Korea Hotel Tax Refund 2026: The 118 Hotels That Give Foreign Guests the VAT Back, Which Seoul Five-Stars Aren't on the List, and the 2027 Deadline

Last updated: 7 October 2026. The hotel list is the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Q4 2026 designation notice, posted 1 October 2026 (118 hotels). The rules come from Article 107-2 of the Restriction of Special Taxation Act and Article 109-2 of its Enforcement Decree, read on law.go.kr. The list changes every quarter; the next one is due at the end of December.

Korea has a second tax refund that most visitors never hear about. If you are a foreign tourist and you stay at one of a short list of government-designated hotels, you can get the VAT on your room back when you leave the country. It is separate from the shopping refund at Olive Young and department stores, which we cover in our Korea tax refund guide.

The catch is the list. It is published in Korean, as a spreadsheet, every three months, and this quarter it has 118 hotels. Most of Seoul's famous five-star hotels are not on it. And the government has proposed ending the whole scheme on 30 June 2027, eighteen months earlier than the law now says.

This guide gives you the full October–December 2026 list by city, who qualifies, how much actually comes back, and the booking mistake that cancels it.

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Quick Guide: Korea Hotel Tax Refund, Q4 2026

How much comes back: 10% of the rate, or about 9.1% of the bill

English pages usually say the refund is "10%". That is right only if your hotel quotes its rate before tax.

Korea's VAT is 10% of the supply price. A room priced at ₩200,000 plus VAT is billed at ₩220,000, and the VAT on it is ₩20,000: exactly 10% of the quoted rate. But if the hotel quotes a tax-inclusive price, as budget hotels and booking sites usually do, the VAT inside it is 1/11 of the total, about 9.1%. Three nights at ₩150,000 tax-included is ₩450,000, and the VAT inside that is ₩40,909.

Then the refund operator takes its cut. Hotels on the list describe the payout as the tax "minus processing fees" (Sotetsu Hotels' notices for 2025 and 2026 use exactly that wording). The fee is not published in the ministry notice, so expect a little less than the VAT figure. The shopping refund works the same way; in our shopping tax refund guide the typical return is 5 to 8% of the price for that reason.

What is not covered: only the room service you were charged for (the law says 숙박용역, accommodation service) for stays of 30 days or less. Room service, the minibar, the spa and parking are separate charges. Toyoko Inn says breakfast counts when it is part of the room rate. Some hotels also exclude their top suite category; Sotetsu Hotels The Splaisir Seoul Dongdaemun, for example, excluded its "Splaisir Suite".

Who qualifies, and the booking mistake that cancels it

The law (Restriction of Special Taxation Act, Article 107-2) lets "foreign tourists" claim the VAT on up to 30 days of accommodation at a designated hotel. The decree borrows its definition from the shopping refund rules: a non-resident under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, but not a company, a diplomat, or a member of the UN or US forces stationed in Korea. Hotels on the list translate that into a checklist like this one from Toyoko Inn and Sotetsu:

• You are a foreign national staying in Korea for under six months. Toyoko Inn also accepts overseas Koreans who have lived abroad for at least two years and are in Korea for three months or less.
• You leave Korea within three months of check-out.
• The stay is 30 nights or fewer.
• You pay the hotel yourself. Toyoko Inn says the room must be "settled on-site at the hotel". Sotetsu says to book on its own website or by phone and excludes company credit cards and payment by a Korean national.

That last point is where most people lose the refund. If you prepay on a booking site, the site pays the hotel, not you, and the hotel has no payment from you to issue a refund form against. The same goes for a package tour and a company card, because companies are excluded by law. The scheme is meant for individual travellers.

Booking sites are not automatically out. What matters is who pays the hotel. A "pay at the property" rate on a booking site, settled at the front desk on your own card, meets Toyoko Inn's wording. Sotetsu's notice is stricter and asks for a direct booking. Hotels set their own procedures, so ask the hotel before you book: "Do you issue the 숙박용역공급확인서 (hotel tax refund form) for this rate?"

There is no two-night minimum. Search for this refund in English and the pages that still rank say you must stay "more than two nights, but less than 30". That was the rule of the one-year pilot that started on 1 April 2014. The current Article 107-2 says only "30 days or less", the Enforcement Decree (Article 109-2) adds no minimum, and the 2025–26 notices from Toyoko Inn and Sotetsu list a 30-night maximum and nothing else. One night counts.

You might like: How Much Is a Hotel in Seoul, Korea, Per Night?, with the official price figures by month, star grade and neighbourhood.

The list: 118 hotels for October–December 2026

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism designates the hotels each quarter, and the list applies to stays in that quarter. To get on it, a hotel must be a registered hotel or resort condominium, and the law caps its prices: its average rate for foreign guests, by room type, may not be more than 110% of the same period in either of the previous two years. A hotel that raises its rates faster than that is not eligible. This rule helps explain who is missing.

