The founder of the booking app Yanolja started his career as a motel guard.

Originating in Japan, the model of renting hotel rooms by the hour, also known as “love hotels” began to be popular in Korea in the late 1980s. However, decades later, the model This distorts the Korean hotel industry by spawning illegal activities and adultery.

At that time, in the eyes of many Koreans, a “love hotel” or motel was something that was not nice and lacked purity. However, for Mr. Lee Su Jin (now 45 years old), this hotel model has a completely different meaning. In other words, for him, the “love hotel” business is a respectable job.

Lee Su Jin – founder of booking app Yanolja started his career as a motel security guard

Orphaned at a young age, he said he was grateful for a steady salary when he was hired at a motel at the age of 23.

Unexpectedly, it was that job that gave Lee the experience to create the Yanolja hourly hotel booking application. It has now brought Lee billions of dollars, making him the second richest self-made billionaire in the world.

According to Bloomberg, Lee lost his parents at a young age. When Lee was 23 years old, he was accepted to work as a housekeeping and security guard at a “love hotel” – a popular type of motel that provides short-term accommodation at hourly rates – in exchange for a salary. stable and importantly have a place to stay.

“Day after day, I feel bad, but I stick with it,” Lee told Bloomberg in 2017. Now, it feels like a dream again.”

He saved money to invest in stocks and even started a salad business. When that company failed, he went back to work as a waiter at the “love hotel”.

“I think it was very helpful experience to understand the nature of this industry,” Yanolja CEO Kim Jong-yoon commented on founder Su Jin Lee to CNBC Make It.

“In the early 2000s, love hotels, with their cheap prices, were seen as safe havens for prostitutes, and this model gradually became a ‘worm of the soup’ in the business sector. hotel business,” Kim Jong-yoon told CNBC Make It.

In 2004, when the anti-prostitution law was passed in 2004, threatening to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 the hourly hotel industry, Lee saw it as an opportunity.

In 2005, he created a hotel review platform. 2 years later, the platform officially became Yanolja. His goal is to modernize hotels, help “love hotels” improve their image and target new customers.

There are two main groups: young couples and tourists looking for short-term accommodation. In Korea, young couples often live with their parents, so “love hotels” are an attractive option to have private moments.

His initial goal was to modernize hotels, help “love hotels” improve their image and target new customers.

Kim says Lee’s job as a security guard in his youth, where he was able to observe guest experiences in love hotels, was actually a boon: It helped him understand how to tailor the platform to suit client.

His experience as a security guard inspired him to launch the hotel booking website Yanolja, which means “Hey, let’s play” in Korean. Now also a popular travel app, the brand has become a global phenomenon with over 57 million downloads.

In June 2019, Yanolja became the 8th Korean “unicorn” startup when it achieved a valuation of more than 1 billion USD in a funding round.

Two years later, investment firm SoftBank Vision Fund 2 bought a minority stake in Yanolja for $1.7 billion at a $6.7 billion valuation, according to Forbes.

Yanolja’s success also helped Lee build his own large fortune. According to Forbes, he currently has a net worth of $1.2 billion, which comes from owning nearly a third of Yanolja with his wife and two daughters. Lee first appeared in the ranking of the 50 richest people in Korea at the beginning of 2023. The huge fortune also puts Lee on the list of the second richest self-made billionaires in the world.

The SoftBank deal has sparked widespread speculation about Yanolja’s potential IPO.

However, the company has yet to issue shares and CEO Kim even said in a press release in July 2022 that Yanolja is in no hurry to announce an IPO (first public offering) amid The hotel industry is still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the company has expanded beyond travel booking, such as launching Yanolja Cloud, artificial intelligence software for other hospitality and entertainment platforms. Currently, about 19 million combined users use Yanolja’s software platform for booking, travel and property management activities.

Yanolja has become a global phenomenon with over 57 million downloads

Kim told Reuters in 2019 that it was something to be proud of, and that Lee’s original goal of changing the culture and perception of love hotels has now been achieved.

“In the past, many people did not dare to enter the motel because of shame,” Kim said. ”But we have attracted guests even while traveling. That’s the biggest change.”