Good Day Mate Hostel

You should stay here! The beds were SO comfortable and bedwarmers were an amazing touch after a long cold day of sightseeing. Ondol in the room and double windows kept us at a comfortable temperature. I really appreciated having a private bathroom and the water gets HOT don't worry! The breakfasts were phenomenal and we looked forward to them every morning, and the rooftop area was perfect spot to do some laundry and facetime family midway through our trip. The location couldn't be better: all we had to do was tell cab drivers Haeundae Station and getting anywhere by bus or metro was a breeze. The downtown beach area is RIGHT THERE so we took advantage of strolling around and enjoying the beach, holiday light festival, restaurants bars and noraebangs and amazing streetfood.  The guesthouse is tucked in a cute quiet corner and totally soundproof inside so even when we were ready for bed the happening' neighborhood didn't keep us awake. Also it's next door to daiso! I love daiso!  I am NOT an experienced international traveler and am very risk-averse. I don't like camping, sharing rooms, roughing it in any form, and no one describes me as "laid back". Anything not a chain hotel to me sounded risky. BUT I'm SO glad my friend talked me into this, not only was it clean and safe and comfortable and convenient, but we met other travelers, made friends, got great local insights, and had a much more relaxed stay. You can't really get that kind of homey experience in a hotel! As the other reviewers said, the best part of this whole place was our host, Kane. He was so gracious and accommodating and really knowledgeable.  He was such a  help to total lost newbies in Korea! I saw him personally go out of his way for us and for other guests. If you don't speak Korean (or if you're like me and trying to learn but making a pretty bad mess of it) it is really cool to have a local host who speaks fluent English and Korean that can help you. Also he is an excellent cook :) Not about GoodDayMate but if you reserve your stay through a 3rd party site you might THINK you've pre-paid online but you just reserve the stay through your credit card. You actually pay at check in. This is a little different than American hotels where you pay when you leave on check-out with the card you made the reservation on so it was new to me. Local hosts pay fees for credit card processing so something to keep in mind if you choose to stay in someone's family-owned bed and breakfast. I paid with my American credit card on check-in with no problems at all but next time I will bring cash.