Tower.
Does every Executive Tower room include lounge access?
Guests booking a Grand Deluxe room should check whether their selected rate includes Le Salon access. Premier rooms and higher categories are currently associated with La Cime, but exact inclusions should always be confirmed before payment.
Is La Cime better than the former Le Salon arrangement?
It is positioned as the Executive Tower’s top-tier lounge, and the photographs and published descriptions I have seen suggest a more elaborate food presentation. I have not used it, so I cannot compare it fairly with my Le Salon experience.
Is Lotte Hotel Seoul convenient for Myeongdong?
Yes. It is close to Myeongdong, City Hall and Euljiro 1-ga Station and connects directly with Lotte shopping facilities. The complex is extremely convenient once its internal layout becomes familiar.
Will Lotte Hotel Seoul change its name?
The property is scheduled to introduce the name The Grand Lotte Seoul on August 14, 2026.
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