Lee Su-jin's incredible journey is an inspiring story of perseverance and entrepreneurial vision, worthy of a movie script. He, who is now among the richest men in the world, started his career in the travel industry as a simple caretaker of motel.
The experience not only shaped him, but also inspired him to create one of the most influential brands in the global hotel booking scene: Yanolja. Find out more about this incredible story below!
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The founding of Yanolja dates back to 2007, when Lee had the idea to launch a hotel booking website under this quirky name, which in Korean means “Hey, let's play”.
Since then, the brand has evolved to become a highly popular travel app with over 57 million registered downloads, according to the company's website.
This global phenomenon also leveraged the
fortuneLee, resulting in an impressive net worth of $1.2 billion, which he shares with his wife and two daughters.
(Image: Yanolja/reproduction)
However, Yanolja was not born out of a love of travel, but out of a pressing need. Lee Su-jin lost her parents when she was young and spent most of her childhood living with family.
At 23, he was working as a janitor at a “love hotel,” a type of motel that offered short-term accommodations by the hour. Despite his difficult journey, Lee persisted and saved money, investing in stocks and even trying to start a salad business.
Despite the initial failure of the enterprise, Lee returned to the hospitality industry at an opportune time. At that time, love hotels were considered safe havens for sex workers, which negatively affected their business.
However, in 2004, when South Korea passed an anti-prostitution law, Lee predicted that many of these motels would be affected and could fail.
It was then that he had a brilliant idea: to rename the love hotels and modernize them to attract a new audience. In 2005, Lee created a hotel review platform, which later morphed into Yanolja in 2007.
Their aim was to make hotels more attractive to young couples and travelers by demonstrating that they were safe, convenient and affordable.
Lee knew that hotels couldn't just rely on love, as they used to, and that the public's perception of these establishments needed to change.
This experience as a janitor, where Lee was able to observe guest experiences in hotels romantics, it became a valuable advantage in adapting the platform to meet the needs of consumers.
Its hotel review platform expanded rapidly, attracting more and more users, until, in June 2019, Yanolja became the eighth “unicorn” startup in the South Korea, reaching a valuation of more than $1 billion during a funding round.
More recently, in 2021, the company launched Yanolja Cloud, an Artificial Intelligence software designed for other hospitality and leisure platforms.
This launch further consolidated the company's reach, with a total of 19 million users enjoying Yanolja's various software platforms for reservations, travel and properties.
Despite the huge success and investor interest, Lee and Yanolja have yet to take the company public, especially considering the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19 in the hotel industry.
Instead, they have focused on expanding and enhancing their offerings, extending the company far beyond travel booking and changing the culture and perception of romantic hotels.
Today, Yanolja is not only a giant in the travel industry, but also a symbol of success for those who have a dream and the courage to pursue their passions.