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Lotte offers packages for female guests
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Lotte Hotel Seoul’s ladies’ floor lounge / Courtesy of Lotte Hotel Seoul
By Kim Se-jeong
By Kim Se-jeong
In 2004, then newly inaugurated Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin told his human resources team that he wanted more women among the group’s executives. After learning that there were no women in the pool of senior employees who were qualified for executive positions, Shin asked the team to call former employees who have quit to raise children and to persuade them to come back.
Because of Shin’s efforts, the number of female employees at or above the manager level rose to 689 in 2013. This figure was only 95 in 2009, according to the book “Work with Women or Die,” written by two former Lotte Group employees.
Given the importance that the company places on women, it is thus not a surprise that the Lotte Hotel Seoul opened a ladies’ floor in 2008.
The floor is exclusive for the hotel’s female clientele. It has 22 rooms available on the 22nd floor.
The rooms have been popular among group travelers from Japan, but the hotel’s marketing team has been working to expand the floor’s client base to include local female clientele with a special ladies package.
A room on a ladies’ floor
The ladies floor has an additional door right outside elevators to help ensuring the privacy and safety of female guests. Beyond the sliding door are rooms and a ladies’ lounge, outfitted with sofas, books and a TV.
Guests are greeted with a bottle of wine, assorted fruits and a piece of cake upon their arrival on the room.
Each room has an inviting bathtub and therapeutic bath salt. Guests can also avail of a book and a cup of tea from the ladies’ floor lounge. The package includes a cup of tea and a snack.
Club Lounge on the 31st floor is open for breakfast and for a hearty snack before dinner or a light dinner. It offers sausages, grilled mushrooms, smoked salmon and shrimp salad between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The lounge has a drink bar as well. Guests can sip their alcoholic beverages while taking in the breathtaking view of the dark city landscape through the windows from the 31st floor.
Club Lounge also has a DVD section for movie night. Guests can rent one DVD per day for free, which they can play on the DVD player in their room. The lounge is open until 10 p.m.
Guests who want a therapeutic foot massage can rely on the hotel’s spa management team.
The package also provides guests a variety of morning activities.
Guests have free access to the gym and swimming pool on the fourth floor, which are open from 6 a.m. Hair-styling tools and toiletries such as fragrant shampoos, conditioners and body washes are available on this floor for guests.
Guests can also have a delicious breakfast at Club Lounge.
In addition to breakfast staples like bread, croissant, muffins and bagels, which go well with butter or jam, and sausage, ham eggs and bacon, Korean-style breakfast, which includes a bowl of rice and soup, is also available.
A cup of latte from a coffee machine, which is as good as a fresh cup made by a barista, along with banana and grapefruit, rounds out the lounge’s breakfast offerings.
The hotel provides guests with free access to the Wi-Fi, as well as to the business room. Although use of the business room is free, it’s available on a first time, first served basis so reservation is recommended.
Check-in is at 2 p.m., and check-out is at noon. Check-in is also possible on the 31st floor. The ladies package starts at 340,000 won.
For more information about the ladies package and reservations, call (02)771-1000.