Korea's hotel VAT refund: all 118 eligible hotels (Q4 2026, by region)

Last month I checked out of Avani Central Busan with a tax refund slip in hand.

The refund? ₩1,000 😂

I'd paid most of the night with GHA DISCOVERY points (D$), and that turned out to matter a lot.

Asking the hotel why sent me down the rabbit hole on how this program actually works.

Here's the short version: if you're a foreign visitor staying at a government-designated hotel in Korea, you can get back the VAT on your room.

The catch: the list of hotels changes every quarter, and the government posts it as an Excel file.

So I turned the Q4 list into something you can read on your phone.

Status (Oct 7): Q4 2026 list, 118 hotels, for stays from Oct 1 to Dec 31, per Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism notice 2026-389.

I'll update this post every quarter.

At a glance

Who qualifies

The ministry's notice says "individual non-residents under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act."

You're out if you do business in Korea or stay 6 months or longer.

Visiting on a Canadian passport? You qualify.

That includes Korean-Canadians on a short trip home.

F-4 visa holders with a residence card: the notice doesn't mention visa types at all.

Under Korean law an F-4 holder is a foreigner, so the foreigner test applies (Foreign Exchange Transactions Act decree, Article 10).

Stay 6 months or more, or work in Korea, and you become a resident.

The visa and the card themselves don't matter.

The hotel just looks at your passport when it issues the slip, so as long as you leave within 6 months, it should be fine.

I'll try it myself once I have my card and report back.

How to claim

1. At check-out, ask the front desk for the tax refund. You get a refund slip (숙박용역공급확인서).
2. Cash it when you leave Korea, at the airport or port refund counter. Downtown refund counters work too.
3. You have to leave within 3 months of check-out.

The ministry's example: pay 110 for the room, get 10 back.

So roughly 9% of what you paid.

Booked through an OTA?

Still fine. The notice says "OTA bookings included."

It works in either of these cases:

• You pay the hotel directly (including OTA bookings you pay for at the hotel)
• You prepaid the OTA, and the OTA settles the room rate plus its commission with the hotel

You have no way of knowing the second one as a guest.

If you prepaid, ask at check-in whether they can issue the refund slip.

Paying with points

This is where my ₩1,000 came from.

My night at Avani Central Busan (Sep 20 to 21):

My folio showed ₩14,400 of VAT, but the refund slip showed ₩1,968.

So after check-out I emailed the hotel and GHA to ask why.

The front desk first passed it to the refund operator (KICC).

Two days later the hotel sent a proper answer:

1. Under GHA's terms, D$ are reward points, not money, so the hotel books them as points applied to the room rate.
2. The hotel gets nothing back from GHA or Minor Hotels for the ₩136,746 I redeemed.
3. Under Article 61(2)(9) of Korea's VAT decree, when you pay with points, the taxable amount is what you paid by other means plus anything a third party reimburses. No reimbursement means only my ₩21,654 card payment counts.
4. The ₩14,400 on the folio is tax on the original ₩144,000 rate. The refund slip uses what I actually paid after D$.
5. D$ are treated the same whether earned at this hotel, at another GHA hotel or from a promo. D$ bought with cash or converted from other points might need a separate tax review.
6. That's this hotel's setup. Not every GHA hotel, or country, works the same way.

GHA's side: D$ can go toward eligible hotel charges, not taxes, tips or fees, and the VAT question is the hotel's to answer.

And of that ₩1,968, I got ₩1,000.

My guess is the refund operator's fee took the rest, but I couldn't find their fee schedule anywhere official.

So:

• Full points stay = nothing paid = no refund
• Points + cash = refund on the cash part only
• Small amounts = the fee eats most of it

Flip point 3 around: if a program does reimburse the hotel for your points, that amount may count too, and the math changes.

On a points stay, check the amount on your refund slip at check-out.

It may end in June 2027

The government's 2026 tax reform plan, announced in August, moves this program's end date from Dec 31, 2028 to June 30, 2027.

The stated reason is "making tax expenditures more efficient."