The Q4 2026 list was posted on 1 October 2026. The list has grown through the year, with one dip when Q3 was revised:

Hotels drop off as well as join. Sotetsu Hotels The Splaisir Seoul Dongdaemun was on the list for January–March 2026, told guests it was not designated for April–June, and is not on the Q4 list. Being on last quarter's list does not mean a hotel is on this one.

What kind of hotels they are

• Mostly mid-range. Of the 118: 11 are five-star, 12 four-star, 25 three-star, 30 two-star and 3 one-star. The other 37 have no star grade: 21 hostels, 2 resort condos and 14 hotels without a current grade.
• Two chains supply a fifth of the list. Toyoko Inn has 10 (Seoul 2, Busan 4, and one each in Incheon, Daegu, Ulsan and Changwon). The Anook (아늑) group has 15, five of them Loop Seoul Hotel properties in Gangnam and Hongdae. MONTHLIV, a long-stay brand, has 6 in Seoul.
• The Ambassador group's Accor hotels are the five-star story. All four Seoul five-stars on the list are Accor brands run by the Ambassador hotel group: Pullman Ambassador Seoul Eastpole (Gwangjin), Sofitel Ambassador Seoul (Songpa, by Seokchon Lake), Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery (Mapo) and Novotel Ambassador Seoul Yongsan. The group has four more on the list, outside Seoul or below five stars (Ibis Styles Yongsan, Novotel and Ibis Suwon, Grand Mercure Changwon).
• New this quarter: Aloft Seoul Myeongdong, Jeju Shinhwa World (five-star), CoveStay Haeundae, H Avenue Gwangalli Beach, Lazcube Capsule Hotel in Mapo, three MONTHLIV properties and six other smaller hotels.

The famous Seoul names that are not on it

Search the list for The Shilla, Lotte Hotel Seoul, Signiel, Josun Palace, The Westin Josun Seoul, Four Seasons, Grand Hyatt Seoul, JW Marriott or InterContinental and you will find none of them. The only Lotte properties are outside Seoul (Lotte Hotel Ulsan, Lotte Hotel & Resort Gimhae, BREEV Gwangju), and the only Hyatt is Grand Hyatt Jeju.

The ministry does not say why a hotel is absent; hotels apply each quarter, so some simply do not apply. The 110% price cap is one reason a hotel might stay out: a luxury hotel whose rates are climbing quickly would not pass it. Whatever the reason, the practical point is the same. If the refund matters to your budget, choose from the list. Don't assume a big name is on it.

The full list follows, grouped by city, with the Korean name in brackets because that is how the front desk and the airport counter will know it. Districts are from the hotel's registered address. One entry the ministry files under Seoul, Paul Mare Pool Villa, has a Haeundae address in Busan, so it is listed under Busan here.

All 118 hotels, by city (Q4 2026 list, 1 Oct 2026)

Source: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, "'26.4분기 외국인 관광객에 대한 숙박용역 부가세 환급 특례적용관광숙박시설 지정 공고", 1 October 2026, attachment "2026 4분기 특례적용관광숙박시설 지정신청 결과(118개)". English names follow the ministry's spreadsheet, tidied where it gave a company name instead of the hotel's. "—" means hostels and condos, which have no star grading; "unrated" means a hotel without a current grade.

How to claim it, step by step

1. Choose from the current quarter's list, for the dates of your stay. Sotetsu's notice requires both check-in and check-out to fall inside the designated quarter, so a stay that crosses 31 December may need the hotel on both lists; ask the hotel. The Q1 2027 list is due in late December.
2. Confirm with the hotel that your rate qualifies and that you will pay at the hotel on your own card or in cash. Get the answer in writing if you can.
3. At check-out, ask for the refund form (숙박용역공급확인서, "accommodation service supply confirmation"). Bring your passport. The decree lets hotels send the form to the refund operator electronically instead of handing you paper, so the hotel may tell you it is "already registered".
4. At departure, collect it. The airport refund counters and kiosks (the same ones used for shopping refunds) pay it in cash with your passport. Sotetsu's notice also lists the EXIMPay+ app for a bank transfer. Toyoko Inn says seaports work too.
5. Do it before you leave. Hotels' notices are blunt: you cannot claim after you get home, and you cannot claim an old stay on your next visit to Korea.

A new option, in a few hotels: a regulatory-sandbox pilot by the start-up Roadsystem pays the hotel VAT at check-in onto a TripPASS prepaid card (issued with Shinhan Card and Jeju Bank), which you can then spend in Korea. MTN reported it in August 2026 with one guest, a Spanish tourist, getting ₩15,000 back at check-in. It is a pilot, not the standard route, so plan on the airport unless your hotel offers it.

