give it another kick... anyone knows? and breakfast?

yes (I know from personal experience, but you should always ck Sharon's thread on lounges as her list is complete)

upgraded room
Internet

but be advised, the location is the "pits" (Ren much better)

Last time, got upgraded to a river view suite (quite big), lounge access, etc.
It is right above a department store and train station, location not really that bad.

I think its location is fine. There are taxis readily available or if you want to try out public transportation, there are several subway lines that pass through there.

The concierge lounge faces south, so not the river view, but with smog, the view is not that great anyway (similar to HK, but not as bad as Beijing).

Location is great if you like public transport as its right above the main lines you'd like as a tourist (excluding Seoul station which needs a change) and has direct buses from the airport (to the express bus terminal) every 20minutes during the day, and even direct buses 3/4 times per day. The express bus terminal also probably takes you anywhere in the city if you can manage the Seoul bus system (I must admit I never really tried as the tube did enough for me)

Lounge-wise, one of the best worldwide in terms of food selection and quantity from my own experience - you could easily eat purely from the lounge, 3 cuisines (European, Korean, Japanese) served twice daily and good nibbles throughout the day. The lounge is also rather large with plenty of space.

In short - rather recommended, upgrades have always been to the executive floor and view of the river, last time for some reason I had a bulgari miniatures welcome back gift (I'm plat premier), wasn't complaining but was very generous (may have been as the GM blanked me at check-in probably without realising my status as I had just come in on a 14 hour flight so wasn't in the best of states)!

I love the location of JW seoul. compare to JW, REN's access to public transportation is abysmal. you have to walk either North or South 2-3 blocks to catch line 2. JW? line 3, 7, AND 9. voila~

lousy location was referring to the area surrounding the hotel as I took a walk after a long flight and the area at night was not very pleasant.................... the hotel itself was OK

[QUOTE=littlevoices;18710169]Location is great if you like public transport as its right above the main lines you'd like as a tourist (excluding Seoul station which needs a change) and has direct buses from the airport (to the express bus terminal) every 20minutes during the day, and even direct buses 3/4 times per day. The express bus terminal also probably takes you anywhere in the city if you can manage the Seoul bus system (I must admit I never really tried as the tube did enough for me)QUOTE]

The surrounding area is not condusive to taking a leisurely walk, though I don't think it is unsafe. The hotel is connected to a mall, so you can walk through the mall, although without the fresh air.

Surrounding area is good for hiking, though I agree that not a lot of activity in the immediate area that would be of interest to the traveler. Access to public transport is a real plus.

I have always stayed on the CL lounge level in the hotel, but believe that the rooms are pretty much all the same throughout the hotel (with the exception of the suites). I think the only "upgrade" is getting a room with the river view vs. the city view, though views are interesting from either side.

Upgrade could be to a river view suite, which had happened to me.
(So far in Asia, I always request a "larger" room instead of mentioning "suite" and have been getting the latter at least 50% of the time.)

Least Favorite Marriott
 

We stayed at the JW Seoul two years ago. Was a nice property but was told my domestic partner could not use the Executive Lounge with me as he was not "my family".

After some conversation they said they would make an 'exception' to the policy and allow him access. I told them 'no thanks' and called Bethesda to report.

Perhaps lounge access was stricter 2 years ago, but I saw people entering the lounge without being asked for name and room number during most of my visits to the lounge.

Me too.... suites at the JW in Seoul, the Capital Ren in Beijing, the Marriott Northeast in Beijing, etc. Now if there were only REAL Marriotts in Tokyo.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3)

Well you have a courtyard and a ritz .... Well....

I'm thinking about either this or the Ren. I have 23 hours in Seoul coming up. Sounds like the Ren is a better choice for short stay?