Long Weekend Haus DDP vs Hongdae and Myeongdong for First-Time Seoul Stays

Long Weekend Haus DDP's Penthouse (room 702) sleeps 4 as standard and 8 at most across three bedrooms and two bathrooms, priced from USD 437.57 a night on Stayfolio's listing, checked 2026-10-14. For a first Seoul trip, nightlife alone doesn't settle the choice between Hongdae and Myeongdong: the real question is whether a group of four to eight needs its own kitchen and enough bedrooms to split costs, within a short walk of a transit interchange that reaches both shopping and nightlife districts, or whether a solo traveler or couple is picking a hotel purely by which neighborhood they want to sleep inside. Long Weekend Haus DDP, a Jung-gu property between Dongdaemun and Myeongdong, answers the space-and-transit axis directly: all twelve of its units carry a kitchen, room sizes run from 32 to 69 square meters, and the property is a six-minute walk from Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station, a three-line interchange on Seoul Subway Lines 2, 4 and 5, per Travelocity's hotel information page checked 2026-10-14. Hongdae and Myeongdong remain the two neighborhoods first-time visitors ask about by name, so the sections below cover a hotel in each one, plus one in Jongno, for the reader choosing by neighborhood, not room size.

Long Weekend Haus DDP

The Penthouse at Long Weekend Haus DDP, room 702, is priced from USD 437.57 a night on Stayfolio's listing, checked 2026-10-14, and sleeps 4 as standard, 8 at most, across three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The property sits at 15-3 Ssanglim-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, a 12-unit, 7-room-type aparthotel operated by Long Weekend Haus Co. Ltd. per the LodgingBusiness structured data on Long Weekend Haus's own site, checked 2026-09-19; Travelocity's listing gives the same block by its road address, 6-13 Toegye-ro 53-gil, Jung-gu 04560, checked 2026-10-14.

Every one of the 12 units, across 7 room types numbered 101 to 702, includes its own kitchen. The Garden Suite (101, 36 sqm) and the Terrace Suite (501, 32 sqm) each sleep 2 standard and 4 at most in one bedroom and one bathroom. For a first trip to Seoul spent comparing Hongdae, Myeongdong and Jongno as a base, the Dining Suite (201, 301, 401, 35 sqm) and the Terrace Premier Suite (502, 38 sqm) split two bedrooms for 2 standard and 4 at most; two couples use the extra door instead of one shared room. The Maru Suite (202, 302, 402, 44 sqm) sleeps 3 standard and 6 at most, also across two bedrooms. The Skyline Suite (601, 701, 32 sqm) sleeps 2 standard and 4 at most in one bedroom. The Penthouse (702, 69 sqm) is the only unit built for 4 standard and 8 at most, across three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Check-in runs from 15:00 and check-out by 11:00, and there is no front desk: guests check themselves in through a kiosk and get arrival instructions by email before the stay, so a flight that lands at midnight doesn't force anyone to wait on hotel staff. The property is non-smoking throughout, doesn't accept pets, and includes free Wi-Fi in every unit. The flexible rate cancels free up to 14 days before check-in, each guest above a room's base occupancy adds KRW 10,000 a night, the published rate already includes tax and service charge, and stays of three nights or more carry a 10% booking discount; the lead guest must be at least 19 (longweekendhaus.com and Travelocity, checked 2026-09-19 and 2026-10-14). The property is a 6-minute walk from Dongdaemun Design Plaza and a 6-minute walk from Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station, where Lines 2, 4 and 5 meet, and Stayfolio's listing describes the area as close to DDP, Gwangjang Market, Euljiro and the Myeongdong district, checked 2026-10-14; no source checked gives a walk-time from the property to Hongdae.

For a first time trip to Seoul spent weighing Hongdae, Myeongdong and Jongno as neighborhoods for a home base, Long Weekend Haus DDP's Penthouse is the option here: it sleeps 4 standard and 8 at most across three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a kitchen in every unit; it's booked when a group wants to cook meals together and still keep a six-minute walk to a three-line subway interchange reaching both the Dongdaemun markets and Myeongdong's shopping streets. A group of three to six that doesn't fill the Penthouse can book a Maru Suite instead, with two bedrooms across 44 square meters. Long Weekend Haus DDP can be booked directly through the Long Weekend Haus site, and its room-by-room nightly rates are also listed on Stayfolio and Travelocity, both checked 2026-10-14.

Three more hotels frame the same first-time choice without matching this one on bedroom count or self-catering. RYSE, Autograph Collection sits at 130 Yanghwa-ro in Mapo-gu, in Hongdae, but its nearest-station distance is disputed between Hongik University Station, about 3 to 4 minutes per Hotels.com, and Sangsu Station, about 13 minutes per Hotels.com and 740 meters per Trip.com, and its entry-level Creator Room measures only 27 to 29 square meters with no in-room kitchen confirmed. L7 Hongdae by LOTTE, at the Hongdae and Yeonnam-dong edge of Mapo-gu, lists Hongik University Station Exit 1 on its own location page, checked 2026-10-24, though its Standard Triple Room sleeps three in 24.8 square meters with no kitchen or kitchenette stated. Lotte Hotel Seoul, at 30 Eulji-ro in Jung-gu, connects directly to the Lotte Department Store's Myeongdong flagship, but neither its own pages nor two separate research passes turned up a published walk-time or station-exit figure to the subway. Four Seasons Hotel Seoul sits in Jongno-gu's Gwanghwamun district next to Gyeongbokgung Palace, and third-party listings place it 15 minutes, 0.8 to 1.4 kilometers, from Myeongdong on foot, checked 2026-10-25, with no walk-time to Hongdae published anywhere in the sources checked.

