Courtyard Seoul Times Square Review: Rooms, Lounge and Breakfast
StayArchive Rating: 8.3/10
I had stayed at almost every Marriott property in Seoul before finally getting around to Courtyard by Marriott Seoul Times Square.
There was no particular reason for the delay.
I had simply never found a compelling reason to stay here.
Yeongdeungpo was familiar territory, and I had passed through the area plenty of times. But whenever I considered another Seoul Marriott stay, Courtyard Times Square somehow remained near the bottom of the list.
That turned out to be slightly unfair.
I booked a discounted Club Marriott rate for KRW 242,000 in August 2026, mainly because I wanted to review one of the few Seoul Marriott properties I had kept ignoring.
By current Seoul standards, KRW 242,000 no longer feels particularly expensive.
We live in exciting times.
What surprised me was how consistently the hotel exceeded the expectations I had attached to the Courtyard name.
The room was larger and better maintained than expected. There was still a real lounge. The fitness center was considerably more substantial than the usual midscale hotel gym. Breakfast was broad and well presented.
None of those things individually made the hotel luxurious.
Together, they made this the best Courtyard I have stayed at in Seoul so far.
Quick Verdict: Is Courtyard Seoul Times Square Worth Staying At?
Yes — especially if shopping, business in western Seoul or Marriott Bonvoy benefits matter more to you than being in the historic center.
Courtyard Seoul Times Square is directly connected to the Times Square Mall complex, giving guests immediate access to shopping, restaurants and Shinsegae Department Store. Marriott currently describes Yeongdeungpo Station as about five minutes away.
The station access is not quite as effortless as that description may suggest.
You do have to walk through or around the surrounding complex rather than stepping directly from a subway platform into the hotel lobby.
But once you are inside Times Square, the hotel becomes extremely convenient.
The strongest reasons to stay here are:
- Times Square and Shinsegae shopping access
- larger-than-expected rooms
- Lounge 15 for eligible guests
- a surprisingly good fitness center
- a broad breakfast buffet
- useful access to Yeongdeungpo and western Seoul
The main compromises are less exciting views and a location that is not ideal for a tourist spending most of the trip around Jongno, Bukchon or Myeongdong.
This is not the most glamorous Marriott in Seoul.
It is considerably better than I expected.
Location: Excellent for Times Square, Slightly Awkward for the Subway
The hotel is located at 15 Yeongjung-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, inside the Times Square shopping and entertainment complex.
Marriott markets the property as approximately five minutes from Yeongdeungpo Station, which serves Seoul Subway Line 1 as well as KTX and other rail services. The hotel is also connected to Times Square Mall.
That description is accurate in broad terms.
But I would not interpret it as “station-connected hotel.”
Depending on your route, you still need to cross streets or navigate the underground and shopping-complex entrances.
I arrived from Mullae Station on Line 2, taking a local bus that stopped near the hotel.
For foreign visitors, Yeongdeungpo Station will usually be the more obvious option.
Once checked in, however, the location becomes much easier to appreciate.
Times Square gives you a huge amount of food, shopping and entertainment without needing another subway ride. This is especially useful in summer heat, winter cold or heavy rain.
If shopping is part of your Seoul trip, having Shinsegae and Times Square effectively downstairs is a genuine advantage.
If your itinerary consists mostly of palaces and traditional neighborhoods north of the river, there are more convenient bases.
Within western Seoul, the comparison is more interesting. Fairfield by Marriott Seoul sits closer to Yeongdeungpo Station and is usually the more basic, transit-focused option. The Link Seoul, between Sindorim and Guro, offers newer rooms, free guest laundry and stronger long-stay value. Yeouido Park Centre, Seoul – Marriott Executive Apartments is the better fit if a full kitchen, in-room laundry and extensive wellness facilities matter more than immediate shopping access.
Check-In and Club Marriott Recognition
The lobby is located on the fifth floor, rather than immediately inside the ground-level hotel entrance.
Check-in itself was friendly.
I had booked a Club Marriott promotional rate, so I showed my membership details at the desk.
The hotel also gave me several Club Marriott welcome items during this particular stay, including sparkling wine, granola and a face mask.
I would treat these strictly as my Club Marriott experience in August 2026, rather than something every guest should expect.
My original reservation was for a king room.
There was no major category upgrade available, but the front desk offered me a corner twin room instead if I was willing to switch from one king bed to two twins.
I accepted immediately.
Space is space.
I can survive the emotional difficulty of having an unused second bed.
Guest Room: Better Than I Expected From a Courtyard
This was probably the first major surprise.
The room felt larger and more polished than I had expected.
There was enough space around the beds to avoid the compressed feeling common in newer Seoul business hotels, and the overall condition was very good.
The design is not particularly adventurous.
That is fine.
A Courtyard room does not need to explain contemporary Korean architecture to me.
It needs a comfortable bed, enough room for luggage and somewhere sensible to sit.
This room did all of those things well.
The bathroom also exceeded my expectations.
Marriott currently highlights marble bathrooms among the room features at the property.
