A place for your first few nights

Right now

1. 1Lock down where you sleep tonight first. If you have no booking, get a short-term place first.
2. 2Payment and check-in often need a passport, so keep it ready.
3. 3Spend a few days feeling out the area and transport before you look at a long-term home.

What to have ready

• Passport
• A payment method that works
• Lodging address: For your next move.

Phrases you can copy and paste

Step by step

1. 1

   Book somewhere by the day

   Start with a place that takes a few days at a time, a guesthouse, a hotel, a short-term rental. A long-term lease comes later.

2. 2

   Check what check-in needs

   Where:

   Booking screen, front desk

   Passport, deposit and payment method vary by place. Confirm whether a foreign card works too.

3. 3

   Spend a few days seeing the neighborhood

   Transport, groceries, noise, the commute to work or school, you only know these by living there. Then choose a long-term home.

Watch it happen

Videos other people made, picked because they show a part of this guide that words cannot. They are not our sources: the rules and figures above come from the official pages listed at the end.

• 

  Where to Stay in Seoul 🇰🇷 In-Depth Virtual Tour of 9 Areas Great for Travelers!

  Channel: Lost Then Found 로스트 덴 파운드, English narration

  Nine Seoul neighborhoods are walked one at a time, with the hostels, guesthouses and hotels in each one pointed out on the street, so you can look at an area before you book a few nights in it.

  Open on YouTube

• 

  Tiny $175 Apartment in Korea That Gives You Food

  Channel: Jimmy Kim, English narration

  A goshiwon room and the shared kitchen down the hall are filmed from the inside, so you can see how small one of the cheapest short-term rooms in Seoul is and what comes with it.

  Open on YouTube

The Korean words

단기 임대dan-gi imdae, short-term rental

Renting by the day or by the week.

보증금bojeung-geum, deposit

Money left at signing. You get it back when you leave.

게스트하우스geseuteu-hauseu, guesthouse

Cheaper short-term lodging, booked by the room or the bed.

Easy to miss

• ·Signing a long-term lease right after you arrive is easy to regret before you know the area. Give it a few days.
• ·Some short-term places also block foreign card payment, so check before you book.

You can skip this if

• If a company or school provides your lodging, you can skip this one.

Where this comes from

• HiKorea, Korea Immigration Service
• VisitKorea, Korea Tourism Organization