Urbanstay Sokcho Deungdae Beach

The studio apartment was excellent. It was compact and convenient and it was perfect. The tiny kitchen allows you to prepare a light meal as well which was great. The place was clean and access information was made available as promised. This building houses these kind of apartments for rent and the building itself was easily accessible, no major noise disturbances and excellent curtain cover if you decide to sleep in. The building also houses a 7/11 which is super convenient to get the basics. It's a stone's throw from the beach and depending on the apartment you choose. The building had a basement parking and we found it easy to find and park, however, the weekend we were there was a holiday weekend and the parking was crowded and some parking bays are very tight, something to keep in mind.

The bed was comfortable but under the sheets is a plastic cover over the mattress and as you turn at night, it's like sleeping on a packet of chips. The plastic wrapping needs to be removed for more quiet comfort. Also, it would be nice if the balcony was cleaned and had a mosquito net. We had a lovely view and would have liked to sit outside and enjoy a drink but the balcony was dusty and mosquitoes were there in this season. Korea has separate air conditioners fitted on to the ceiling and it would be nice to have instructions to be able to turn off the light on AC at night else it glows right over the bed! Unfortunately we had no success from the translation app to see if the remote had a feature to turn off the light.

I really appreciate the extras: cleanser in the bathroom, washing gel for the clothes. The view was also just great!

The glasses, mirrors and windows were poorly cleaned. Also, please consider changing the bed set-up, the plastic cover of the mattress was not a good idea – it is not comfortable and it makes people sweat.

Great view, good location

The room, the floor could be cleaned better

The room had an amazing view of Deungdae Beach and a little view of the mountains as well from the bedroom window. The best thing about the room is that it has plenty of amenities for travellers if you're planning a longer visit. I was thrilled that there was a washing machine and dryer in the room, and the space itself is neatly laid out so that a bed, kitchen, and sitting area all fit together quite comfortably, plus a little balcony which we didn't use because it was below freezing when we were there. The location is right by the beach, there were plenty of restaurants and cafes around, the bus to Mt Seorak National Park is about a 2 minute walk away, and it's also a short walk to the lighthouse, the intercity bus station and the fish market.

I was aware before booking that this was a contactless check-in system and as I'm a regular traveller this didn't worry me. However I found the system incredibly difficult to navigate and it just involved too much work. I received so many different emails communicating different pieces of information to me in the weeks and days leading up to the stay, had to do a strange passport verification thing via this system which didn't seem secure to me but I had no other way to confirm the stay, and even though when we actually went to check in all the information was correct, it just seemed unnecessarily confusing. We had issues with the heating in our room and while the "online reception" system (not sure if this is a chatbot) responded quite quickly, the instructions weren't clear or helpful. The location is good, but be mindful that you'd need to take the bus or a cab, or walk for about 45 minutes, to get over to Sokcho Beach. If you arrive at the express bus station with suitcases or other luggage (which we did as we took a bus to Sokcho from Seoul) you'd probably want to take a cab or public transport to the hotel.