The fixtures and surfaces felt well maintained, and nothing about the room suggested that I had chosen the budget-conscious sibling in the Marriott family.
That became a recurring theme during the stay.
I kept waiting for the obvious Courtyard compromise.
It took a while to arrive.
The View: Definitely Yeongdeungpo
The corner position gave me plenty of windows.
Unfortunately, windows do not automatically create scenery.
The view was mostly dense Yeongdeungpo apartment blocks and other urban buildings.
This is not a hotel I would book for the skyline.
If your definition of a great hotel morning involves opening the curtains to Namsan Tower or the Han River, you may need to adjust expectations.
Still, the large windows helped the room feel brighter and more spacious.
And curtains exist for a reason.
Lounge 15: No Happy Hour, But Still Useful
Courtyard Seoul Times Square used to operate a more traditional evening lounge service.
That happy-hour format is gone.
What remains is The Lounge 15, on the 15th floor.
Marriott currently provides complimentary access to Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador Elite members plus one guest, and describes the lounge as offering light snacks, coffee and soft drinks.
I am Titanium, so I had access during my stay.
I had expected very little once I learned the evening spread had disappeared.
Instead, I found a comfortable lounge with seating, city views and enough refreshments to make the space genuinely useful.
There were coffee machines, including a decaf option, soft drinks and several types of packaged snacks.
No, this is not dinner replacement.
Calling every hotel lounge “dinner replacement” is dangerous.
Sometimes that phrase means three crackers, four olives and optimism.
But I would rather have an all-day lounge with coffee and snacks than watch the space disappear entirely, as has happened at some other Marriott properties.
For working, taking a break or having a quiet coffee away from the room, Lounge 15 does its job.
Sky Garden: A Nice Extra in Better Weather
Immediately outside the lounge area is an outdoor space called the Sky Garden.
The weather during my stay was not particularly cooperative, so the terrace was empty.
Still, I liked that the space existed.
On a cool spring or autumn evening, it would be a pleasant place to sit outside without leaving the hotel.
I would not book the property specifically for the Sky Garden.
It is simply another small feature that makes this Courtyard feel more complete than expected.
Fitness Center: Another Unexpected Strength
The fitness center is on the fourth floor.
And this was the second point where I wondered whether I had underestimated the hotel for too long.
Marriott currently lists the fitness center as open 24 hours a day.
The space was genuinely substantial.
There were enough machines and free-weight options that it felt like a proper hotel gym rather than a room containing two treadmills and an exercise ball experiencing loneliness.
For business travelers staying several nights, this is a meaningful advantage.
There are also meeting facilities and business-oriented spaces throughout the property, reinforcing the sense that this is a fairly serious full-service business hotel despite the Courtyard badge.
There is no swimming pool.
But the gym is good enough that I did not consider the leisure facilities weak.
Sleep, Chromecast and the Practical Details
I slept very well.
The hotel provided a foam pillow on request, and the bedding was comfortable.
Chromecast also worked in my room, making it easy to stream YouTube from my phone.
I am keeping that description deliberately limited to my room during this stay, since I did not find an official Marriott statement confirming Chromecast as a universal room feature.
After dinner and some shopping in Times Square, I returned to the room, opened the sparkling wine from check-in and spent the evening doing very little.
A successful hotel evening does not always require a rooftop bar.
Sometimes it requires YouTube and a bottle someone else paid for.
MoMo Cafe Breakfast: Another Strong Point
Breakfast is served at MoMo Cafe on the fifth floor.
Marriott currently operates MoMo Cafe daily from 06:30 to 21:00, with the restaurant serving as the hotel’s main all-day dining venue.
Once again, I expected a perfectly ordinary Courtyard breakfast.
Once again, the hotel was annoyingly competent.
The restaurant itself is large, which matters because this is also a substantial group and business hotel.
During my stay, I saw plenty of group guests, and the dining room handled the volume reasonably well.
The buffet had a fairly broad selection of Korean and Western breakfast dishes.
There were hot items, salads, fruit, breads and desserts.
The hotel also highlighted its bakery offerings, and the bread section was better than the anonymous supermarket-roll experience found at some business hotels.
This was not a luxury-hotel breakfast with endless stations.
But it was easily substantial enough that I stopped evaluating it as “good for a Courtyard” and simply considered it good.
The dining room also benefits from size.
Tables are not packed together unnecessarily, and the buffet layout has enough space to move around.
That sounds mundane.
Anyone who has attempted to acquire an omelet while three tour groups converge on the same buffet station will understand why it matters.
Breakfast ended up being one of the strongest elements of the stay.
Is Courtyard Seoul Times Square Good for First-Time Visitors?
It can be, but I would not make it my default recommendation for every first-time Seoul trip.
The strongest case is for travelers who value:
- shopping
- easy access to Times Square and Shinsegae
- business in Yeongdeungpo or western Seoul
- Marriott Bonvoy lounge benefits
- larger rooms than many newer business hotels
Yeongdeungpo is well connected by rail and subway, but you are west of the traditional tourist center.
