Hotel Lotte in South Korea: Heritage & Brands

Discover HOTEL LOTTE’s full story — its history, brand, and legacy. As one of South Korea’s top three hotel groups, HOTEL LOTTE represents the pinnacle of hospitality. This article was written entirely by a local Korean expert. 

🏨 The birth of HOTEL LOTTE 

HOTEL LOTTE Co., Ltd. is an affiliate of the LOTTE Group(004990.KS 롯데지주 ▼￦28,050) in South Korea. 
The company operates four main business units: the Hotel Division, the Resort Division, the Duty-Free Division, and the World Division.Externally, it is known as LOTTE HOTELS & RESORTS, following the branding used on its official website. 
For reference, LOTTE Group has established separate subsidiaries in both Japan and Korea, and LOTTE Korea was ranked as the sixth-largest conglomerate in South Korea by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) in 2025. 

LOTTE Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho was born on November 3, 1921, in a modest farmhouse in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. After graduating from an agricultural high school, he moved to Busan in search of new opportunities. There, he worked a variety of jobs and nurtured his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. In 1942, at the age of 21, he left for Japan to pursue even greater possibilities. 
When he left for Japan, he had only ¥120 in capital. During the day, he worked delivering milk and newspapers, and at night he studied at Waseda University. During World War II, many young Japanese were forcibly drafted into the military, but he was able to avoid conscription because he was a college student. 
In 1944, during his third year in Japan, a new opportunity arose while he was working at a pawnshop. Impressed by his diligence, the pawnbroker lent him ¥50,000 in capital and encouraged him to start a factory producing industrial cutting fluid. At the time, cutting fluid for military supplies was in short supply due to the ongoing war. The first factory he built with the loan was destroyed by U.S. bombing, and the second factory, funded again through the pawnbroker’s loan, was also bombed. Both ventures ended in failure. 
On August 15, 1945, Japan’s surrender brought World War II to an end, but he chose not to return to Korea. Instead, he remained in Japan, determined to start a new business and repay the borrowed funds.

In 1946, he leveraged his university training in chemistry to produce laundry and washing soaps using a small-scale industrial process. His business thrived at a time when daily necessities were extremely scarce in Japan. This success allowed him to build a larger factory and laid the groundwork for his entry into the cosmetics industry. 
It was during this period that the LOTTE brand was first introduced for his cosmetics, inspired by Charlotte, the heroine of Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. 
After repaying all his loans, he used the remaining funds to establish the Hikari Special Chemical Research Institute, where he developed a new type of chewing gum. In 1948, he founded LOTTE Company, and by 1950, with gum sales soaring, he opened a new factory in Shinjuku, Tokyo. This marked the beginning of LOTTE Group in Japan. 
A side note: the establishment of LOTTE’s Shinjuku plant attracted many Koreans, eventually forming what is now Shinjuku’s Shin-Okubo Korea Town. 
By 1953, LOTTE Japan had captured 70% of the Japanese gum market. The resulting profits fueled expansion into advertising, real estate, and food service ventures like Lotteria. These efforts culminated in the creation of Lotte Wellfood Co., Ltd. in 1967, which became the foundation of the Korean LOTTE Group.

In 1970, during a large-scale crackdown on illegal food by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, iron powder was found in chewing gum produced by Lotte Wellfood Co., Ltd. Using this incident as an opportunity, the Korean government encouraged him to enter the hotel business in Seoul. 
In 1973, he founded HOTEL LOTTE Co., Ltd. in Korea and acquired the Bando Hotel in 1974. Originally built in 1936 under Japanese colonial rule, the Bando Hotel was a 111-room business hotel with one basement level and eight floors above ground. He demolished the existing structure and purchased the surrounding land to develop a complex that included new hotels and department stores. After six years of construction, Lotte Hotel Seoul, the first property of HOTEL LOTTE Co., Ltd., opened in 1979. 
By 1988, Forbes named LOTTE Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho the fourth richest person in the world, with a fortune of $8 billion. 
Please refer to the table below for an overview of HOTEL LOTTE Co., Ltd.’s hotel operations since then.

 

🏨 History of HOTEL LOTTE 

Date	Event
1973.05.05	Establishment of Hotel Lotte Co., Ltd.
1979.03.10	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Seoul
1988.09.16	Opening of LOTTE Hotel World
2000.04.25	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Jeju
2002.02.28	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Ulsan
2009.04.10	Opening of LOTTE City Hotel Mapo
2010.09.13	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Moscow
2011.12.08	Opening of LOTTE City Hotel Gimpo Airport
2014.02.25	Opening of LOTTE City Hotel Jeju
2014.03.20	Opening of LOTTE City Hotel Daejeon
2014.06.30	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Guam
2014.07.23	Opening of LOTTE City Hotel Guro
2014.09.02	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Hanoi
2015.06.30	Opening of LOTTE City Hotel Ulsan
2016.01.06	Opening of LOTTE City Hotel Myeongdong
2016.01.12	Opening of L7 Myeongdong
2017.04.03	Opening of SIGNIEL Seoul
2017.07.20	Opening of LOTTE Resort Sokcho
2017.09.08	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Yangon
2017.09.15	Opening of LOTTE Hotel St. Petersburg
2017.12.16	Opening of LOTTE Arai Resort
2017.12.30	Opening of L7 Gangnam
2018.01.31	Opening of L7 Hongdae
2018.07.19	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Vladivostok
2018.11.02	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Samara
2020.06.17	Opening of SIGNIEL Busan
2020.09.24	Opening of LOTTE Hotel Seattle
2023.01.01	Operation of L7 Chicago by LOTTE
2023.07.28	Operation of L7 West Lake Hanoi by LOTTE
2024.06.20	Opening of LOTTE Hotel L7 Haeundae

🏨 HOTEL LOTTE's brand 

Currently, HOTEL LOTTE operates four hotel brands. 

1. SIGNIEL: Signiel is HOTEL LOTTE’s premier luxury brand. The name combines “Signature” and “LOTTE.” Currently, there are two Signiel hotels in South Korea. 
2. LOTTE HOTELS: LOTTE HOTELS is HOTEL LOTTE’s traditional luxury brand. Positioned just below Signiel in the brand hierarchy, it comprises five-star hotels. 
3. LOTTE City Hotels: LOTTE City Hotels is HOTEL LOTTE’s business hotel brand, launched in 2009. 
4. L7 (L7 Hotels by Lotte): L7 is HOTEL LOTTE’s lifestyle hotel brand, launched in 2016. While its price range is similar to LOTTE City Hotels, L7 offers a more sensual and personalized style. 

ℹ️ Suggested Reading 

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