Oh My Gosh.. a long time since I actually wrote here. It was such a busy period ever since my last entry (that’s Oct 2015!) – family travel, school holidays, Christmas, having a healthier routine, Chinese New Year, businesses, work – WOW! Everything seem to be happening so quickly and Dang, it had been 4.5 months!
We brought the kids to Korea in Nov 2015, together with my in-laws. We had a fun 11 days there and we got to experience the end of autumn and the start of winter (SNOW!). 2 seasons in a trip! We were fortunate to see the colourful trees, falling leaves and experience the first snow in Seoul. Though we were not able to try out skiing or sledding (as the snow was not thick enough and the skiing resort was not in full operation yet), seeing both seasons and the snow for the first time (for all 6 of us!) was already a very fulfilled trip!
This is the 3rd trip to Seoul for both hubby and me. Yet there’s still so many places we had not left our footprints, and so much to discover or to try there. In our previous trips, we stayed in hotels located in popular areas – Myeongdong and Dongdaemun. These are wonderful places to stay because they are very conveniently located and there’s shopping and eateries just at the foot of the hotel!
For this trip which hubby & I became the tour planner + tour guide, we decided to try BnB as it’s quite expensive to book hotel rooms for all 6 of us. If we go by per night basis, a hotel accommodation for 10 nights will be close to SGD$4,000 for 2 rooms!
After some research, we decided to book a room through BnBHero. This room can accommodate all 6 of us, a loft kind of room and is located in another popular area – Hongdae. It’s just 1 min walk from the subway station, and there are a lot of shopping and eateries around the residence. Best of all, it cost us about SGD$2,130 (including fees charged by BnBHero) for the 10-night accommodation!
The photos published on the website are quite true to what received us, a very much relieved to me. This is one of the risks that we all need to accept if we want to book a BnB room. I didn’t get to take much pictures of the room because we were busy with the kids and planning for the next move – there was hardly time for me to rest there, let alone taking photos. Besides, the kids were so excited when they saw the room and started exploring and “chopping” their beds with their smelly “chow chow” – making it almost impossible to take good pictures.
These are the 2 photos which I snapped, when everyone else were at the doorway. 😀
Pardon for the clothes 😀
Along with the many tips which you can find on the internet, on the things to take note of when renting a BnB (such as reading reviews, creating rapport with the owner, be vigilant and stay safe etc), here’s my tips for renting a BnB in Seoul, during a winter period :
1. Carpeted or non-carpeted?
If the room is carpeted, it provides warmth during winter period. You don’t get a cold shock that run through the spine when you were in that dreamy state and first land your feet on the floor. However, if you are worried about the cleanliness, or allergic to carpets, then go for a non-carpeted room. Read on other tips below to stay warm in a non carpeted BnB room.
2. Heating Facilities
There’s definitely some form of heating facilities in countries that experience the 4 seasons. However, it is important to know the type of heating facilities available in the accommodation – is it floor heating? room heating? Portable heating? Heating controlled by the building?
In the case of a non-carpeted room, it’s likely to have floor heating facilities. In this room that we rented, the owner also provided a portable heater – which is super useful when we woke up in the freezing cold morning, or after our shower. It’s a saver to the kids, to the elderly and even to me who is afraid of cold!
The owner had also provided bed heater for each of the beds. This is my first time knowing there’s such a thing (ok, I am sua-ku). Basically there’s a pad below the mattress cover and you can adjust the temperature, and it will provide warmth to the sleeper through the cold night.
3. Bedroom Slippers
Ok, maybe this is a weird tip. However, we will usually miss this out because hotels provide them! But it’s a saver in a non-carpeted room. So, do find out from the owner whether they provide these and enough for everybody, if not, bring your own (Daiso sells them at $2 each!) !
4. Clothes Hangers / Clothes Racks
Another weird tip, but important one. You saw that huge clothes rack in the picture which I took? It’s extremely useful during winter time and long stay because there’s just so many clothes to air for the 6 of us! Imagine the layers of clothes which we wore each day, and the wet jackets after being in the snow or sleet! We need to air them dry and the hangers, cloths pegs and racks are Important!
5. Hair Dryer
We may be so used to the basic amenities that are provided by hotels and this could be something which new BnB users may forget. It’s damaging to have wet hair after shower in winter – for the young kids, elderly and myself. It’s easy to catch a cold and a really bad one if we do not keep ourselves warm enough in winter. So blow those wet hair dry after shower, or use it to do a quick blow to dry wet clothes 🙂
There you go, 5 simple yet usually neglected pointers to consider when renting a BnB in Seoul during the winter travel. If you ask me whether I will rent a BnB again, my answer is a definite Yes!