15

just as an update, i'm at EVChain nakseongdae and it's actually pretty good- around 30 dollars a night and a clean modern room with kitchen- little loud in the hallways, but lots of accessible food nearby.

16

Though this post is a couple of years old, I would like to comment on it,
as some information is outdated.

(1) Insadong today is primarily a tourist shopping district. The side lanes of Insadong gil are full with shops, they do only have very few motels, and they do not look welcoming at all.

(2) Things change. Korean love motels these days turn out to be more upmarket, this is reflected in (a) room size (b) room prize and (c) room quality. All of them are increasing :-) It might be possible to find a room for a night for 30000 a night (8pm till noon) but that is the lowest motel category and they will add for full day stay. Spending 60000won on a full day deal in a better motel is the better option, unless saving money is very important.

(3) Insadong and its surroundings is still a good area to stay in Seoul. Good motels (as e.g the pop1-3 motels, the sky motel) and cheap hotels (basically motels, but a bit less sleezy) can be found one to two blocks east of insadong gil, behind the park, e.g. in the surroundings of Jongno sam (3) ga station.

Well, and more important: this is 2012 and it is about Korea. There are apps for android and iphone to find and review love motels. Of course the app and the reviews are Korean only, but the basic functionality is easy to use. I have often just used my phone to locate a bunch of love motels in an area, checked their ratings, looked at their pictures and went there. That has worked perfectly fine and the information I got is more up-to-date then any guidebook ever can be.