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| Chef the Grill offers an opportunity to experience the deep aromas and flavors of Europe. / Courtesy of Le Meridien Seoul |
By Kang Seung-woo
When Le Meridien Seoul opened its doors last September, replacing the Ritz-Carlton Seoul that had stood in the heart of Seoul's iconic Gangnam District for 21 years, some may have scratched their heads over the transformation.
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| Le Meridien Seoul General Manager Martijn Sax / Courtesy of Le Meridien Seoul |
In this regard, for Martijn Sax, the general manager of Le Meridien Seoul, to improve recognition of his hotel was the biggest challenge as well as the main focus of his job when he started.
"My focus was really on making sure that people will start understanding what Le Meridien is and what the brand stands for, compared to the Ritz-Carlton," said Sax in an interview with The Korea Times.
"Le Meridien is a completely different brand that is way less scripted than the Ritz-Carlton. Getting the Le Meridien brand known and accepted throughout Korea is one thing and the other is also to get people to understand that the Ritz-Carlton is now Le Meridien."
To this end, Le Meridien has added European-geared stuff to its repertoire on its way to becoming Korea's only luxury European-style art hotel. The brand originally came out of France --although it is now owned by U.S.-based Marriott International.
According to him, the hotel has done a couple of the "biggest things" to go European.
"The biggest thing that you can do is food. We actually set our chefs on a trip to Europe for two weeks, where they picked up local flavors from Barcelona, Lisbon, Italy and of course, Paris. They picked up all different kinds of specialties and so we are displaying them in our 'Chef's Palette' — a restaurant featuring all-day dining. We also do the same with our outdoor grilling area (in Chef the Grill) that feels more like an English-style garden," said the 27-year veteran hotelier.
According to the Dutchman, everything the hotel presents is all European ranging from wines to beers and drafts.
"We try to interact with a lot of European flavors and flair into the hotel, so one of the packages would be the Le Meridien experience package that really tours all the different European experiences, including Finnish sauna and English high tea. At the end of the day, you can of course have dinner downstairs at Chef's Palette or you can go to Chef the Grill for the outdoor grilling concept," he said.
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| Le Meridien Seoul offers several types of rooms with balconies offering captivating views of Seoul's iconic Gangnam District. / Courtesy of Le Meridien Seoul |
As the Korean hotel industry is becoming a closely contested battlefield with more and more hotels popping up, each hotel is doing all it can to come up with eye-catching strategies to attract more guests.
Sax believes Le Meridien has a couple of great attributes over rival brands.
"I think the location is very good. We are right next to COEX (exhibition hall), but that is only one side of the mark. We have way more businesses here with other entities coming up. We have millions of people walking in this area every day," he said.
"Having an art gallery – M Contemporary – is unique and gets a lot of tours to the building. It also shows that the hotel is more than just a place where we sleep and eat. We can also deliver something to the area and the community."
In fact, the owner of the hotel is an art collector and the extensive art collections that the owner has collected over years hang on the walls of the hotel.
The general manager also boasted that Le Meridien is one of the few hotels here that serve food out-of-doors, where people can sit and enjoy.
"We have the Chef the Grill, Maple Garden on the lobby floor and Le Ciel Garden on the sixth floor. We can transform them for weddings and outdoor viewing for sports events such as the World Cup. With live dinners and the outdoor pool, we can create a lot of different things," he said.
"As well, we have several balconies in the hotel. The balconies of the rooms are very unique settings."
On the back of such selling points, Le Meridien Seoul made the list of the 102 Best New Hotels in the World by international travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler's in May.
"It is a great accolade. So many hotels opened and this is not something that you can go and apply for," Sax said.
"It really shows we are on the right track and also that we are here to stay. Our goal is not only to be the best hotel in Korea but also be the best Le Meridien in the world."