It still needs to pass the National Assembly, so nothing's final yet.

I'll update this when it does.

Earn points and get the VAT back

Pay cash and you earn points and get the VAT refund.

Here are the chain hotels on this quarter's list:

• Marriott Bonvoy (3): Aloft by Marriott Seoul Myeongdong, Fairfield by Marriott Busan Songdo Beach, RYSE, Autograph Collection
• World of Hyatt (1): Grand Hyatt Jeju
• IHG One Rewards (1): Holiday Inn Express Seoul Hongdae
• Accor ALL (8): Grand Mercure Ambassador Changwon, Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery, Ibis Ambassador Suwon, Ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Yongsan, Novotel Ambassador Seoul Yongsan, Novotel Ambassador Suwon, Pullman Ambassador Seoul Eastpole, Sofitel Ambassador Seoul Hotel & Serviced Residences
• GHA DISCOVERY (1): Avani Central Busan
• Wyndham Rewards (1): Ramada Plaza Suwon

What changed this quarter

Compared with the final Q3 list (108 hotels, as amended on Sep 15).

Hotels new this quarter are marked 🆕 in the tables below.

New this quarter (15)

• CoveStay Haeundae (Busan, Haeundae-gu)
• H Avenue Gwanganri Beach (Busan, Suyeong-gu)
• Uijeongbu Latree Hotel (Gyeonggi, Uijeongbu)
• Jeju Shinhwa World (Jeju, Seogwipo)
• Aloft by Marriott Seoul Myeongdong (Seoul, Jung-gu)
• Dongdaemun Tourist Hotel (Seoul, Jongno-gu)
• Handpicked Hotel (Seoul, Dongjak-gu)
• Hotel CS Avenue (Seoul, Eunpyeong-gu)
• Hotel The Designers Premier Seongsu & Konkuk Univ (Seoul, Gwangjin-gu)
• Lazcube Capsule Hotel (Seoul, Mapo-gu)
• MIND HOTEL (Seoul, Geumcheon-gu)
• MONTHLIV CHEONGNYANGNI HOTEL STAY (Seoul, Dongdaemun-gu)
• MONTHLIV CHUNGMURO HOTEL STAY (Seoul, Jung-gu)
• MONTHLIV KONKUK SEONGSU HOTEL STAY (Seoul, Gwangjin-gu)
• Lotte Hotel Ulsan (Ulsan, Nam-gu)

Dropped off (5)

• Paradise Hotel Busan (Busan, Haeundae-gu)
• Stavia Hotel (Gyeonggi, Gimpo)
• A-One Hotel (Seoul, Yongsan-gu)
• COMFORT INN YEOUIDO (Seoul, Yeongdeungpo-gu)
• Novotel Ambassador Seoul Gangnam (Seoul, Gangnam-gu)

The full list, by region

Sorted by region, then area, then hotel name.

Seoul 54 · Busan 21 · Gyeonggi 15 · Jeju 8 · Gyeongnam 5 · Daejeon 4 · Daegu 3 · Incheon 3 · Ulsan 2 · Gangwon 2 · Gwangju 1

Hotel names are as the ministry's spreadsheet lists them (I fixed obvious typos, and 3 entries where the region didn't match the address).

Check with the hotel before you book.

The ministry sometimes amends the list mid-quarter (it did twice in Q3).

Busan (21)

Daegu (3)

Daejeon (4)

Gangwon (2)

Gwangju (1)

Gyeonggi (15)

Gyeongnam (5)

Incheon (3)

Jeju (8)

Seoul (54)

Ulsan (2)

Final Thoughts

11 five-star hotels made the list, plus a good number of Marriott, Hyatt and Accor properties.

Full points stays won't get you anything here.

But if you're paying cash, ask at check-out. It's your money.

I've rounded up the other perks you can get in Korea (duty free, department stores, cards, tax refunds) in this post.

Sources: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Q4 2026 designation notice (Korean), Q4 application notice with the program rules (Korean), Global Tax Free hotel refund page