Check in, but you never check out

When it comes bizarre business concepts you can’t beat the macabre motel created by Tang Yulian, a 30-year-old owner of a coffin design company in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Tang has opened a coffin inn where the “rooms” are wooden caskets originally designed for the dead. In Tang’s 60-square-meter office area are four coffins, including two single-bed spaces, a double-bed and a smaller coffin office capsule for Tang’s employees. Though humbly designed and sparsely equipped with only a single pillow and quilt, the one-bed guest rooms cost more than some five-star hotel rooms. Customers are charged 200 yuan ($30) per hour and 2,400 yuan ($352) per day for their stays.

Tang’s target customers are mostly divorcees, businessmen, frustrated employees, people who work in creative industries and those suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts. “Staying in an insulated capsule may allow people to reflect upon themselves, hit on creative ideas and experience the sensation of living a post-death life. And staying in a double-bed coffin room may even help mend relations between an unhappy couple,” Tang said.

Chengdu Evening News