Because of my affinity for love motels, I'm sensitive to what's unsurprisingly a lazy post that gets it wrong---and looks quick to jump on the "news of the weird" theme that runs through so much international news out of Asia in western sources---starting with the photograph that accompanied it.
Korean love hotel? From Gawker.
It's of a storefront you'll find in redlight districts throughout the country, sometimes but rarely attached to a motel.
Love hotels (or love motels, the terms are interchangable) are pretty much the best accommodation options for domestic and international tourists in South Korea, as I've written about on this site and in the Korean Herald.
Though they're primarily used as a place to share an intimate moment, people are starting to realize they're not only about sex. A Yonhap News piece in August looked at the ways motels have changed to attract not only clients looking for a few hours to get away, but people who want to relax in other ways. Competition has pushed motels to offer more, and, the piece says, "more and more motels are transforming their guest rooms into private entertainment places equipped with wide-screen TVs and other high-tech gadgets as a means of attracting clients."
Large televisions, computers, big beds, and bathtubs are standard in the newer rooms, and some of the more stylish ones offer jacuzzis, Nintendo and PlayStation consoles, motorcycles in the room, and even telescopes on upstairs verandas, all for between 50,000 won and 100,000 won a night. The kitch of multicolored mood lights and swanky interior is a fun, welcome change from drab apartment rooms or ordinary faded beige of older tourist hotels.
From that piece in Yonhap, the Korean wire service, last year:
[I]n the face of a steep increase in competition, motel owners are transforming their guest rooms into private entertainment complexes, renovating once spartan furnishings into lavish accommodations.
Couples can now find rooms in some of the country's leading motels equipped with a swimming pool, a sauna or jacuzzi, and flat-screen displays. Popular game consoles like Play Station or Wii, as well as karaoke machines, multiple PCs and a tastefully decorated bed are all part of the package.
They often have the best amenities, are found in convenient locations all over the country, and are a fraction of the cost of "tourist hotels," which are often the only option for foreign travelers because they are the only ones that show up on English-language searches. Yes, motels rent out rooms in two-hour blocks and not because South Koreans don't sleep much. At their worst they can be dingy and dirty, home to one-night stands, gambling sessions, suicides, and deaths by smoke inhilation.
But at their best they are basically what's known as boutique hotels elsewhere.
A "brothel" is, according to dictionary.com:
a house or other place where men pay to have sexual intercourse with prostitutesand, says Naver:
매매춘을 하는 집and you can bet that Koreans, sensitive as they are about foreigners knowing about love motels, won't be happy about this mistake, which portrays Koreans more than just oversexed, but as poor hosts.
Much more on accommodation in Korea in the "Motels and Hotels" category.
11 comments:
I don't get it-- the photographer was a Getty Image photographer & KOREAN, yet the quote accompanying it was talking about a love motel. The blog post was blowing chunks of "dude" insensitivity, though. I felt dirty just reading it.
Sidenote: those photos are unbelievable- I want to stay at one of those! I've become a fan of love motels-- they might as well call them boutique hotels-- some are better than the average hotel, designer posh and cost only a fraction of what you'd pay at a reg hotel.
I'm pretty sure traveling around to different cities and staying at love motels with my long-term-relationship girlfriend is one of my favorite things about living in Korea.
For sure.
oops sorry about that last bit I posted. So here's the kicker- that blog's pointed quote wasn't from the actual photographer of the photo they used. The photo in the blog is a Getty Image photo; while the photographer quoted in the blog is one of the press photographers from the race event. Dude just hijacked a Getty Image and stuck it on his post.
Great observation about the photo! Bad and lazy reporting just sucks. I also love love motels.
Hmmm, some people are idiots. I too am a fan of love motels. I like the nice bathtubs and endless supplies of movies. And they are so much nicer than Holiday Inn or Motel 6 back in the States, but tons cheaper.
Jeez, that's just sloppy journalism. I've stayed in some sleazy love motels, but I've stayed in more nice ones. And in none of them did I pay for sex >_>
No, not all love motels are brothels, but there are some love motels in "those parts of towns" that are pretty dodgy.
Also not all love motels are like the ones in your pictures. I fondly remember being locked out of the university dormitory I was living in one time, and having to go to a motel to spend the night. Well the toilet trash bucket had trash in it. There was a nice stray bar of soap that came complete with bits of hair, and of course the love motel classic: a used roll of toothpaste.
I will concede that your point is valid. Many love motels are quite nice, Korea is not short on accommodations anywhere. You can go to the most backwoods county anywhere and still find a place to sleep, but there isn't every much of a guarantee that the place will be clean.
Some love motels are better than others of course, but generally they are a good deal, and if you're not bothered by their, um, eccentricities, they are the best accomodation option in Korea. Affordable travel is one big advantage Korea has over North America, where a hotel room no nicer than the average love motel can easily cost over a hundred dollars a night.
You are spot on for this. I love the love motels in Korea and use them frequently when I travel. For W50k, Jo and I can find a great place to stay and it makes the trip so much more enjoyable. People really need to do more research before posting such things.
On another note, I can't wait to take a trip when my mother visits... and have her check into a Love Motel!
Okay, so interesting news on this exact subject and the people who blogged it. My blog just got cited for making "defamatory remarks" about the Love Motels in the Korea Times?!
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/10/113_75073.html
Any ideas?
That's strange. I guess they just googled love motels and came across your entry. But pretty much every teacher and blogger h as written about motels at one point or another. And most entries follow the same formula: struck by the ubiquitous porn and dildos, but impressed with the value and convenience.
Just to round out this post, I'm not saying there isn't a healthy and visible sex industry in Korea. Geez, I spend a few posts providing information that otherwise doesn't get coverage, and I'm suddenly an apologist. You remember I was the "angriest blogger in Korea," right, and I did nearly get run out of the country by Kang Shin-who and AES?
Anyway, I'm fairly confident in my knowledge of Mokpo, Yeongam, and Jeollanam-do, having spent more time there than most bloggers and readers. You'll of course find sex workers there, just as you'll find them in every part of the country. There's one building in Gwangju's Sangmu area that had four Anma (massage parlors) stacked on top of each other. Hell, Sangmu itself is run entirely by the sex industry (and that's not even the city's red-light district).
All I was getting at was that it's lazy and uninformed to call love motels brothels. Yes, many have the vending machines, condoms, and calling cards, and many are in business to facilitate either prostitution or couples looking to get away for a couple hours. I'm not denying that, nor am I auditioning for a guest-blogger part on VANK or Tour2Korea. I'm just pointing out that love motels aren't always connected to red-light districts, and that there's more to them than what some first-time visitor to Korea can surmise in his first few hours.
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