Night view of the Sogong-dong Lotte complex in downtown Seoul, home to the newly rebranded The Grand Lotte Seoul

The Grand Lotte Seoul Opens: Lotte’s New High-End Hotel Brand (2026)

Last updated: August 2026

Quick answer: The Grand Lotte Seoul opened August 14, 2026 — Lotte Hotel & Resorts’ first new high-end brand in nine years, applied to the fully renovated main building of the original 1979 Lotte Hotel Seoul in downtown Myeongdong. The rebrand covers only that main building; the adjacent Executive Tower keeps the “Lotte Hotel Seoul” name. A launch promotion, “The Grand Festa,” bundles wine, hotel amenities, and late checkout across three package types.


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Night view of the Sogong-dong Lotte complex in downtown Seoul, home to the newly rebranded The Grand Lotte Seoul
Photo: 서울연구원 (Seoul Institute) / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Is The Grand Lotte Seoul, and When Did It Open?

The Grand Lotte Seoul is a new high-end hotel brand from Lotte Hotel & Resorts, launched on August 14, 2026 at the fully renovated main building of Lotte Hotel Seoul in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu — the flagship property that first opened in 1979 above Lotte Department Store’s main branch. It’s the group’s first new brand since Signiel launched in 2017, positioned as a classic, heritage-driven counterpart to Signiel’s more contemporary “new luxury” identity. Lotte describes the brand philosophy as “an icon of timeless elegance,” aiming for spaces that read as enduringly formal rather than trend-driven.

What’s New — Design and the Launch Package?

The renovated rooms lean into Korean design references — traditional motifs and nature-inspired materials — layered over a more modern room structure, rather than a full contemporary reset of the original 1979 interiors. To mark the launch, the hotel is running “The Grand Festa,” a limited-time promotion built around three package types: room-only, breakfast-included, and lounge-access. All three share common perks — a bottle of wine, Lotte Hotel hand wash, and a late checkout — which is a useful signal if you’re comparing this against a standard room rate rather than a launch-week deal.

Does This Replace All of Lotte Hotel Seoul?

No — the rebrand applies only to the hotel’s original main building. The adjacent Lotte Hotel Seoul Executive Tower, a separate wing within the same complex, keeps the “Lotte Hotel Seoul” brand name and is on its own renovation timeline — as covered in our roundup of Seoul’s new hotels for 2026, the Executive Tower is scheduled to reopen after its own refresh on September 1, 2026. In practice that means the same address in Myeongdong now carries two distinct hotel brands under one Lotte Hotel & Resorts roof: the heritage-focused Grand Lotte Seoul in the main building, and the more standard Lotte Hotel Seoul next door once its tower reopens.

Where Is It, and Why the Location Matters

The hotel sits in Sogong-dong, on top of Lotte Department Store’s main branch, right at the boundary between Myeongdong and Seoul City Hall — one of the most central addresses in the city, a short walk from Myeongdong Station (Line 4) and within easy reach of Namdaemun Market and the Euljiro business district. For a first trip to Seoul, that puts shopping, street food, and the subway network all within walking distance, which is the same case we make in our guide to Myeongdong and our roundup of where to stay in Myeongdong for travelers weighing this neighborhood against other Seoul bases.

Should You Book It?

The Grand Lotte Seoul sits at the top of Myeongdong’s hotel price range, so it fits travelers prioritizing a flagship, full-service stay over a budget base — if you’d rather see the full range of price points in the neighborhood first, our Myeongdong hotel guide breaks those down by budget. If this property is the one you want, it’s worth checking current room availability and rates🏨 given the launch-week promotion, and it doesn’t hurt to compare pricing across booking sites🏨 before you lock in a package, since launch promotions can shift once the opening-week rush settles.


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About the Author

Stay Cat is a Korea travel expert, born and raised in the country, who has spent a lifetime exploring it first-hand — and a seasoned international traveler beyond it. As a travel creator with an audience of more than 40,000, Stay Cat writes every Trablind guide from native, on-the-ground knowledge: practical, lived-in advice you won’t get from secondhand research. Find more on Threads.

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