Hotel: JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square / Location: Seoul, South Korea / Date: November 2023 / Program: Marriott Luminous
Selecting a hotel in a large a metropolis as Seoul is always a very difficult decision. There are numerous factors to consider including the hotel quality, amenities, nearby attractions, transport links, budget and location. Well this is why we are here to help you.
In Seoul specifically, if you are spending several days exploring the city then we would suggest splitting your time between north of River Han, which is where JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square is located and south of the River Han which is where Conrad Seoul is located.
JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square is so close to most of the tourist attractions which is what we liked the most about this hotel. It was also convenient that the hotel had a direct connection to the Metro station from inside the building. We didn’t even need to step outside in the frosty weather!
Booking
On arrival, we were upgraded to this humongous one-bedroom suite with views of the Dongdaemun. I would add that we have access to the Marriott Luminous and Marriott Stars program through which you can access specific Marriott benefits and also retain your existing Marriott Bonvoy member privileges.
Guests booking at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square under a Marriott Luminous rate can benefit from:
- Complimentary breakfast for 2 daily
- Early check-in and Late check-out based on availability
- Free upgrade to Executive Suite for 1 night based on availability (condition: 5th consecutive night stay)
- Discover Seoul Pass Mobile 24 hours (Value of $30) per stay
- Welcome amenity and welcome letter from GM
These amenities vary slightly across Marriott properties. This hotel provides an upgrade to a suite and Seoul tourist pass whilst others typically provide one category upgrade and $100 credit. Quite often there are 3rd night free and 4th night free offers…
JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Location
The location of this hotel is perfect. On the lower basement floor, the bakery provides an underground Metro connection. Most importantly the hotel is on the ‘right side’ of the river as most tourist attractions are to the north of River Han. Dongdaemun Market, Myeong-dong Night Market and several other places can be reached within 30 minutes or less. The hotel is conveniently located not far from Seoul Central Station, which connects to Incheon Airport and other major cities such as Busan.
Check-In: JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square
We checked-in quite late at night, possibly close to midnight, after arriving from Busan on the KTX bullet train. You can read all about our Busan experience here.
At this time of the night, the lobby and check-in area were naturally deserted. We were seen promptly, completed the necessary paperwork and received a clear explanation of all our benefits. Of course, we were delighted to hear about our upgrade to the One Bedroom Suite with Dongdaemun views. This was located on the executive floor with access to the JW Marriott Executive Lounge. Bingo!
The lobby was tastefully decorated with Christmas spirit on full display.
Room: One Bedroom Executive Suite Dongdaemun View
The corridors were well lit with a lot of red used in the wood panelling of the doors. Maybe the interior designer worked on a project with the Mandarin Oriental previously…
Our room was located on the 10th floor.
Entrance
The entrance of the room had a small console table with some decorative items and a large full-length mirror to the left. A long corridor led to the room with some handy cupboard space for winter jackets (…handy as long as you don’t forget your jackets in the hidden space…). Whilst the entrance was spacious it did look a bit bland. Maybe some plants or wall art would’ve helped.
The corridor that led to the living room also has a full bathroom with a single vanity and toilet. A suite is not a proper suite until it has a separate washroom. A very spacious one in our case.
The corridor led to this huge living room with a proper writing desk, a proper six-seater L-shaped sofa and an arm chair. It certainly was a lot more spacious than my living room in London.
The dark-wood flooring with the soft carpet certainly gave it a warm and homely feeling. Otherwise sometimes hotel suites can feel a bit too bland.
Living Room
The writing desk had a bowl of fruits as welcome amenity Strangely though it also had a UV filter machine…something that I have never seen provided in a hotel before. I think it is definitely is a ‘Korean thing’ as I observed several TV monitors in numerous Seoul Metro stations displaying the air quality index. Maybe Koreans are obsessed with air quality? If that’s the case then maybe they should go visit Delhi during the winters…
Plenty of space in this living room. We only wished we were spending more time in this hotel than just two nights.
Through a door next to the TV screen in the living room was the bedroom (on the left) and the bathroom and walk-in wardrobe on the right.
