Roinhome Guesthouse Seoul – Review and Recommendations

Disclaimer: I was invited for an accommodation experience by the guesthouse but and I ended up booking (and paying) 2 more nights with them as the location was fantastic plus they are able to do luggage storage for us.

We stayed at ROinhome, a relatively new 2-storey guesthouse, situated less than 400m from the nearest Subway Station (Mangwon, Brown Line).

We had a very pleasant stay as the rooms (though slightly small) were clean. Furthermore, its location is super convenient and especially useful when connecting to the Airport Express (my choice of transport to and from incheon airport). There were many food choices around the area – I’ll be recommending some in my article below and the best part of our experience is that they were willing to keep our huge luggage while we were traveling out of Seoul, twice for periods of 5 and 4 days each (We kind of went on an adventure which I will be writing about soon).

New & Clean Rooms

ROinhome newly opened in December 2015 so it was barely 18 months old when we stayed (April 2017). The room was also very clean (passed the tolerence level of my clean freak friend) and it was nicely styled and decorated with a minimalist touch. As my travel companion had a strong inclination towards new accommodations, she had no issues when I first recommended this place to her.

Checking-in

As we reached our accommodation only at 5am (thanks to the 5 hours 55 mins flight delay via Scoot), we were given the instructions and password to get to our room. The main door and room door uses a number password so you don’t have to worry about losing any keys.

One thing to note is that your rooms might be on the second floor (there are no lifts) so you will have to carry your luggage up a really short flight of stairs (maybe about 10 steps). If you need help, I’m pretty sure the staff at the reception will be more than willing to lend a helping hand.

Standard-size Bath Towels are provided!

Another thing that I like is that this guesthouse provides a Standard-size bath towel and a face/hair towel. You might think ‘what is the big deal’ but speaking from someone who has stayed in 7 different accommodations throughout South Korea, providing standard-size bath towel is not the norm. Many accommodations we went to only gave the hair towel size which was not very ideal in drying yourselves so.. appreciate the bigger towels when you see them!

Also, one small thing to note about the toilets is that there isn’t any hanging space in the toilet for you to hang your towel or clothes. I usually put my items in a plastic bag and lay it on the closed toilet cover. I’ve given a feedback to them about this issue and they seem to be finding the solution so I hope things will improve in my next visit!

Comfortable and soft beds!

The bed was also very soft and comfortable (speaking from someone who had trouble falling asleep in other accommodations because the bed was too hard). For all 4 nights we stayed, I could watch TV (mainly watching p101(mnet) when I was there as it was on repeat every night) while lying down on my bed! I really love the Korean channels even though I can’t understand 95% of what they speak. They have almost 100+ channels and just channel surfing can take me more than 15 minutes..

(Random note: I died on 1 night because there wasn’t TV in my Sokcho guesthouse. Watching TV somehow became a habit for us and the night just felt super weird without a TV.)

Breakfast delivered to your door knob every morning.

I’m not sure what time they do the ‘hanging’ but breakfast was hanged on our door knobs every morning. Of the 4 nights we stayed, we had 2 days of giant muffins, 1 day of delicious toast bread and 1 day of cake roll. It comes together with a packet of fruit juice too. You can choose to have breakfast in your room or at the seating area downstairs. On the first day, we sat in the garden under the sunshade and it was pretty cooling (thankful for spring weather).

THE BEST PART IS STILL THE AWESOME LOCATION

Okay, in my map below, I’ve listed a few amenities around the area plus a really good cafe + meat shop.

Location

The best part of ROinhome was its location.

It is conveniently situated between two MRT Stations – Hapjeong (Green (2)/Brown (6) Line) and Mangwon (Brown (6)). Furthermore, you can also walk to the hipster location in Hongdae and even when you hangout late at night, you don’t have to splurge on a taxi fare as you can either walk or pay the minimum basic fare (3600W after 20% midnight surcharge).

Taking the airport Train

Our journey from Roinhom to Incheon Airport was as seamless as it can be. There were escalators and lifts at both Mangwon Station and Digital Media City (where we had to transfer trains) and we never had to carry our luggage up or down the stairs. This may not be the case if you are taking the older lines as there are still many stations without wheelchair accessibility.

