New business hotels to help plug shortage

In order to help fill shortages in accommodation amid growing numbers of foreign visitors to Seoul, Accor-Ambassador Korea Hotel Management will open three new business hotels in the capital.

The company said yesterday it has recently signed three franchise and management agreements. It inked one of the deals with Hee & Sun Construction & Development on Monday to launch the Mercure Ambassador Gangnam hotel. Accor-Ambassador is a joint venture between French hotel chain Accor and Korea-based Ambassador Hotel Group.

The Mercure Ambassador Gangnam, slated to open in February, is located next to Yeoksam Station in southern Seoul with 288 guest rooms, a restaurant and bar, five meeting rooms, and a spa. Also on Monday, the company signed a management agreement to run an Ibis Ambassador in Seoul’s tourist-friendly Insa-dong area with Ambastel. The hotel is scheduled to open in May 2013 with 360 guest rooms. Earlier in November, it clinched a management agreement for the Novotel Ambassador Seongbuk in northern Seoul, which will open by 2015 with around 300 guest rooms.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the average daily demand for rooms in the capital stood at 51,087 this year as of November, but Seoul only has 26,507 rooms. The overspill tends to get shunted to neighboring Gyeonggi. “This imbalance in supply and demand is expected to get worse with high prices and a shortage of available land,” the company said. The group plans to operate 20 hotels by 2015 to help fill the gap, it said.

By Song Su-hyun [ssh@joongang.co.kr]