Gapyeong Dumesangol Pension

At check-in time there were no staff around and no instructions anywhere, which made the experience absolutely horrible. We had driven all the way there, rented a car, and parked, then knocked at the door marked reception. Nobody answered. We went into the neighboring property by mistake and learned it was a private residence; they just sent us back to reception. After about 15 minutes of walking around looking for help, we gave up and called the number from the booking site. The person who answered didn't speak English. When I kept saying “check in,” he repeated “4pm,” apparently thinking I was asking what time check-in was. It was 4:45pm. I tried saying “check in today, now,” but he asked lots of questions in Korean, and it was clear he didn't understand what I wanted. We tried a translator app, but that didn't help. After waiting about another 20 minutes and nearly giving up, someone arrived and pointed to my name on her phone, then took us to the room. I was relieved, since after hours of driving it would have been hard to find somewhere to stay for the night. The location is excellent, with beautiful views, and you can walk to the garden of morning calm. The room was very large, really a house with 2 bedrooms, but there were no chairs. We wish we'd known, because my partner's back took a beating from sitting on the floor. The heated floor was lovely to walk on, but the bed was a mattress on the floor, and we sweated all night because we couldn't turn the heating off. I'm sure it's meant to be a lovely traditional Korean stay, but this was our worst stay out of all the hotels we've visited across Korea.