Lotte Hotel Launches Soft Brand Business... "Aiming to Be a Lifestyle Platform"

Creator Town Seogyo to Open Late Next Month... Contracts Closed
Long-Term Goal to Evolve into a 'Lifestyle Platform'

Lotte Hotel is accelerating its soft brand business starting with the opening of ‘Localstitch Creator Town Seogyo.’ Along with the appointment of CEO Kim Tae-hong, known as an ‘all-round player’ in the hotel industry, there is analysis that the company is preparing for a long-term leap into a ‘comprehensive lifestyle platform.’

Localstitch Creator Town office space. [Photo by Localstitch]

According to Lotte Hotel on the 27th, Creator Town Seogyo, which is opening through a collaboration between Lotte Hotel and space planning startup Localstitch, has fully booked all rooms about a month before its opening. Creator Town Seogyo is a residential and office space operated by startup Localstitch, tailored for individual creators and freelance creators. Among the total 296 rooms, 150 rooms for long-term residents have been booked, and the 146 rooms for short-term residents will be available for reservation through an online platform after opening next month.

Lotte Hotel has been actively moving to implement the soft brand business, including launching a dedicated organization earlier this year. Recently, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with travel tech platform company LUNET to build an IT technology platform that connects individual hotels participating in the soft brand business with Lotte Hotel. Currently, the direction of the soft brand business that Lotte Hotel is planning is largely twofold: either lending only Lotte Hotel’s own systems (reservation network and membership) without compromising the independence of individual hotels, or integrating Lotte Hotel and individual hotels to launch a new brand. In addition, plans are underway to closely cooperate with individual hotels through participation in rewards promotions and other initiatives.

Kim Tae-hong, CEO of Lotte Hotel [Photo by Lotte Hotel]

There is also an evaluation that the soft brand business has laid the foundation for Lotte Hotel’s leap into a comprehensive lifestyle platform. Earlier this year, Lotte Hotel clarified its operational goal to grow beyond the hotel sector into a lifestyle platform by unifying the hotel and resort divisions.

In particular, CEO Kim Tae-hong, appointed on the 20th, is the key figure who unified the hotel and resort divisions. He is regarded as the right person to achieve this goal, having extensive experience in hospitality, including domestic and overseas hotel operations as well as golf course management. Other effects of the soft brand business include stabilizing profits and enhancing brand awareness through the expansion of the hotel chain network.

A Lotte Hotel official said, "The soft brand business has been an issue internally discussed steadily as part of discovering new businesses, and the preliminary work for full-scale business implementation was completed earlier this year. It is not only the optimal business to realize Lotte Hotel’s goal of growing into a comprehensive lifestyle platform beyond hospitality, but also an effective business for stabilizing profits and expanding the hotel chain network."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.