If most of your plans are around Gyeongbokgung, Bukchon, Insadong and Myeongdong, staying further east will save travel time.
On the other hand, visitors planning to split time between central Seoul, western Seoul and shopping may find the location perfectly workable.
And when the weather is bad, being connected to one of Seoul’s largest shopping complexes becomes much more attractive.
Is It Good for Marriott Bonvoy Elite Members?
Yes, particularly Platinum Elite and above.
The most tangible advantage is Lounge 15.
There is no evening happy-hour meal service, so elite members expecting the classic Asian Marriott lounge experience should adjust expectations.
But the existence of a real lounge with drinks, snacks and workspace still has value.
My own room assignment was not a formal category upgrade, and I would not present it as one.
The hotel simply offered a corner twin room instead of my booked king room.
That worked well for me.
Value: KRW 242,000 Felt Fair in 2026
I paid KRW 242,000 through a Club Marriott rate.
A few years ago, I might have considered that expensive for a Courtyard.
In Seoul in 2026, my expectations have been economically recalibrated.
At that price, I thought the hotel delivered good value.
The room was comfortable and surprisingly spacious. Lounge 15 added practical value as a Titanium member. The fitness center was much better than expected. Breakfast was genuinely good.
The Times Square connection also matters.
A hotel attached to a major shopping complex does not need to manufacture entertainment inside the building.
You can simply go downstairs.
I would happily return at a similar rate.
Nearby Marriott Alternatives in Western Seoul
Courtyard Times Square is not the only Marriott option in this part of Seoul, and the best choice depends on what matters most.
- Fairfield by Marriott Seoul — the closest practical alternative to Yeongdeungpo Station. It is simpler, has fewer facilities and can suffer from railway or road noise, but it often makes sense when price and transit access matter most.
- The Link Seoul, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel — a newer western-Seoul Marriott with comfortable rooms, an excellent breakfast and free guest laundry. It lacks a lounge, but I found it particularly strong for longer stays.
- Yeouido Park Centre, Seoul – Marriott Executive Apartments — the strongest option of the group for apartment-style living, with kitchens, in-room laundry, a lap pool, sauna and serious fitness facilities. It is the one I would consider first for an extended stay in Yeouido rather than a shopping-focused weekend.
Final Verdict: 8.3/10
Courtyard Seoul Times Square was one of the more pleasant surprises in my recent Seoul hotel stays.
I had ignored it for years because nothing about the property looked particularly compelling on paper.
That was the mistake.
The hotel does not have one spectacular feature.
Instead, almost everything is slightly better than expected.
The guest room is more substantial than I expected from a Courtyard.
The bathroom is well maintained.
The lounge survived, even if happy hour did not.
The gym is properly equipped.
Breakfast is broad and satisfying.
And Times Square downstairs solves the eternal hotel question of what to do when you become bored.
There are weaknesses.
The station approach is less seamless than the marketing language suggests. The city view is forgettable. Lounge 15 is no longer a dinner-and-drinks elite lounge.
But the hotel works.
Consistently.
My rating is 8.3/10, the highest score I have given a Courtyard property in Seoul so far.
I came expecting a functional mall-connected business hotel.
I left wondering whether I had been unfairly ignoring it for years.
Courtyard Seoul Times Square FAQ
Is Courtyard Seoul Times Square connected to Times Square Mall?
Yes. Marriott officially describes the hotel as connected to the Times Square Mall complex, making shopping and dining especially convenient.
How far is Courtyard Seoul Times Square from Yeongdeungpo Station?
Marriott advertises the hotel as about five minutes from Yeongdeungpo Station. In practice, the route is not a direct station-to-lobby connection, so travelers with luggage should allow a little extra time.
Does Courtyard Seoul Times Square have an executive lounge?
Yes. The Lounge 15 is located on the 15th floor and offers light snacks, coffee and soft drinks. Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador Elite members receive complimentary access for themselves and one guest.
Does Lounge 15 have happy hour?
There was no traditional evening happy-hour food service during my August 2026 stay. The lounge instead functioned as an all-day space with drinks and light snacks.
Does Courtyard Seoul Times Square have a swimming pool?
No. The hotel does not have a swimming pool. It does, however, have a comparatively large fitness center, which Marriott currently lists as open 24 hours.
Is breakfast good at Courtyard Seoul Times Square?
I thought so. During my 2026 stay, MoMo Cafe offered a broad buffet with Korean and Western hot dishes, salads, fruit, bakery items and desserts. The restaurant itself was also larger than I expected.
Is Courtyard Seoul Times Square good for tourists?
It works best for travelers interested in shopping, Yeongdeungpo or western Seoul. For a short first visit focused mainly on historic central Seoul, hotels around Myeongdong, Jongno or central Seoul may be more convenient.
Is Courtyard Seoul Times Square worth around KRW 240,000?
Based on my stay, yes. At KRW 242,000, I thought the room quality, lounge, breakfast, gym and Times Square access together represented reasonable value in the current Seoul hotel market.
