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These are big in Korea too, and the purpose isn't just infidelity as the article would have you believe. It is common to live with your family until marriage, a

These are big in Korea too, and the purpose isn't just infidelity as the article would have you believe. It is common to live with your family until marriage, and many Korean families outwardly hold traditional values of chastity until marriage. Families also tend to have a greater financial involvement (and therefore more influence over) in their childrens ability to rent a nice place because of jeonsei (very high security deposit - like a downpayment - in exchange for reduced rent), so it is in adult childrens best interest to keep up appearances with their parents. The average marriage age is 32 for women, 35 for men. So this means many, many years of adulthood dating where you cannot bring home a date to sleep with because you live with your parents. So love hotels are common in Korean nightlife districts and they are actually quite nice and cheap too. I stayed at some of them years ago and I recall they were around $75 per night, with free pirated DVD movies to borrow.

Karlax 8y ago
>the purpose isn't just infidelity as the article would have you believe. The article states "The clients are often people who live at home with their parents and just need some privacy." Still, they don't clarify this any further so your explanation is useful. As it happens, a similar situation to what you describe in Korea is also common in Japan.
denimnerd42 8y ago
This is big in Argentina too. For similar reasons that children live with their parents into their 30s while saving for a place to live on their own.
sho_hn 8y ago
I used to live in an area in Seoul sandwiched between universities (신촌), in a nice enough high-rise apartment building at a main street, with a block full of love hotels behind it. My window was out back, facing hotel back entrances. It was generally quiet and uneventful, but super amusing on Valentine's Day nights: The entire street would basically be a column of taxis. They'd briefly be stopping, a couple would dash out to the safety of the hotel entrance, the column would advance, repeat.
rangerpolitic 8y ago
I took a teaching position back in the mid-00s in Korea. Because it was a new school, the housing wasn't ready when we arrived. The school decided to put us up in one because it was cheap. We were there for a month. Nice? That's not the word I would choose. Random stains on the furniture and carpet. Hairs on the sheets. A vending machine at the end of the hall selling an assortment of toys. They did have free pirated DVDs on a shelf at the end of the hall. It was all porn. It did have fantastic sound effects at 2 AM in the morning, though. Nice is definitely not the word I would choose based on my experience.
- nemothekid 8y ago
  I'm not sure about Korean real-estate, but $75/night would be ~2000/mo (which I don't think would be cheap). It sounds like he may have stayed at a place that was far more upscale than your experience.
- rlue 8y ago
  The place your school put you up in probably didn't charge US$75/night. In my experience (in Taiwan), many decent, modern hotels offer 2- to 4-hour couples packages just to tap that extra segment of the market. In addition to those, there are definitely seedy places where you can get a room for 3 hours for around US$15.
bane 8y ago
I've definitely ended up crashing in a love hotel or two in Seoul after a night out drinking and 노래방 singing. Never used it for the commonly assumed use, more crash pad and hangover. Pretty cheap (compared to hotels), better accommodations than most Korean hotels (those that are meant for Koreans) I've stayed in and usually have hangover cure drinks in the fridge and free internet. I'm sometimes kind of unsure why the real hotels are so expensive and these things are so cheap. I often feel like if they just went "legit" with the current rates they might do better, but what do I know?
- Kaiyou 8y ago
  The way I understand their economics is, that you do not pay them per night, but per hour. I never heard of someone actually staying overnight in one of them, since that should be prohibitively expensive.
nwhatt 8y ago
I loved staying in love hotels when a hostel was not convenient. A king size bed and all you can watch Starcraft, usually with a PC Cafe next door (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
- jerkstate 8y ago
  Yes! Starcraft on 3 channels!
  - hatsunearu 8y ago
    nowadays it's 23/7 league of legends with maybe an hour of pubg. I hate both of those games :(
  - Ntrails 8y ago
    Truly a vision of how great the future can be
Arn_Thor 8y ago
Same story in Hong Kong. Homeownership is ridiculously out of reach for most people, so kids stay at home until they're married and well settled in their career. With the tiny apartments in Hong Kong, privacy is hard to come by. So love hotels are very common, and well used

Karlax 8y ago

>the purpose isn't just infidelity as the article would have you believe. The article states "The clients are often people who live at home with their parents and just need some privacy." Still, they don't clarify this any further so your explanation is useful. As it happens, a similar situation to what you describe in Korea is also common in Japan.

denimnerd42 8y ago

This is big in Argentina too. For similar reasons that children live with their parents into their 30s while saving for a place to live on their own.

sho_hn 8y ago

I used to live in an area in Seoul sandwiched between universities (신촌), in a nice enough high-rise apartment building at a main street, with a block full of love hotels behind it. My window was out back, facing hotel back entrances. It was generally quiet and uneventful, but super amusing on Valentine's Day nights: The entire street would basically be a column of taxis. They'd briefly be stopping, a couple would dash out to the safety of the hotel entrance, the column would advance, repeat.

rangerpolitic 8y ago

I took a teaching position back in the mid-00s in Korea. Because it was a new school, the housing wasn't ready when we arrived. The school decided to put us up in one because it was cheap. We were there for a month. Nice? That's not the word I would choose. Random stains on the furniture and carpet. Hairs on the sheets. A vending machine at the end of the hall selling an assortment of toys. They did have free pirated DVDs on a shelf at the end of the hall. It was all porn. It did have fantastic sound effects at 2 AM in the morning, though. Nice is definitely not the word I would choose based on my experience.

nemothekid 8y ago
I'm not sure about Korean real-estate, but $75/night would be ~2000/mo (which I don't think would be cheap). It sounds like he may have stayed at a place that was far more upscale than your experience.
rlue 8y ago
The place your school put you up in probably didn't charge US$75/night. In my experience (in Taiwan), many decent, modern hotels offer 2- to 4-hour couples packages just to tap that extra segment of the market. In addition to those, there are definitely seedy places where you can get a room for 3 hours for around US$15.

bane 8y ago

I've definitely ended up crashing in a love hotel or two in Seoul after a night out drinking and 노래방 singing. Never used it for the commonly assumed use, more crash pad and hangover. Pretty cheap (compared to hotels), better accommodations than most Korean hotels (those that are meant for Koreans) I've stayed in and usually have hangover cure drinks in the fridge and free internet. I'm sometimes kind of unsure why the real hotels are so expensive and these things are so cheap. I often feel like if they just went "legit" with the current rates they might do better, but what do I know?

Kaiyou 8y ago
The way I understand their economics is, that you do not pay them per night, but per hour. I never heard of someone actually staying overnight in one of them, since that should be prohibitively expensive.

nwhatt 8y ago

I loved staying in love hotels when a hostel was not convenient. A king size bed and all you can watch Starcraft, usually with a PC Cafe next door (breakfast, lunch, dinner).

jerkstate 8y ago
Yes! Starcraft on 3 channels!
- hatsunearu 8y ago
  nowadays it's 23/7 league of legends with maybe an hour of pubg. I hate both of those games :(
- Ntrails 8y ago
  Truly a vision of how great the future can be

Arn_Thor 8y ago

Same story in Hong Kong. Homeownership is ridiculously out of reach for most people, so kids stay at home until they're married and well settled in their career. With the tiny apartments in Hong Kong, privacy is hard to come by. So love hotels are very common, and well used