Also, Line 6 is relatively less popular compared to Line 1 and 2 so you may have to wait slightly longer as the frequency is not as much as the other lines. The good thing is that the trains are less crowded (we even got a seat on the way to airport) so you generally enjoy a more comfortable ride with more personal space.

Transfer at Digital Media City

One thing to note for the airport train is that not all trains departing from Digital Media City Station brings you to Incheon Airport. Usually, there should be announcements (in English) made to inform you on which train you should board. Alternatively, you can reference from the time table below. Look only at the timings in black as the one in green stops at “Geomam”.

Do note that the last train to airport from DMC is at 11:52pm, and the journey will take approximately 46 minutes.

In the trains, there will be luggage area where you can stow your luggage and take a seat elsewhere comfortably. Don’t forget to make use of these spaces.

24-hour Coin Laundry Shop

I’m not someone who likes to rewear clothing for multiple times so instead of bringing like 12 sets of clothes, I brought 6 sets and scheduled a night in Seoul to wash my clothes. There was a laundry shop located 5 mins walk away from the guesthouse and it charges 4500W for 30 mins of washing and another 3000W for 30 mins of drying.

Anyway, there’s free wifi, water dispenser and seats in this laundry shop so you won’t be bored while waiting for your laundry! 7-11 is just opposite and you can head over for a quick bite/drink too.

Shopping @ e-Mart

E-mart is only 5 mins walk away from Roinhome and it is a place where you can do some last minute shopping of snacks and souvenirs!

E-Mart (owned by Shinsegae) is the oldest and largest discount store chain in Korea and it is basically like a supermarket which sells everything and anything. It is a good place to visit if you’re stocking up on Korean snacks, instant noodles, sweets etc. Alternatively, you can visit Lotte mart (at Seoul Station) but after visiting both and comparing the prices, there were indeed certain products that were cheaper in e-Mart.

Also, there’s a food alley located at the area and you can grab some food there as well.

One thing to note when visiting supermarkets in Korea is that THEY DO NOT PROVIDE PLASTIC BAGS! You can choose to pack your items using the leftover cardboard boxes provided or BRING YOUR OWN SHOPPING BAG. If I don’t recall wrongly, they don’t even provide you the option of buying plastic bags. It’s a good environment initiative so do remember to GO GREEN in Korea.

On a random note, we spotted this colourful display in the same area too. No idea if it’s a permanent fixture.

A post shared by @flyhoneystarstravel on May 12, 2017 at 2:19am PDT

Hipster Coffee Hangout Place -@ BeliefCoffee Roasters

There are many cafes located around Roinhome and hapjeong area and here I am, sharing with you the best place to be.

We discovered this cafe on our last day in Seoul (better late than never) and I was not just impress with the decor alone. The coffee and macarons were so delicious.

Just look at how comfortable the basement seating area is. I can totally laze in this cafe for one whole afternoon.

Since it is such an awesome price, it comes with awesome pricing too. Cafe Late starts from 5,500W (somewhat similar to Singapore pricing) but given the ambiance an environment that you will get to chill at, I don’t think it’s too much of an issue. If you can understand and appreciate Drip Coffee – go for it. The korean blogs we read were raving about the coffee.

Since I like latte art and milk coffee, i had to get the boring old latte which made me so happy because.. of the colour of the cup. Don’t you think it looks almost similar to the colour of my logo? #cheapthrills but I think it was the first time I ever had latte served in a mint colour cup. ^_^

And since we’re on the topic of mint – I chose 2 macarons (2,800W each) which is.. mint colour too!

The macarons (though pricey) were so delicious that I almost bought a takeaway box home. I would totally do it in my next visit!

If you are a fan of macaron, I’m sure you can see how thick and solid the crust is from this photo. The 2,800W is pretty worth it.

It always pains me to share wonderful locations like this (and my friend hates me for that) because it might be too popular and crowded the next time we visit but.. I guess I am a blogger and I need to create and share content?

