The Westin Chosun’s website was hacked last month by hackers suspected to be from China.

According to the hotel, the website was briefly made inoperable on Oct. 18 when the hackers posted a Chinese flag with a message that read, “Your website has been hacked by Chinese.”

The hotel said there was no leak of customer information, but the website has been shut down since Oct. 30 for what the hotel claims to be website “renewal.”

Visitors to the website are greeted with the message, “The Westin Chosun website is under system upgrade,” with contact information to guide customers to hotel services.

“We don’t know why they (hackers) did it. The flag just appeared and then was gone,” said Joo Hyun-geun, a public relations coordinator at the hotel.

“The website opened again, and it is currently not operating because we are preparing a site renewal that will meet the global standard of the Westin brand website,” the official added.

Room reservations can currently be made on the website of the Westin hotel brand at www.westin.com/seoul.

When the site will reopen is unknown, according to Joo.

But according to a computer security expert who wished to remain anonymous, the chances of personal information of customers having leaked is high if the website required the information for reservations.

“If customers can make online reservations through the website, and check their reservation status, the chances are high that customers’ information was leaked by the hacking,” the official said. “It also applies to websites that require visitors to log in to order products.”

Korean hotel websites require information such as name, phone number, email address and check-in/out dates for room reservations.

Meanwhile, the Grand Hyatt Seoul, which renewed its website in late October “to meet the standard website format of the hotel brand,” launched its new website without halting its website service.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)