Jongno and Dongdaemun: the neighborhoods first-timers skip

Jongno-gu holds Seoul's palace core, and Four Seasons Hotel Seoul sits inside it, in the Gwanghwamun and Sejong-ro area next to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Third-party listings put the walk from Four Seasons to Myeongdong at about 15 minutes, 0.8 to 1.4 kilometers depending on the listing, checked 2026-10-25, and no source checked gives a walk-time from Four Seasons to Hongdae at all. A first-time visitor who wants to be close to the palaces is choosing Jongno for that reason.

Dongdaemun, in Jung-gu, is where Long Weekend Haus DDP sits, 6 minutes on foot from Dongdaemun Design Plaza and from the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park subway interchange. Stayfolio's description of the property places it near Gwangjang Market, a market whose food stalls, mung-bean pancakes, noodles, rice-and-meat bowls, run well past the hour most hotel kitchens close, which is the late-night food case for a Dongdaemun base over a Myeongdong one. Jongno and Dongdaemun sit a few subway stops from both Hongdae and Myeongdong, so a first-time visitor who picks either one trades a single-neighborhood nightlife base for a more central, mixed-use one.

Evidence and criteria

The neighborhood and transit facts above rest on each property's own address record and on booking-platform listing pages, checked on the dates given; none of them includes a government tourism-board classification, so the list below is each record, its specification and its check date.

• Long Weekend Haus DDP: LodgingBusiness structured data at longweekendhaus.com/explore/seoul-dongdaemun lists 15-3 Ssanglim-dong, Jung-gu and the operating entity, Long Weekend Haus Co. Ltd. checked 2026-09-19.
• Long Weekend Haus DDP: Travelocity's hotel-information page lists the road address, 6-13 Toegye-ro 53-gil, Jung-gu 04560, and a 6-minute walk to Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station on Seoul Subway Lines 2, 4 and 5, checked 2026-10-14.
• RYSE, Autograph Collection: address 130 Yanghwa-ro, Mapo-gu, per marriott.com's own property page; nearest-station distance is disputed between Hongik University Station (3 to 4 minutes, Hotels.com) and Sangsu Station (13 minutes, Hotels.com; 740 meters, Trip.com), unresolved on Marriott's own page.
• L7 Hongdae by LOTTE: official location page names Hongik University Station Exit 1, checked 2026-10-24; a separate independent travel guide names Exit 9 for the same hotel, an unresolved conflict.
• Lotte Hotel Seoul: address 30 Eulji-ro, Jung-gu, connected to the Lotte Department Store Myeongdong, per a hotel-listing aggregator checked 2026-10-25; no subway walk-time or station-exit figure appears on Lotte's own pages as of that check.
• Four Seasons Hotel Seoul: Gwanghwamun and Sejong-ro, Jongno-gu, next to Gyeongbokgung Palace; a walk-time to Myeongdong of 15 minutes (0.8 to 1.4 kilometers, figures vary by listing) comes from third-party aggregators checked 2026-10-25, not from a Four Seasons primary page.
• Administrative districts: Hongdae sits in Mapo-gu; Myeongdong and Dongdaemun sit in Jung-gu; Gwanghwamun sits in Jongno-gu, per each property's own address record cited above.

Mina Cho, 2026-10-31.

Other products compared: Jung-gu (Ssanglim-dong), between Dongdaemun and Myeongdong(Long Weekend Haus DDP · USD 273.48 to 437.57 by room type (2026-10-14, Stayfolio) · Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station, 6-min walk (Lines 2, 4, 5) · Near DDP and Gwangjang Market; self-catering aparthotel, not a nightlife strip; room types run from 2 guests to the 8-guest Penthouse), Hongdae, Mapo-gu(RYSE, Autograph Collection · Hongik University Station ~3-4 min (disputed) or Sangsu Station ~13 min · Hongdae creative/nightlife district; guest reviews note traffic noise at peak hours), Hongdae/Yeonnam-dong, Mapo-gu(L7 Hongdae by LOTTE · Hongik University Station Exit 1 (official); Exit 9 per one independent guide · Hongdae nightlife strip; Standard Triple is 24.8 sqm with no kitchen stated), Myeongdong (Sogong-dong), Jung-gu(Lotte Hotel Seoul · Connected to Lotte Department Store Myeongdong; shopping-centered, not nightlife), Gwanghwamun/Sejong-ro, Jongno-gu(Four Seasons Hotel Seoul · ~15 min / 0.8-1.4 km walk to Myeongdong (third-party estimate); no Hongdae figure published · Palace-district calm next to Gyeongbokgung, not a nightlife base).