Originally Posted by
feedthetraveller
We’ve been looking at Airbnb as well, but we’re afraid that the house will be sub par to our definition of clean. We aren’t super picky but it would be annoying. However, you’re right, eating out every meal will get old, really fast.
I can't claim a wide range of experience with AirBnB in Seoul. The place we stayed at seemed clean enough, but I'm sure AirBnB places exhibit a range of cleanliness, just like hotels do. Dunno about you, but my MO upon checking in to any hotel, no matter how clean it appears, is a quick tour of the room with disinfecting wipes, and I do the same upon checking into an AirBnB. I'm not like
Howard Hughes was toward the end of his life, but I wipe down the stuff I expect to touch, like the remote, the doorknobs, and so forth.
I don't think you need to look for reviews on AirBnB that explicitly mention cleanliness, but rather, you can interpret a lack of negative comments related to cleanliness as an implicit indicator.
Regarding restaurants, not every neighborhood is the same, but we're pretty familiar with the area where we stayed in the Seoul AirBnB villa depicted in the linked thread, and we were pretty surprised with the proliferation of western fast food in that neighborhood (and the relatively small number of mom & pop-type local restaurants that are still in business). It would have required a pretty diligent effort on our part to eat healthy (read: not eat western fast food) if we'd just eaten in restaurants. We found a couple of decent places nearby, but it was really helpful having the kitchenette (and laundry) in the apartment we stayed in.
We are looking carefully at a few AirBnB places for next year, and in general I regard lots of reviews as a healthy sign. There are many to choose from.