Seoul Wellness & Local Guide is reader-supported. Some links on this site are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you book or buy through them — at no extra cost to you. This page explains that relationship plainly, as the United States Federal Trade Commission requires.
1. Our FTC disclosure
In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255), and comparable rules in the EU and UK (including the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and the Digital Services Act transparency rules), we disclose every material connection between this site and the businesses we write about.
In plain words: this site earns money when readers book or buy through some of its links, and we tell you so on the page, before the link, not in small print at the bottom.
2. What an affiliate link is
An affiliate link is an ordinary web link that carries a short identifier showing that the visit came from this site. If you then complete a booking or a purchase, the partner pays us a commission — usually a small percentage of the order value, sometimes a fixed amount. The link itself does not change the page you land on, the product you see or the price you pay.
3. Partners we work with
Depending on the page, our links may point to some of the following, and we may add or remove partners as the site grows:
- Klook — tours, attraction tickets, airport transfers and travel experiences;
- Agoda and other accommodation platforms — hotels and stays in Seoul and elsewhere in Korea;
- WOWPASS — the foreigner-facing prepaid card and currency-exchange service used with Korean transit and payments;
- Korean eSIM and connectivity providers, transit-card and travel-insurance services;
- Shops and marketplaces relevant to the topic of the page (for example K-beauty retailers on our beauty guides, or running-gear retailers on our running guides);
- Klook, Agoda, WOWPASS, Booking.com, GetYourGuide and Korean eSIM and transit-card providers.
Not every partner listed is present on every page, and not every link you see is an affiliate link. When we link to an official government, transport or race-organisation page, it is for your convenience and earns us nothing.
4. No extra cost to you
Where a partnership works this way, the commission is paid by the partner out of its own margin. You pay the same price you would pay by going to the partner directly. On a few platforms a partner may offer readers of this site a small discount or an extra benefit; when that happens, we say so on the page.
5. Editorial independence
A commission never buys a recommendation, a ranking or a favourable verdict.
- We choose what to write about because readers ask about it, because it is a real pain point, or because we have used the service ourselves.
- We recommend the option we would choose for a friend, and we name the cheaper or better alternative when it exists — including when it pays us nothing.
- We say when something was disappointing, overpriced, awkward without Korean, or not worth the trip.
- No partner has editorial approval over any page, and paid placement of an article is not offered.
- Where a page contains several affiliate links, the comparison is still written on the merits: price, location, opening hours, language support and what a first-time visitor actually experiences.
6. How to spot an affiliate link
Pages that contain affiliate links carry a short note near the top saying so, and the link text itself usually names the partner — for example “Check prices on Klook” or “See rooms on Agoda”. Links to outside sites generally open in a new tab. If you would rather not use an affiliate link, search for the business by name and go to it directly; nothing on this site is behind a link you must use.
7. What we are not responsible for
We are an information site, not a travel agency, shop, salon, clinic or race organiser. Your booking contract is with the partner. Prices, availability, cancellation rules, refunds, service quality, injuries and complaints are handled by that partner under its own terms and its own customer-service channels. We cannot issue refunds, change a reservation, or intervene in a dispute on a partner’s behalf — though we do want to hear about it if a partner treated our readers badly, because that affects what we recommend next.
8. Display advertising
In addition to affiliate links, this site may display advertising served by third parties such as Google AdSense. Advertisers do not see your personal information through us, and their ads are selected by their own systems, not by us. How advertising cookies work is described in our Privacy Policy.
9. Questions
If you want to know whether a particular link is an affiliate link, ask: syoon314@gmail.com. We will answer directly, and we will answer within 24–48 hours.