Lotte Hotels & Resorts’ new concept lifestyle hotel L7 Myeongdong seeks to promote itself as “hip, fun and trendy,” targeting mostly young female tourists in their 20s and 30s.

“We basically want L7 to run as a non-Lotte brand ― a totally new hotel ― and move away from our existing image,” said Hotel Lotte president & CEO Song Yong-deok at a press conference at L7 Myeongdong on Monday ahead of the hotel’s Tuesday opening.

He hoped that guests would not associate L7 ― a 21-floor lifestyle hotel with 245 rooms― with other Lotte hotels, such as the luxury Lotte Hotel for premium guests or Lotte City Hotel for business travelers.

“L7 will be different from other Lotte hotels, as it will provide customized services. We will build the L7 brand as a ‘hotel where guests want to keep coming back,’” he said.

He added that as it receives positive feedback from customers, L7 will definitely consider expanding overseas in line with Lotte’s global strategy in expanding its hotel portfolio.

Although Hotel Lotte could not reveal the details of its global expansion plans before the company’s planned initial public offering, Song said its global strategy will remain the same ― expand overseas through direct investments or mergers and acquisitions, hotel management contracts and property leases. Hotel Lotte submitted its application for an IPO in the first half of this year. Its market value is estimated at more than 10 trillion won ($8.3 billion).

“Of the three strategies, we seek to secure more hotel management contracts overseas, because, as you know, a lot of capital is needed at the initial stage of direct investments, which account for a large share of our business operations at home and abroad,” Song said.

“We would like to expand L7 overseas through such contracts to run hotels under the brand.”

In Korea, L7 general manager Bae Hyun-mi said, the company considers Aloft and Solaria hotels as its competitors in the lifestyle lodging sector, while Hotel Cappuccino would be L7’s competitor in design.

“We mostly looked overseas, such as in Shanghai and Beijing, (for ideas) when developing the concept of L7,” Bae told reporters.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)