Morning Sky Residence

Stayed here for 3 nights and personally I wished i had booked a better hotel and pay a little more. The facilities are bare minimum. I am a budget traveller and had stayed at hostels before but this place is not as comfortable and welcoming. Will not return but if you are planning to stay longer in Seoul (abt a week or more) then i think this place is it.

This hotel located in between Dongmyo station and Sinseoldong station. The location is good when walk to station there are some shops nearby. We are surprised by Sunday market when we go out. There are shops on the road to Dongmyo station. Then I discovered it is street where 정형돈 bring g-dragon to buy cloth in 무한도전.

We got a really cheap deal for the rooms and stayed here for the week -with twin rooms (it cost us aerage £28 per room per night) When we arrived, we coudnt get in the doorway as the usual entrance was blocked by a barricade and there were no signage as to how to get in (check photos). one of the locals took us in - it appeared you could get in the entrance which led to a block of flat but there were no english signs. Also, the door would only open with a code and there were no buzzers for teh reception- again no instructions in english on how to enter (no consideration for the customers). We stayed in teh 9th floor which was quite high - near the lift. a couple of times we could hear people when they came back late but it wasnt an issue. Landmarks/attractions: the seoul folk/flea market is literally outside the hotel- this is worth checking out as the clothes are usually 3000Won and if you are into upcycling, you can get some old school electonics here quite cheaply (or old watches, radios etc). Also this is a good place to get the fresh barley or rice tea for 1000W. We also got our dried packaged foods here to take back ie i got a bag of pumpkin and ginseng boiled sweets for 1000W each, i saw them in the supermarket for 3000W for the same brand. You need to check the dates but they are all fine. We also got 3 cans of aloe vera/mango juice for 1000W- again mega cheap without the mark up. Also its better to buy from here to support the local folks- we saw a lot of elderly folks and they are there all day, trying to make a living rather than the big shops like Lotte with their triple mark ups. Also round the corner from the hotel is a clothes stores called BYC - this is a korean chain a bit like uniglo but they sell underwear, pyjamas, socks for men and women. It open till 10pm and its not busy with lots of space and i brought a womans cotton vest top for 2000W (thats less than £2). if you are running a bit short of undies (tights) then its worth coming here. They sell t shirts and tops and the fashion looks like 70s throwback but may suit elderly relative. Pros: great location- literally 7 mins from the metro (even with luggage) two 24 hours supermarket nearby if you fancy some ramen 11pm great internet connection at all time Washing machine that worked a bottle of water every day during your stay the local restaurants and cafes are a lot cheaper and less busy - the problem is the menu is in korean and they only speak their own language English channels so coudl get news or watch CSI (which we did use) the hotel was quiet - maybe low season which i quite liked Cons poor service - the reception dont even greet or look at you. We didnt need anything so just avoided contact (they dont want to speak or want to be bothered by you) so just avoid them if you can (thier english is also limited). lack of hangers- 4 for two of us which was pretty ridiculous the cleaning/room service was random, they tidied teh room/ empty the bins when they felt like or remembered? (sometimes every 2 days) and also we didnt get fresh towels every day. When we used the washing machine- we found an old pair of white Y fronts (not ours!) which had obviously been left behind so it appears that the cleaners dont bother checking the machine (so worth you having a peek inside before you put your laundry in). lack of floor space - wall to wall cupboards so if you opened your suitcase you end up taking up the corridor. They coudl do with removing some storage so theres more floor. tips : I got the directions from one of the reviewer here on how to get to hotel and followed that- it was spot on otherwise you will get totally lost. I carried that around with me until i felt confident. also there were no cutlery in the room so I saved my airplane cutlery (plastic) and used that. you can also use soap/shower gel to wash your cutlery. we brought individual washing powder for the washing machine and some metal hangers to dry our clothes. we found the beds quite hard and had difficulty sleeping (had the same problem in Busan) so that could be us! I would stay in here again because we had low expectation and wanted somewhere budget friendly and good location - it was a straight 15 mins walk to dongdaemun.