First Time Renting a Friend in Korea? What to Expect Before You Pay

You have read the price page. You have read how it works, step by step. And you are still not typing. That is the most normal thing in the world — you are about to send money to a stranger in a country you have not even landed in yet.

So this page is not another list of steps. It is about the things people quietly worry about and rarely ask out loud: who is on the other end, how the money actually moves, and whether meeting a stranger you paid to spend time with is as awkward as it sounds in your head.

Who is actually typing back

A person. Most of the time, it is the person who runs Yes! Oppa. Not a bot, not a rotating support team reading from a script — which is why the answers are specific, and also why they can sometimes take a little time.

We are on Korea time. If you message us at 2am Seoul time, the reply will come in the morning, not four seconds later. If a reply takes a few hours, nothing has gone wrong.

Why we ask for your WhatsApp or email early

Because the chat window lives in your browser. Close the tab, switch from your laptop to your phone, or clear your history mid-trip — and the thread can disappear along with your dates, your plan, and everything you have already explained.

Asking for a WhatsApp number or an email address is not about putting you on a marketing list. It is so that a conversation you spent twenty minutes on does not vanish just because you closed a tab at the airport.

Why the payment link comes from PayPal, not from our website

Once the plan is settled, you get a PayPal link — you leave our site to pay and then come back. It may look less polished than a built-in checkout button, but that is deliberate.

We never see or store your card details. PayPal keeps a record of what was paid, when it was paid, and what it was for, and that record is available to both of us. If something ever went wrong, you would be able to dispute the transaction through a payment company rather than argue with a stranger over chat.

• The link arrives after the plan is settled — never before. Nobody asks you for money just to answer your questions.
• Rates start at $25 an hour with a 4-hour minimum, so a half-day starts at $100.
• You pay once, upfront and in full. There is no deposit followed by a balance to chase down later.
• Your PayPal receipt is your payment record — keep it. It is also the basis for calculating any refund.

What actually comes back if you cancel

The full breakdown is on the price page, but the basic structure is simple: cancel two weeks or more before your date and you receive a full refund; cancel one to two weeks before and you receive half; cancel less than a week before and there is no refund.

Two details sometimes catch people by surprise. First, once your Crew member has already built or reworked your route, about 20% of the payment becomes non-refundable — that work has already been done and delivered, whether or not the day itself goes ahead.

Second, PayPal charges fees on the transaction and, depending on the payment and refund process, additional fees may apply when the money is returned. Any applicable fees are deducted from the amount returned to you. So the amount you receive back may not be exactly the same round number you originally paid.

Read the cancellation and refund policy in our Terms

We would rather you read that here than discover it later on your bank statement.

The full price and cancellation breakdown

When your Crew member actually gets decided

Not in your first message. Early on, you are talking to us because we are the ones who know every Crew member's schedule.

You are welcome to browse the profiles and tell us if you have someone in mind — just say so early, while the dates are still open. Otherwise, the match happens as the booking firms up, based on your dates, your pace, and what you actually want out of the day.

Nobody is assigned to you before there is a plan to assign them to.

The first ten minutes

This is the worry almost nobody types out: what if we meet and it is just awkward?

Here is what actually happens. Usually, you meet at a subway exit. Your Crew member already knows your plan, so there is no awkward cold open — the first exchange is about where you are going and what you are doing, not forced small talk.

You start walking. Somebody points something out. You get food, which does most of the conversational work for you. You do not have to perform, and you do not have to fill every silence while you walk; nobody expects that from a friend either.

Most people stop thinking about the fact that they booked the experience somewhere around the second stop.

If your plans change once you are here

They usually do, at least a little. The weather changes, a place is closed, or you fall in love with a neighborhood and want to stay longer.

The route gets reshuffled in real time — that is the whole point of having a person with you instead of following a printed itinerary. If you want more hours and your Crew member is free that evening, you can extend by the hour.

And the online support thread stays open for the rest of your trip, not just for the booked day.

What this is not

It is worth saying plainly before you pay, not after. This is a local friend for the day: meeting in public places, spending time together from daytime through dinner, with nothing romantic implied by the word oppa.

If you are looking for something else, this is the wrong service, and we would rather you know that now.

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