Oia Hotel

Check-in is self-service on the second basement level: pay for the room there, then head upstairs. The complex has places to drink, sing, and dance, while the rooms start on the sixth floor and have great views. The beds are comfortable. I stayed in a premium room on a weekday for 65,000 won.

The room condition and the view were nice, and parking was convenient. The bathroom is small, and the breakfast buffet was a little disappointing, with coffee as the only drink. Still, having a breakfast buffet included was nice.

I’m writing this at 2 AM because the noise in the room has kept me from getting any sleep. I can hear footsteps, showers, and toilets flushing from above, below, and the neighboring rooms. Conversations come through clearly too. The walls carry the sound, and the building seems to do nothing to block vibrations. I suspect there’s a karaoke room in the building. With the window open, drunk guests singing and banging tambourines are deafening. The bedding is relatively clean, but the bathroom has lots of hair and mold. A cheap motel in Sinho-dong would be a hundred times better.

This place seems mainly aimed at local guests, and neither Japanese nor English is spoken. That isn’t the staff’s fault, but it makes the hotel unsuitable for Japanese tourists. It appears to have an attached pet hotel, so it could work for people traveling with pets.