Yanolja's gentrification of South Korean love hotels has brought the compan...
SEOUL - Yanolja’s gentrification of South Korean love hotels has brought the company a valuation of more than $1 billion from investors keen to capitalize on the globalization of a novel approach to short-stay accommodation, its chief executive told Reuters.
Yanolja’s emergence coincides with a time of flux among hoteliers, as legislators are at loggerheads with market disruptors such as Airbnb Inc - through which private home owners can let rooms for short-term stay - while a government campaign to reduce working hours promises to free up more leisure time for short breaks.
Yanolja - meaning “Hey, let’s play” - sought to dispel any stigma with its bright, modern franchised love hotels, targeting millennial couples but also budget tourists seeking short-term accommodation. “It is a unique example which breaks away from the traditional notion of motels,” said Lee Hoon, a tourism professor at Hanyang University in Seoul.
A decade later, Yanolja claimed to be the first company to offer a reservation platform for mobile phones for its own and others’ love hotels, a major shift in an industry which relied on walk-in customers. A couple looks at South Korea's accommodation-booking app on a mobile phone during a photo opportunity in Seoul, South Korea, May 17, 2019. REUTERS/Hyunyoung Yi
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Hundreds of North Korean public execution sites identified: surveyNorth Korea conducts public executions to incite fear among the public, a rights...
Read more »
North Korea urges U.S. to change 'hostile policy' on eve of summit anniversaryNorth Korean state media called on the United States on Tuesday to 'withdra...
Read more »
Eyewitnesses help document public executions in North Korea for a day of reckoningFour in five North Korean escapees interviewed for a new report by a South Korea-based research group said they witnessed a public execution in their lifetime. More than half said they’d been forced to watch one.
Read more »
Death toll in Danube River tour boat collision rises to 20Hungarian police say the body of another South Korean tourist has been recovered from the May 29 accident in which a sightseeing boat sank in seconds after colliding with a cruise ship on the Danube River, raising the death toll to 20.
Read more »