Tag: hotels

This is not a bad idea for the entrepreneurs that came up with the PC-tel concept, but I guess we will see if the Korean government decides to regulate them out of existence:

An increasing number of teenagers in Korea are heading to unstaffed motels at night to use the venues to play computer games, raising concerns about the facilities’ lack of monitoring against underage visitors.

The issue has stoked further a more deeply troubling side effect of the facilities that they are creating a space for teenagers to engage in the illegal consumption of alcohol, prostitution and sex crimes.

The lodges welcome visitors with kiosks at their fronts instead of concierge staff. The machines offer rooms to anyone who pays in advance, regardless of age. The facilities, because of the unmonitored check-in system and lax screening regarding customer age, are becoming more popular option for teenagers who are restricted from using PC rooms after 10 p.m. under the country’s Youth Protection Act. 

These so-called “PC-tels” ― a compound of PC and motel ― aren’t difficult to locate. One can easily find a list of PC-tels at popular online lodge searching brands using websites or smartphone apps like Good Choice or Yanolja. Users, once agreeing to provide their real-time location information through those search engines, can conveniently browse a list of lodges offering high-performing computers with pre-installed popular games ― like League of Legends or Battlegrounds ― in their vicinity.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that an increasing number of hotels in South Korea are ditching their name brand:

The Namhae Hilton also changed its name to the Ananti Namhae in January 2018, while the Hyatt Regency Jeju also converted to the Shore Hotel Jeju. 

Two Walkerhill hotels also ditched the brands Sheraton and W of the global hospitality giant Marriott International in 2017 and turned into the Grand Walkerhill Seoul and the Vista Walkerhill Seoul.

Speculation was rampant that Shinsegae Chosun Hotel that operates four Marriott-brand properties ― the Westin Chosun hotels in Seoul and Busan, the Four Points by Sheraton Seoul Namsan and the JW Marriott Seoul ― might part ways with the Westin brand, but it renewed the contract recently to retain the name.

However, the company plans to launch five new hotels by 2023, but it has yet to decide whether to go into partnership with global hotel chains, according to its officials. Last year, Shinsegae opened its first standalone brand L’Escape Hotel in Seoul. 

“The reason more local hotels are ending their relationships with popular global brands is that the benefits of using those brands are not as significant as expected,” a hospitality industry official said.

“In addition, some owners are unhappy about complying with strict instructions from brand headquarters to meet their standards.”

In addition, with online travel agencies (OTAs) gaining a bigger presence in the hospitality sector, local hotels are relying more on these platforms rather than focusing on partnership with global brands.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I know for me the brand is important because of points programs that lead to free stays. That is going to be a major market that will be lost by ditching major name hotel brands.

It is not a matter of whether the DPRK can afford the summit. It is really a test of how openly the DPRK can snooker whomever. It’s a clever tactic to test its opponents’ weaknesses before even sitting down. Let the eye blinking begin! https://t.co/9srzrkYsoH

— tomcoyner (@tomcoyner) June 3, 2018

Jon Dunbar from the Korea Times had a fun night in jail at the Trump Hotel in Naju:

The hotel, newly opened in July, has a glitzy neon exterior. And a prison cell theme room! What could they be thinking? I had to stay there myself.

So the next available weekend, I filled up my cats’ bowls and headed south, mum to friends about my destination.

Trump Hotel is a short walk from the station, right next to a Lotte Mart. Unsure how it works, I entered the building and took the elevator to the third floor, only to find no lobby. I met owner Hur Jung-oun, his wife Kim Hyo-won and Hur’s brother and co-owner Jun-chul and they kindly helped me check in. I got my wish, the prison cell room, for only 55,000 won. I did not identify myself or reveal intentions to write an article.

Guests are expected to enter through the garage, where they get a private parking spot and can walk up a short flight of stairs to the room and a check-in system. But non-drivers are welcome too. The garage displays the hotel logo — a bunch of playing cards. A reference to Trump’s failed casinos?

Once I was alone in the room, I pulled out my camera and took pictures of everything. Trump bathrobes, Trump bed sheets, Trump hairdryer and, of course, the prison bars. They were real metal and if you brought your own padlock you could lock someone in there. I imagined waking up in the morning to find myself locked in.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This just makes you wonder what is wrong with some people?:

An Airbnb host who canceled a woman’s reservation because of her race has agreed to pay $5,000 in damages and take a course in Asian American studies, a state regulatory agency announced Thursday.

The host, Tami Barker, told the woman who reserved her Big Bear cabin for a ski vacation in February that she would not rent to an Asian, justifying the action by adding in a text message, “It’s why we have Trump,” referring to President Trump.

The woman, Dyne Suh, a UCLA law student, said she was driving in a snowstorm to the Big Bear cabin when she received the text messages via the Airbnb mobile app. A tearful Suh, standing in the snow, shot a video posted on YouTube, describing her exchange with Barker.

“I’ve been here since I was 3 years old,” she said in the video. “America is my home. I consider myself an American. But this woman discriminates against me because I’m Asian.”  [LA Times]

You can read more at the link.

An employee holds a dog, with other pet dogs kept in glass capsules, at a pet dog hotel in Seoul’s Gangnam Ward on Aug. 3, 2015, amid the summer vacation season. An increasing number of holidaymakers are leaving their pets at hotels so they can take time for themselves during the summer vacation season. (Yonhap)

In this photo, exclusively obtained and released on June 12, 2015 by local radio station BBS, black smoke and flames billow from a bridge between the 43rd floors of Koryo Hotel in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on the previous day. The fire had broken out at the hotel frequented by foreigners, without any information being provided on casualties or property damage, reports said on June 12, 2015. The fire appears to have been extinguished, according to The Associated Press. (Yonhap)

It looks like if you ever wanted to stay in a Seoul luxury hotel now is the time:

Luxury hotels here are struggling as profits dwindle amid a marked decline in high-rolling Japanese customers.

Lotte Hotel, the biggest hotel chain in Korea, saw operating profit fall by half last year to W24.3 billion (US$1=W1,071). Hotel Shilla, a favorite choice of visiting foreign dignitaries and heads of state, posted an operating loss of W20.6 billion last year.

The W Seoul Walker Hill Hotel on the eastern edge of Seoul, a popular destination for foreign tourists, earned a paltry W12 million in net profit last year. Shinsegae, which operates luxury hotels in downtown Seoul and the southern port city of Busan, saw operating profit fall to W4.1 billion last year, less than half of what it earned in 2013.

From 2009 to 2012, the number of Japanese visitors rose from 3 million to 3.52 million, but it fell to a 10-year low of 2.28 million last year as Seoul-Tokyo relations chilled and a weak yen made Korea more expensive.

Instead, the number of Chinese tourists soared from 710,000 in 2005 to 6.13 million last year, but they prefer to more affordable accommodation, such as business hotels or guest houses.

“A majority of five-star hotels have seen a 30-percent decline in the number of Japanese guests. In some hotels the number fell 50 percent, while the increase in Chinese guests has been minimal,” one luxury hotel staffer said.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but in response to all the empty rooms the major luxury hotels are now offering some rooms at 50% off their normal prices just to get someone in the room to make up for the losses.