South Korean 'jail' charges guests £100 to become overnight inmates

Guests - or should that be inmates - check into the 'Prison Inside Me' hotel in Hongcheon, 80km north-east of Seoul, not for spa treatments, fine dining or long lie-ins...but to sample what it's like to be banged up.

Founded over a decade ago by former lawyer, Kwon Yong-Seok, and his wife, the hotel's raison d'etre is to let people experience life minus everyday comforts which, they say, allows them to get more in touch with themselves.

When guests, who pay around £100-a-night to check in, arrive they're greeted with the kind of cell that a criminal held at His Majesty's Pleasure might find themselves locked up in.

Banish thoughts of a comfortable bed too, there's a simple mat on the cell's floor, alongside a small desk and a toilet.

Mobile phones are banned, there's no way of telling the time and even basic vanity is off the menu, with no mirrors in the cells.

Dinner - a basic affair - arrives via a hole in the door, just as it would in some of Britain's high security prisons.

The order of the day once the key is turned and guests have just themselves for company is self-reflection - with meditation, diary writing and some simple yoga encouraged.

Conversation is limited too but those checking in, mostly South Koreans looking for a unique digital detox, say they enjoy the prison experience.

The Prison Inside Me, they claim, offers the chance to leave the pressures of society and work behind for a night or two - in the way a monastery retreat might.

Founder Kwon Yong-seok initially spent around 2 billion Korean won - around £1 million - setting up the 'spiritual' facility after he became fascinated by the idea that a burst of solitary confinement could be good for people's mental health, having worked 100-hour weeks himself.

The ex lawyer said when the hotel opened in 2013: 'I didn’t know how to stop working back then.

'I felt like I was being swept away against my will, and it seemed I couldn’t control my own life.'

He added: 'I only hope that this place offers a chance for visitors to reflect on themselves.

'I sometimes walk backwards so that I can see the road I’ve just walked. People rarely do so and only think about roads ahead. I think we need to try to look back.'

By JO TWEEDY