The New Holt Guesthouse
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Having gone to Korea twice, I now have a frame of reference for just how nice the Holt guesthouse really is - for folks on a budget, it beats a hotel hands-down for spaciousness, comfort and convenience.  It is a 5 minutes walk from the HapJeong subway station, 3 minute walk from Holt, and the most expensive room was $45 bucks a night.  These pictures were representative of the rooms we saw - spacious room, heated floor, double (not queen) beds or two twins, and a nice bathroom which also serves as the shower.  The air conditioning works great (even operates on a remote, so you can turn it on and off from in bed) - the showers were hot and clean, and the "shared living space/kitchen" on the fourth floor is a life-saver, especially when some in your party (like your new baby) want to stay up later than others.  The guesthouse TV gets pretty good reception - I could watch Leno, CNN and other stations without much difficulty.  There is a fridge, washing machine, internet connection (tempermental, but it works occasionally), etc...

Holt is right, though, that if you aren't comfortable "fending" for yourself, you might be better off in a hotel.  There is no one at the guesthouse to help you translate, or make phone calls, or do much else.

The only drawback is the curfew - there are babies living in the reception center on the third floor, so Holt asks that you be in by 9:30 or 10:00 at night.

Also, you can only book the guesthouse once you've gotten permission to travel, so it may be worth it to have a back-up hotel plan, just in case its not available.  (We actually were paged in the San Francisco airport by Holt, telling us that the rooms we had booked at the guesthouse weren't yet available, so we had to stay elsewhere our first night.) 

Finally, you have to pay Korean cash for the guesthouse - you pay it at the Holt Travel Center, at the Holt offices.  You have to plan ahead to pay because they aren't always open when you're ready to check out.

There is a great night watchman at the guesthouse, who will strictly enforce the no-shoes-upstairs rule, so if you don't like sharing slippers or going barefoot, bring your own slippers and plan to use them.
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