You might like: Korea Tax Refund Guide, for the shopping refund. Both refunds are collected at departure, so plan them together.

The deadline: the government wants to end it in June 2027

The scheme has always been temporary. It started as a one-year trial on 1 April 2014, and the current Article 107-2 covers stays from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2028, after several extensions.

In August 2026 the finance ministry's (재정경제부) tax-law amendment proposed moving that end date forward to 30 June 2027. Newspim reported the reasons on 7 August 2026: about 80% of foreign tourists stay in the Seoul area, the benefit is concentrated in Seoul, Busan, Jeju and higher-priced hotels, and the government judged that it does little to make anyone choose Korea. A separate VAT refund on cosmetic surgery for foreign patients already ended on 31 December 2025, after the government judged it had done its job.

This is not law yet. Tax bills go through the National Assembly in the autumn session and are normally voted on in early December. Until then the legal end date is still 2028. For a trip before mid-2027 nothing changes either way. For a trip in the second half of 2027, check this page again after December; we will update it when the Assembly votes.

When the refund is worth chasing, and when it isn't

It is worth it when you were already looking at a listed hotel, when you are staying several nights, and when you will pay at the desk anyway. A week at a ₩150,000-a-night business hotel carries about ₩95,000 of VAT. That is a dinner, less the fee.

It is not worth it when it pushes you into a worse location or a higher price. A booking-site rate ₩10,000 a night cheaper and prepaid can beat a direct rate with the refund, because the refund is about 9% minus a fee, paid at the airport. Compare the total cost, not just the refund. It is also not worth bending your plans for if you are on a package tour or a company booking; you are excluded either way.

And it is one more queue at the airport. Hotels warn that the counters can be slow. If you are collecting a shopping refund as well, do both at once and allow extra time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can foreigners get a tax refund on hotels in Korea? Yes, at hotels on the Ministry of Culture's quarterly list: 118 hotels for October–December 2026. You get back the 10% VAT on the room, minus a handling fee, when you leave Korea, as long as you are a non-resident visitor, stay 30 nights or fewer and pay the hotel yourself.

Q: Is there a minimum number of nights for the Korea hotel tax refund? No. The current law covers stays of "30 days or less" and sets no minimum. The "more than two nights" rule that some English pages still quote came from the 2014–15 pilot.

Q: Is the refund 10% of the hotel price? It is 10% of the pre-tax room rate, which is about 9.1% (1/11) of a tax-inclusive bill. The refund operator deducts a handling fee, so you receive a little less.

Q: Can I get the hotel tax refund if I book through Agoda or Booking.com? Usually not if you prepay on the site, because the hotel then has no payment from you to issue the form against. If you choose a rate paid at the hotel and settle it yourself, some hotels accept it (Toyoko Inn's rule is payment "settled on-site"); others ask you to book direct. Ask the hotel first.

Q: Are Seoul's luxury hotels like The Shilla or Lotte Hotel on the list? Not this quarter. Seoul's four listed five-stars are all Accor hotels run by the Ambassador group: Pullman Ambassador Seoul Eastpole, Sofitel Ambassador Seoul, Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery and Novotel Ambassador Seoul Yongsan.

Q: When does the Korea hotel tax refund end? The law runs to 31 December 2028. The government's 2026 tax proposal would end it on 30 June 2027; the National Assembly is expected to vote on it in December 2026.

Sources

• Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Q4 2026 designation notice and 118-hotel list, 1 October 2026: mcst.go.kr. Earlier 2026 notices: Q1 (96 hotels, 30 December 2025) pSeq 19015; Q2 (101, 31 March 2026) pSeq 19187; Q3 (110, 1 July 2026) pSeq 19356; Q3 revised (108, 15 September 2026) pSeq 19496.
• Restriction of Special Taxation Act, Article 107-2 (외국인 관광객에 대한 부가가치세의 특례): law.go.kr; Enforcement Decree, Article 109-2 (designation rules, 110% price cap, refund form): law.go.kr; definition of foreign tourist, Article 2 of the special-rules decree for foreign tourists: law.go.kr.
• Proposed end date of 30 June 2027 and the government's reasons: Newspim, 7 August 2026.
• Hotel conditions and refund methods: Toyoko Inn tax refund page: toyoko-inn.com; Sotetsu Hotels The Splaisir Seoul Dongdaemun notices of 3 July 2025 and 1 January 2026: 2025, 2026.
• The 2014 pilot's "more than two nights" rule: TravelWorldNews, 2014.
• Instant hotel-VAT refund pilot (Roadsystem, TripPASS): MTN, 20 August 2026.