Bedroom
Compared to the size of the living room and walk-in wardrobe, the bedroom was on the smaller side. Nevertheless, it was spacious and had two sofas plus a large TV screen. The black-out screens gave us an amazing sleep…but probably a bit too amazing for our liking as explained below…
A tablet device on the bedside table controlled all lights for the suite. This is handy in such a large room so you don’t have to individually turn off switches. The annoying bit though was that the tablet never fully turned off at night and had this really low-light glare. Or maybe I’m just inept with technology.
Our bathroom or rather a collection of four rooms (vanity, shower, bath tub and toilet) was as large as most hotel rooms. Of course the hotel won brownie points for their double vanity and stylish white carpet (yes I like plain boring white).
Who wants wants to go to a hotel with a single vanity? Err not me! The l’occitaine toiletries were ummm just OK but nothing inspiring. It’s a decent brand but in these plastic bottles it looked a bit cheap. Top points for hotel toileteries on our Korea trip definitely goes to Grand Hyatt Jeju with their Balmain toileteries followed by Conrad Seoul with the Byredo full-size pump bottles.
Maybe I should start a hotel toileteries leader board?
We had a full-fledged proper Toto toilet. Different spray jet settings, heated seats, warm air, you name it! I did make full use of it…
Next to the bathroom, we had a walk-in wardrobe with a make-up desk and all the usual amenities you’d expect at a JW Marriott. Plenty of space for or luggage.
JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Executive Lounge
Given our upgrade to the Suite, we also had access to the Executive Lounge which was located right across the corridor. The Lounge is open all day and serves breakfast and evening snacks. We did go here for breakfast but we did go one of the evenings and they had plenty of hot food and canapes along with drinks to make it a proper dinner.
This is one of the reasons we always advice clients to book a room with executive/club lounge access if the rate is not too high. The savings made through the food & drinks can easily cover up the additional costs. Of course if you have Platinum or Titanium Bonvoy status then this is already included, .
Breakfast
Remember what I said earlier about sleeping a bit too well in the bedroom? Well we slept so well that we slept through breakfast on the first morning. This was a real bummer as the breakfast was AMAZING!! So good that we still remember it till date. Luckily we had plenty of time on our last morning to have breakfast and make up for the missed breakfast on the first day.
The breakfast section was not one huge buffet but consisted of several small islands which you have to weave through the restaurant. I actually liked this as you then didn’t have too many guests all in one place. The downside is that you really needed to explore all the areas or you’d miss the good bits…like we almost did.
There were plenty of sweet options and those with the sweet-tooth would definitely be happy here. The pastries were fresh and there was plenty of fruits and cereal options.
The best bit though was the ice-cream corner which included a number of flavours including matcha. Honestly I have a huge soft spot for ice-cream during breakfast. I’ve now had it at plenty of asian hotels: Conrad Singapore, Conrad Bali, Conrad Seoul, Grand Hyatt Jeju and this one.
Above everything else, the breakfast buffet had plenty of hot options and PLENTY OF VEGETARIAN OPTIONS!! This also included some vegan options. Most importantly, everything was labelled so we didn’t have to hunt down a human being that spoke the same language as us to then communicate this to another human being who did not speak the same language as us. What a huge relief!! Maybe Grand Hyatt Jeju and Conrad Seoul can learn from the JW?
Needless to say, we did stuff ourselves with some noodles, rice, tofu curry and stir-fry vegetables (sans shrimpy stuff!).
Other Amenities: JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square
The hotel has a beautiful indoor pool laden with chandeliers which create this amazing glow across the area. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take a photo as there were guests in the pool, so I’m adding one her courtesy of the hotel:
The hotel had an extensive gym that stretched across two floors. No shortage of equipments or spa. It was fairly empty when we went and given the size of the gym, I wouldn’t expect it to ever get too busy.
The spa was managed by L’Occitane and included a lounge / relaxation area.
Conclusion
There are very few reviews available online for this hotel. Most travel advisors recommend the usual spots on the south of the river. We were surprised that this hotel doesn’t get talked about much. Well, we would definitely return to JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square and recommend our guests to stay here.
It’s the perfect luxury hotel in an excellent location with great food options. Not sure what else one would need.
Of course, if you’re looking to plan your Korea itinerary, deciding what to do in Seoul and where to stay, we are here to help you. Reach out to us and we will plan your Korea trip and add all the extra perks to your hotels.
