Garden Hotel opens after renovation

Best Western Premier Seoul Garden Hotel opened in early October after almost a year-long renovation. / Courtesy of Best Western Premier Seoul Garden Hotel

By Kim Se-jeong

Taxi drivers in Seoul are more familiar with the Seoul Garden Hotel, which doesn’t officially exist anymore. Now, the hotel is called the Best Western Premier Seoul Garden Hotel.

Located in the Mapo district of Seoul, the hotel joined the U.S.-based Best Western Hotel chains in 2007. But, the hotel wanted to use its old name for marketing, because of its popularity.

Earlier this month, the hotel had a new opening, after almost 10 months of renovations.

With a new look, the hotel is now projecting itself as affordable.

“We want to welcome all types of clientele. We have discovered many of our guests just want breakfast in the morning, and spend the whole day outside. They use few facilities in the hotel,” said Oh In-keun, its president, who has been with the hotel since it first opened 35 years ago.

Restaurant La Stella’s dinner buffet

The old hotel had a couple of restaurants and a sauna, but they are all gone now, except for “La Stella,” which serves dinner, a breakfast buffet, and acts as a cafe.

In the 1980s, the hotel’s restaurants had diverse menus. It once had an Arab restaurant called, “Ali Baba,” arguably the first in Seoul. But, as the president said, it had to close because of low profits.

Best Western doesn’t have a gym, a pool or other facilities either. The decision to trim down facilities instead enabled the hotels to reduce room prices. The smallest room is in the 100,000-won range, which is hard to encounter in Seoul. The most expensive Garden Suite costs 1 million won ($951).

This makes a growing number of Chinese tourists in Seoul as its main target clientele. They are replacing Japanese tourists, whose number has declined in recent years because of the weak yen and unfriendly political relations between Korea and Japan.

The hotel’s 372 rooms look simple and modern.

A Twin Room

It’s got everything one might expect a hotel room to have. A shower and a toilet are separated by a wall. Ten rooms on the third floor where it used to have a sauna have a terrace, which looks down on the main road in Mapo.

The renovation reinforced its wedding facilities.

Traditionally, the hotel had been a popular venue for weekend weddings, and the renovation has increased its capacity. It enlarged its Grand Ballroom and added three more small conference rooms which can serve as a meeting room for families on the day of the wedding.

“Our hotel had an interesting myth. It has been popular for weddings and blind dates, because many believed a couple who got married at the Garden Hotel manages to maintain a good relationship,” said the president. “On Saturdays, the cafe at the lobby was filled with young men and women sitting across from each other, with their families a couple of tables apart.”

The hotel opened in 1979. Struggling financially, Lee Il-kyu, the owner of the hotel, invited the U.S. military base as a business partner in 1982. Lee is still the owner. For the next three years, the hotel served as accommodations for U.S. soldiers who were stationed in Korea and their families and guests exclusively.

In 1986, the contract ended, but luckily, the hotel saw dramatic growth in clientele.

“It was thanks to the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and 1988 Seoul Olympics,” said Oh.

In 1996, the hotel joined the Holiday Inn chain as a franchise, and in 2007, it switched to Best Western, with money being the main reason.

Politicians have been a significant clientele for the hotel which is close to Yeouido, an island where the National Assembly is located.

“Many politicians came here to stay. Especially when there was an election, candidates open their base camps here. The hotel lobby, the cafe and restaurants were packed with politicians,” Oh said. Those politicians included former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam, and incumbent President Park Geun-hye.

There were hotels in Yeouido, but “they got rooms here to avoid seeing all the same people they were seeing,” he said.

Seoul Garden Hotel is one of nine Best Western franchises in Korea, and by 2017, the number will be 20, Lee said.

For more information, visit www.seoulgarden.co.kr.