Love Motels

When you travel within Korea you will almost certainly stay in a love motel. It's true that their main customer base is young korean adults who are seeking privacy from their parents, but most love motels are perfectly fine for western travelers. The rooms are usually small and clean. Prices range from 30,000 - 70,000 Won a night. From my own limited experience in Seoul the rooms are a lot sketchier when you pay less than 50,000 Won.

Once you know how to spot motels they are fairly easy to find. Typically they are 3-5 stories high and have some amount of decorative neon lighting on the roof. More often than not the word 'motel' is written in English but it helps to be able to recognize the signs in Hangul.

The red font on this keychain shows the Hangul characters for 'motel'.


Here's how the characters above map to English.
ㅁ = M
ㅗ = O
ㅌ = T
ㅔ = E
ㄹ = L

A typical love motel. They pretty much all look like this.


It's very common for them to put pictures of the rooms on a sign out front.


All love motels seem to have the signature neon on the roof.


Once you know how to spot the Hangul signs you'll be able to spot them. Look up above Wiz PC sign on the sidewalk. You'll see the yellow and red neon sign for a motel.


There isn't a lot of English spoken by motel staff so be patient. Generally they know that you are there to get a room for the night. Usually the hardest part is understanding the price. Bring a pen and paper. Write down something like "1 night = 40,000 Won" and they will understand what you mean and change the price accordingly.

NOTE: If you need a decent motel in Seoul between the Express bus terminal and Itaewon, the Hyu (pictured above) was perfectly fine. It was 35,000 Won for a night to sleep on a floor mat and 50,000 Won for a bed. It's just outside of the Sinsa subway stop on the #3 Line. Take exit #5 from the subway and it's about 30 feet up the sidewalk on your lefthand side. There's a Starbucks coffee 3 blocks away and a WaBar 2 blocks away. It's about 25 minutes to Itaewon with the subway transfer but my Korean friend said it was actually a very short and inexpensive cab ride.