A luxury hotel reputed for its “members only” facilities is sheepishly reaching out to the general public to attract new clients.

Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul, located on the foot of Namsan, central Seoul, drew the media’s attention at the time of its opening in June 2010, claiming to be “home to a high-end social community for the top 1 percent of Korea.”

Only a small number of VVIPs recommended by the selected existing members are allowed to join the club, with the membership fee coming to a whopping 100 million won ($91,000).

“Most celebrities and high-profile figures are members of Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul. Their network will be the biggest asset of the social club,” said a spokesperson of the club at the time of the opening.

But it took less than a year for the hotel to grow impatient to give the public a more accessible image.

It first opened Festa, one of the three largely divided sections of the Banyan Tree, composed of an outdoor swimming pool, restaurants and a bar, to non-members in May 2011. This year, it held promotions that opened spaces that used to be reserved for members only, including rooms at the Club and the iconic outdoor pool Oasis. It also opened a Facebook account last month and held events offering vouchers.

“We have both facilities that are only for members and those that are also open to non-members. The membership system, however, was more emphasized in media through our PR agency at the time of the opening because we had to sell membership accounts before the grand opening. That seems to have left a big impression. We are putting in efforts to show that the hotel is not all about membership,” said a spokesperson at Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul.

Insiders say that the hotel suffered financial difficulties as its “members-only” image shooed away non-members and hindered sales. The membership sales were not as strong as expected either. Among the maximum 3,300 membership accounts ― worth 480 billion won ― the local law allowed the club to sell, only half were reportedly sold at the time of Hyundai Group’s acquisition.

The hotel, first owned by Urban Oasis, which signed a 20-year-management contract with the luxury hotel chain Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts in 2007, was finally sold to Hyundai in June this year at 163.5 billion won. After the takeover, Hyundai expressed plans to improve the financial structure of the hotel.

The spokesperson declined to comment about membership sales, but said that the overall membership-market here has stagnated.

“Membership accounts are steadily sold, but our analysis is that the membership-market here, including golf clubs as well as hotels, is weak, impacted by the overall economic stagnation,” said the spokesperson.

To prevent possible complaints from existing members about the change of policy, the hotel is opening up facilities and services only partly and at a level that would not disturb them, said the spokesperson, mentioning that Oasis is only open to the public after 7 p.m. for that reason.

But other than that, the hotel has not yet made specific plans for how to seek two seemingly opposite client bases, said the spokesperson.

“The hotel was taken over by Hyundai only recently, and we are marketing new things, but are still in the planning stage,” she said.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)