Korean Name:빌리프커피로스터스 (Belief Cofee Roasters)

Address: 384-3 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Korean BBQ Meat Restaurant

This was the restaurant where we had our last meal of the trip.

It was pretty epic cause I told my friend that we were gonna push our luggage here to eat before going to the airport since it was kind of on the way to the train station. She was so afraid that we were getting judged (who knows but I don’t really care) but we did it anyway.

So back in 2011 where we did our summer exchange in SNU, there was this meat shop at Nakseongdae Station which has a “Seagull” sign (and it served really delicious meat) and for quite a long while, I thought that I was eating Seagull meat but.. it turns out that this part of the pig (Galmaeggi Sal) sounds the same as ‘Seagull’ in Korean. Anyway, so now that it has been 6 years, that Seagull shop no longer exist and we were searching high and low for shops that sell this special portion of the pig.

Unless you are a food connoisseur, I don’t think you will be familiar with Pork Skirt Meat but let me describe the taste to you. It is a type of meat which is less fatty yet tender and juicy (when you cook it properly). Each pig only has a limited supply of this part of the meat so it is usually pricier than the other parts. In Singapore, there are only 2 restaurants serving this meat – Seorae (Plaza Singapura) and some shop in Tanjong Pagar which I can’t remember what name (or whether they still sell it as Seorae claims to be the first in Singapore but my friend said she has eaten at other places before)).

Anyway, I intend to do a full blog post on types of meat in korean BBQ so do check back for the post.

Alright so a portion of this meat costs 13,000W and there’s an unspoken rule in most BBQ Korean Meat joints is that you need to order a minimum of 2 portions. (This is why solo travel in Korea kind of sucks.) This meat is usually served with onions in some sauce and you can choose to wrap it with the vegetables and almost everything that you can see on the table. Well, I like mine with everything – including kimchi and garlic, and I eat it all up in one mouth.

There’s no right or wrong way when it comes to eating so do it whatever way you deem fit. Even if you hate vegetables, go ahead and down the meat by itself. No one will judge you for anything. heh.

Last meal we had in South Korea – kalmaegisal (Pork Skirt Meat) which is like low in fat, yet remains chewy and juicy. Friend couldn’t take it when I insisted it was fine to drag our luggage to the restaurant before leaving for the airport. The shop owner must have been feeling proud that we wanted to eat it as our last meal 😂😂😂 and this post concludes my series of #norepeat #koreanfoodchallenge in my #flyhoneystarskorea trip. #flyhoneystarstravel #seoul #southkorea #bbqmeat #갈매기살

A post shared by flyhoneystars (@flyhoneystars) on May 9, 2017 at 8:16pm PDT

TIP: If you’re afraid of your clothes or personal belongings stinking up, you can always request for an apron or a huge plastic bag to seal your belongings. Sometimes, there’s a storage area within your seat and you can put your bag and jacket inside. It is very common in Korea so don’t be too afraid to ask.

Kimchi and side dishes are also free flow and I think we asked for onions refill for 3 times because the sauce is simply too awesome.

I wouldn’t vouch that this is the BEST Galmaeggi Sal in Korea since I’ve only eaten in one shop but my advice is don’t let go of any chance to try this rare delicacy. Remember the hangul characters 갈매기살 and you may just chance upon it at random restaurants.

Korean Name: 서강껍데기 소금구이

Address: South Korea, Seoul, Mapo-gu, Seogyo-dong, Woldeukeom-ro, 36

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How to make reservations at ROINhome?

The convenient way is to run a search engine website which will help you compare prices across different booking websites.

Alternatively, you can book from their website or email them for reservation roinhome01@gmail.com and possibly ask for a discount (subject to demand and supply and availability).

They are very active on their Facebook page too so you can send them a message if you have further enquiries.

Note: Booking websites usually charge 10 to 20% as commissions so this is usually the leeway that accommodation owners are willing to provide a discount for. However, some owners will require a deposit which is difficult if you are a non–korean so you might end up having to book through the booking websites anyway.

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Keen to know more about my trip to Korea? You can read the summary of my trip and be sure to come back for more updates =)