쌍용건설

Opened in 1969, as a symbol of Seoul, the Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul was remodeled as the world’s most luxurious club & hotel.
Banyan Tree’s first city hotel is armed with a 21-story hotel building, club, cabana swimming pool, and golf driving range.
The club for VVIP members, which requires a strict membership registration process is to have their grand opening on June 9.


A world-class luxury hotel has emerged in Namsan, in the heart of Seoul, through a remodeling project. This represents a first for Korea.

Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (Kim S.Joon, Chairman & CEO) said on June 9 that it had remodeled the Tower Hotel and reopened it as the Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul, a member of the world’s most luxurious resort hotel chain. Previous remodeling projects simply aimed at improving the performance or interior of a building, but the Banyan Tree Club & Spa was the first in Korea to transform a building into a top-class 6 star hotel through remodeling.

The Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul (Lee Young-il, CEO) reduced the 218 hotel rooms of the Tower Hotel into 50 suite room-grade luxury rooms measuring 55 sq. meters or more per unit. These rooms are armed with in-room pools, as the hotel has been reborn as a top-class facility and perfect club for memberships, encompassing the hotel building, a club building, cabana swimming pool, a fitness center, a golf driving range, and a spa. Living up to its world-renowned reputation, all the facilities here are the top of the line in accordance with the highest standards set by Banyan Tree. Indeed, Banyan Tree only grants its chain license to hotels that meet its strict criteria.

A building that used to house hotel rooms, a health club, a sauna, and a wedding hall has been transformed into a club building designed to serve members only. The club building comes with 16 suite-grade rooms, an indoor swimming pool, a split level fitness center, and the Banyan Tree Spa and Sauna that has become a global trend-setter: all of these facilities are exclusively for members. It also boasts Korea’s largest kids club designed to satisfy the needs of the children of VVIP club members.

The Tower Hotel swimming pool, which enjoyed immense popularity over a long period of time, has been transformed into an outdoor swimming pool, “The Oasis,” complete with an adults’ pool with a beautiful, exotic design as the centerpiece of ‘Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul’, a children’s pool, and preschoolers’ pool, and a cabana that houses 23 private pools. The pool has already garnered high praise and enjoyed immense popularity among club members when it was opened for a test run last summer. The golf driving range by the pool has also been refurbished, with Troon Golf, the world’s top golf management agency, taking charge of facility operation.

The hotel, which has been transformed into top-end facilities while retaining the original exterior look of the building, has seen the size of each hotel room increase to a minimum 55 sq. meters and maximum 537 sq. meters. All of the 34 suite-grade rooms have a plunge pool (mini pool measuring 8 to 22 sq. meters). Notably, the only two Presidential Suite Rooms on the two top stories of the building feature a double-floor structure that affords guests 180-degree panoramic night views of Namsan and Seoul’s cityscape. These are truly top-class rooms fit for even state guests.

Executive director Kim Jong-koo at Ssangyong Engineering & Construction said, “With the world-famous luxury hotel, Banyan Tree, up and running in Seoul at last, many world-renowned figures and celebrities are expected to visit and stay at the hotel. As the hotel is a 6 star-class hotel that has been created through a remodeling project, it is very significant in terms of its architecture and environment.”

The club is operated exclusively based on membership. The prices are set at KRW130 million for an individual membership, and KRW185 million for a couples membership, plus 25 million won per child. The annual membership fee costs KRW 8 million per four-family membership but more than 3,100 members have already signed up. The club, which has been designed exclusively for Korea’s super rich, is truly a club for VVIP members, which one can only join on the recommendation of an existing member, followed by an internal review.

The ‘Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul’ debuted in Korea and is a world-renowned resort chain, which operates 24 resorts and hotels, 64 spas, 69 galleries, and two golf courses in 32 countries worldwide, including those in London, Morocco, Greece, Egypt, Sydney, Hong Kong, Phuket and Bintan.

The real owner of the ‘Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul’ is Urban Oasis, which signed a 20-year contract with Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts for the operation of the hotel.

Meanwhile, Ssangyong Engineering & Construction is the top remodeling project contractor with a proven track record of many successful remodeling projects, including Singapore’s landmark Raffles Hotel and Capital Square Building Shop House. In Korea, the company carried out the remodeling of high-end buildings, including the Louis Vuitton Concept Store, the largest single store for the luxury goods brand, the Seoul Hilton Hotel, and the Sofitel Ambassador Hotel, as well as the Ssangyong Yega in Bangbae-dong, the first remodeling project to renovate an entire apartment complex in Korea.