A Seoul office worker quits his job and sinks his life savings into a guesthouse with two strangers he just met. No plan, no research—just impulse and a dream of escape.
Writer Jung Seung-ho, Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse
Editor ONDA Manager Somora
Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse Dongdaemun (Main Branch) Address: 329-18 Changsin-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul Room Types: Small Twin, Small Double, Standard Twin Facilities: Shared living room and kitchen, rooftop garden Nearby Attractions: Naksan Park, Heunginjimun Gate, DDP, Changsin-dong Stationery & Toy Market, Dongmyo Flea Market
Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse DDP Branch Address: 74 Jangchung-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul Room Types: Double, Family Room (3-, 4-, 6-person) Facilities: Shared living room and kitchen, rooftop garden Nearby Attractions: Jangchung Gymnasium, Namsan, Gwanghuimun Gate, Cheonggyecheon, etc.
Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse SNS Website: http://seouldalbit.com Instagram: @seoul_dalbit
07. Swept Away
— The memory of getting ahead of ourselves
I decided to invest ₩50 million in someone I'd just met. The same day we met.
Looking back three years later, it was a pretty insane move — on both sides. The guy asking for thousands of dollars had no real business plan. I had no due diligence. But because nothing was ready, I got to experience building a guesthouse from scratch. And that turned out to be priceless.
The team: me, H (who was already running an Airbnb), and P (H's friend, also investing). Three rookies pooling our life savings.
And that's how we launched our first guesthouse project.
Setting the Budget
First, we needed a number. Between the three of us, we scraped together a sum in the hundreds of millions of won — a mind-boggling amount for twenty-somethings fresh out of school. But when you look at where it came from… stocks cashed out, funds liquidated, savings accounts emptied, souls mortgaged. Plus loans.
Worth noting: back then, P and I both had stable corporate jobs, so we could get decent loan amounts at low rates. Now that we're self-employed? Those same loan limits — even with a credit guarantee — are a fraction of what we borrowed as salaried workers.
So if you're planning to quit and start a business that needs serious capital, get your loans before you leave your job. (Just saying.)
Opening a Place: The Questions
Now we had our war chest. But before we could deploy it, we had to answer the big questions:
1) Where do we open?
2) How big should the space be?
3) What's the concept?
If you look at Seoul's trendy neighborhoods over the past few years — Yeonnam-dong, Gyeongnidan-gil, Seongsu-dong, and more recently Ikseon-dong or Euljiro — what draws people in is usually #3: concept and design. Unique interiors, quirky props, Instagram-worthy corners.
But when you're the one opening the place, #1 (location) and #2 (size) matter more. Location determines foot traffic. Size determines your rent, deposit, and operating costs.
Especially in hospitality. You can't turn tables like a restaurant. Your revenue ceiling is locked in by room count × nightly rate. The real estate you pick is your business model. And location + space dictate your vibe, too. It's the most critical decision.
This wasn't like the business school case studies I'd done in college. Or the corporate projects I'd worked on. In school, you cobble together internet research into fantasy. At a big company, you can get data with a few emails. Here, we were starting from zero — with our own money on the line.
Finding a Location
So we zeroed in on the first question: "Where do we open?"
We were amateurs. Limited intel. But "going with your gut" only works if your gut is informed. Instinct needs data, research, experience.
First step: understand the customer. We dug into tourist behavior data. Luckily, Korea's public data infrastructure is excellent. We pulled reports from Statistics Korea and the Korea Tourism Organization — especially the Annual Survey of Foreign Visitor Arrivals. (Three years later, I still reference it every year.)
Top destinations visited by foreign tourists, from the 2017 Foreign Visitor Survey
At the time (2014 baseline), over 80% of tourists visited Seoul. Over 60% went to Myeongdong. Half hit Dongdaemun Market. Palaces, Namsan, and Namdaemun rounded out the top spots.
So we focused our property search on Myeongdong and Dongdaemun.
Within days, we got a call. A great listing. I actually thought: Is the universe helping us?
I remember that moment vividly. Early summer, 2015. I left work on time (a miracle) and headed to Dongdaemun. The property: a five-story building right at Dongdaemun Station, facing Heunginjimun Gate intersection. The location was perfect. Deposit and rent? Even now, I'd call it a good deal.
But the rooftop — that's what sealed it. When I climbed up and saw Heunginjimun and the M****tt Hotel laid out below, I felt my chest tighten. A rooftop lounge is the dream for any guesthouse. With a view like this? Irresistible. This is where my second life begins. My heart was pounding.
I shot this video panning down from the roof. You can hear the excitement in my voice. Around the 20-second mark, I smash my head into a doorframe. Didn't even care. I was flying.
Screenshots from the video
But this building never became ours.
We got swept up by the location and the view. Turns out, there's a lot more to opening a guesthouse than a pretty rooftop.
[Series Index]
2019.01 Prologue 2019.02 Eyes Open 2019.03 Daydreaming 2019.04 Observing 2019.05 Planning 2019.06 The Meeting 2019.07 Swept Away 2019.08 Catching My Breath 2019.09 The Math 2019.10 Lost 2019.11 Breaking Ground 2019.12 Taking Shape 2020.01 Grand Opening 2020.02 Epilogue – The Resignation
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