Kensington Jeju Hotel: Best of the E Land brands

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea—The Kensington hotel brand is among the popular ones in South Korea.

With over 26 hotels in the country, the E Land Group boasts of Kensington Jeju Hotel in Jeju Island as the best of their best.

The hotel is just one of the five properties that they have on island but it clearly stands out. It is not what you would call loudly extravagant, but classy and elegant. Just walking inside the hotel’s lobby, one can see what a piece of art it is, not only literally as its walls are also decorated by works of various artists.

Kensington Jeju Hotel is the best of E Land’s 26 hotels in South Korea. It has 221 rooms, three pools, and three restaurants among its many amenities. (HANAIVY BABAUTA )

Aside from the marine theme of the hotel’s exterior and interior designs, Kensington Jeju Hotel’s concept is inspired by various artists with the lobby gallery having elements of sky, wind, mountains, and sea.

A 24-meter wall in the central lobby is also where you will find the porcelain mural of Zhu, Le Geng, the leading porcelain artist of China, named Life in Bloom. In another wall, you can see an ink painting of Jia, Hao Yi, also a Chinese artist.

Kensington Jeju Hotel has 221 rooms, at least three of which are presidential suite rooms.

During a tour, Stella Park, the hotel’s concierge, showed us around the top of one of the presidential suite rooms, which is 176 square meters in size. It has one bedroom, two bathrooms, a study, a living room, and a veranda that has its own Jacuzzi.

The presidential suites have their own themes such as golf, marina, and traditional Korean.

Park says most of their guests here are VIPs and a night would cost more than $5,000.

A notch lower, Park also showed us around their 82-square-meter suite room, which has a kitchenette and a living room complete with complementary items as well as a veranda overlooking the hotel property and Jeju Island’s scenic ranges. A night here would cost no less than a $1,000.

Though their rooms are really luxurious, not only is Kensington Jeju Hotel the best of the E Land brands because of that but also because of their amenities.

The hotel has three swimming pools, one partly indoor and outdoor, and another one, which is an infinity pool at the top of its six-floor facility. The infinity pool, called “Skyfinity” is accessible only for adults. Warm water is used for all their pools.

It also has three restaurants, an Italian, a Korean, and a buffet restaurant.

Another E Land property in Jeju is the Kensington Resort where 250,000 people a year stays, half of the total of the visitor arrivals in the CNMI.

It is a quiet resort that is frequented by Korean guests and is catered to families and couples. It is closer to nature with its wide garden lined on both sides by two river, which flows from Jeju’s highest peak down to the ocean.

“The main purpose why we’re here is we want to show what the value, what kind of items, what kind of condition of the hotel that we’re going to open for Kensington Saipan,” Ted Jung said.

For Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Perry Tenorio, it is an opportunity for the Saipan community to see what Kensington has in store for the CNMI.

“I think us being here is a very positive sign that Kensington is moving forward with the opening of their property,” Tenorio said.

Aside from hotels and resorts, E Land Group also has industries in fashion and retail, restaurants, interior design, construction, and furniture.

Last year, their total revenue reached up to $10 billion.

“It just goes to show how diverse and big E Land is. And for them to choose the CNMI is really a complement,” Tenorio said.

The E Land Group, which acquired the former Palms Resort to open and re-brand as Kensington Hotel Saipan, was earlier set to open on December. But due to challenges on Saipan the past months, it has been moved to a later date.

Jung said E Land will make the official announcement of their opening on Wednesday.