For Chuseok, we decided it’d probably be best to stay downtown so my friend picked out a hotel and got out of work early to meet up with our other friend and to check in. It was one of her first weekends in South Korea and it was her first time going downtown on her own. She managed to find the hotel okay after a bit of stress. (Their websites show the hotel in different spots because it’s a chain) I didn’t get there until after dark and was a bit confused on how exactly to get there, especially since she hadn’t finished her message that included the directions beyond getting out of the station and looking up.
There are a couple Art Nouveau hotels in Seoul, the one we stayed in was off the Gangam line and a straight shot from exit 9 (after you walk several blocks and go under an intersection). It was pretty cheap so I was a bit worried but it turned out to be gorgeous. It was a mostly dark room with everything hidden away in cabinets, like a kitchen and washing machine. The bathroom was decent and modern-esq, there were high ceilings with chandeliers and mirrors everywhere. It was broken up into two rooms both decent size, a living room with a couch and table and extra chairs and the bed room with two beds. The beds were comfortable but too close together. Since I was by the wall there was no way to walk alongside my bed to get in it, I had to just jump on it from the foot of the bed. It was a bit of a walk from the station but it was peaceful and clean. For the price it was amazing. We stayed 3 nights it was a little over 43,000 won per night.
It worked the same way the Tune hotel or the APA hotel worked which is that the electricity runs by you leaving your key in the slot. We didn’t have to use the key though to use the elevator or anywhere else in the hotel. Which I was concerned about since there was a key reader in the elevators.