The Shilla Monogram Hanoi West Lake hotel opens on 23 October: 319 rooms and a pool on the 35th floor

Hanoi is about to welcome South Korea’s largest hotel company. Hotel Shilla will open the Shilla Monogram Hanoi West Lake on 23 October 2026, a 319-room tower rising in Starlake, the new town taking shape north-west of West Lake. Six years after Da Nang, the Seoul group returns to Vietnam through the north, with five restaurants and bars, a spa and a pool set on the 35th floor.

☰Contents

1. Starlake, Hanoi’s new diplomatic quarter
2. 319 rooms from the 23rd to the 34th floor
3. Five venues, from Dining M to Bar M
4. Rooftop pool, spa and a 700 sqm ballroom
5. Monogram, the group’s fourth address
6. Vietnam, a battleground for Asian groups
7. Our view

Starlake, Hanoi’s new diplomatic quarter

The hotel stands at 6 Hoang Minh Thao, in Xuan Dinh ward, at the heart of Starlake, the new town built between central Hanoi and Noi Bai International Airport. This is where Vietnam is gathering part of its administration and its diplomatic missions, a few hundred metres from the embassy of the Republic of Korea, a neighbour that is no accident for a Seoul-based group.

The geography explains the rest. The airport is a twenty-five minute taxi ride away according to the hotel, the central business district around twenty minutes, and West Lake, the capital’s largest body of water, begins just to the east. A pick-up and drop-off service will be offered by the concierge desk, and the 319 keys target Korean business travellers as much as Vietnamese families at the weekend.

319 rooms from the 23rd to the 34th floor

The building runs from the third basement level up to the 35th floor. Guest rooms start on the 23rd and stop on the 34th, which gives all 319 keys an open view over the city or the lake, a rare argument in Hanoi, where international hotels are still concentrated in lower buildings.

The grid is simple and easy to read. Two hundred and fifty-eight Deluxe rooms of 42 sqm make up the bulk, joined by 33 Deluxe Corner rooms of 56 sqm, 13 Junior Suites of 64 sqm and 13 Corner Suites of 75 sqm. At the top, the 142 sqm Signature Suite looks out over central Hanoi. Interiors play on pale wood, stone and openwork screens, in a contemporary reading of Vietnamese lines that the group describes as inspired by terraced rice fields.

Five venues, from Dining M to Bar M

Dining is where Hotel Shilla plays its Korean card most openly. Dining M, the all-day buffet on the second floor, seats 234 and serves from breakfast at 6 am through to dinner at 10 pm, among banquettes, communal tables and full-height windows onto the garden. Next door, Pastry M runs the hotel’s bakery and patisserie.

The third floor holds the two speciality restaurants. Jinji, the Korean restaurant, seats 64 across six private rooms and serves dinner only, from 5.30 pm to 10 pm; Hasungo, the Chinese restaurant, seats 110 with four private rooms. On the 35th floor, Bar M and its 52 seats open from 5 pm to 1 am, while the Monogram Lounge, 75 seats reserved for suite guests, runs breakfast, afternoon tea and happy hour on the same level.

Rooftop pool, spa and a 700 sqm ballroom

Wellness occupies two separate levels. The spa sits on the fourth floor, the indoor pool and the fitness centre on the fifth, with a 1.2-metre-deep pool and a jacuzzi, open from 6 am to 11 pm. The outdoor pool takes the 35th floor, is 1.45 metres deep, holds 66 guests and closes at 10 pm.

The ground floor is given over to events, a decisive segment in Hanoi, where weddings and conferences keep large hotels busy all year. The Grand Banquet Hall unfolds 700 sqm under a six-metre ceiling, seating 620 theatre-style, 400 for a banquet and up to 700 for a cocktail, alongside a second hall and meeting rooms.

Monogram, the group’s fourth address

Hotel Shilla, the hotel arm of the Samsung conglomerate led by Lee Boo-jin, runs three brands: The Shilla for its Seoul and Jeju palaces, Shilla Stay for city hotels, and Shilla Monogram since 2020. The group presents the latter as a lifestyle brand crossing The Shilla’s heritage with the character of each destination, with recurring signatures: the Monogram Lounge, local activity programmes and the Little Monogram children’s space.

Hanoi will be the brand’s fourth address. After Da Nang in 2020, Gangneung in Korea in 2025 and Xi’an in China in February 2026, the Shilla Monogram Hanoi West Lake brings the number of properties outside Korea to three. The hotel runs under a management contract, a formula that lets the group grow without tying up capital, the tower itself belonging to a Starlake developer.

Vietnam, a battleground for Asian groups

The Vietnamese calendar is busy, and the Koreans are not alone. IHG is targeting more than forty hotels in the country against sixteen today, and is pushing its upscale brands from Sapa to Phu Quoc, while Banyan Tree, Accor and Marriott keep signing along the coast. The north of the country, long left to the beach resorts of the centre and the south, is becoming the new front.

Hotel Shilla’s argument fits in one sentence, the one the group has repeated since the announcement: pairing Vietnam’s growth potential with its own service expertise. Behind the phrase lies a very real flow, that of Korean travellers, Vietnam’s leading source market for several years, and a business clientele following the factories and offices set up around Hanoi.

Our view

On paper the address ticks many boxes Hanoi was waiting for: rooms that all sit above the 23rd floor, a genuine Korean restaurant, a rooftop bar and a 700 sqm ballroom. The location, on the other hand, asks the leisure traveller to accept Starlake rather than the Old Quarter or the immediate shores of West Lake, which amounts to twenty minutes by car and is repaid in quiet.

The Monogram brand proved itself in Da Nang, where it delivered a Korean reading of the Vietnamese beach resort without caricature. We will go and see what it gives in its urban version once the hotel opens on 23 October, and we will tell you whether the Starlake tower matches the level of service and dining the group is promising.

Practical information

• Shilla Monogram Hanoi West Lake, 6 Hoang Minh Thao, Xuan Dinh ward, Hanoi, Vietnam, +84 24 7301 0100
• Opening on 23 October 2026 · check-in at 3 pm, check-out at noon
• Dining M: breakfast from 6 am to 10 am on weekdays and until 10.30 am at weekends, lunch from 11.30 am to 2.30 pm, dinner from 5 pm to 10 pm
• Jinji: dinner from 5.30 pm to 10 pm · Hasungo: lunch from 11.30 am to 2 pm, dinner from 5.30 pm to 10 pm · Bar M: 5 pm to 1 am
• Indoor pool from 6 am to 11 pm, outdoor pool from 8 am to 10 pm

Photo credit Shilla Monogram Hanoi West Lake