DIVE IN turns hotel rooms into art showrooms

DIVE IN Group is expanding a hotel-room art business that lets independent hotels upgrade rooms without upfront renovation costs while selling art and merchandise on the side. The Pangyo-based company now operates about 150 rooms across four countries and is targeting 250 rooms next year.

Why it matters: - DIVE IN Group is trying to give 2- to 4-star independent hotels a way to stand out without paying for a full renovation. - The model also creates a new offline sales channel for artists and lifestyle brands that struggle to reach customers through traditional retail. - The company’s revenue-sharing structure ties hotel bookings, art sales and merchandise sales into one operating model.

What happened: - DIVE IN Group, based at Pangyo Techno Valley Startup Campus in Gyeonggi-do, is turning standard hotel rooms into curated art rooms called “IP Rooms.” - CEO Chang-yun Jeong built the business around partnerships with local hotels that want differentiated guest experiences. - The company says it now operates about 150 rooms across 11 hotels in South Korea, Morocco, Vietnam and Thailand. - DIVE IN is discussing new partnerships in the Philippines, Singapore and the United States.

The details: - DIVE IN fully pre-invests in room planning, spatial design, art curation and construction, so hotel owners pay no upfront investment costs. - The company then shares revenue from room bookings and from internal sales of artworks and merchandise with the hotel. - DIVE IN also works directly with artists to handle maintenance and repairs of murals and artworks. - The business began in 2022 with three vacant rooms at a hotel in Insa-dong, Seoul. - Those rooms were previously hard to sell or used for storage. - Nightly rates rose from about 70,000-80,000 won to 120,000-130,000 won after the renovation. - Occupancy stayed strong, and the artwork and decorative objects in the rooms sold out within three months. - The company says it expanded to about 120 art rooms across eight hotels in South Korea before moving overseas. - The first overseas project started in 2023 after a hotel owner in Morocco contacted Jeong through Instagram DM. - DIVE IN and 11 artists created four rooms in Morocco themed around Korea’s four seasons. - The company later added projects in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand. - DIVE IN signs long-term hotel contracts lasting three to five years. - The company gives artists production budgets in exchange for customized, exclusive works made for each space. - DIVE IN also stages pop-up exhibitions and art events in hotel lobbies and communal areas at no charge to hotels. - The company says all custom artworks, furniture and design objects placed in the rooms are available for purchase. - DIVE IN is working on system stabilization and booking-platform integration with technology companies in Pangyo.

Between the lines: - Jeong framed the business as a bridge between two industries that often operate in isolation: hotel operators focused on occupancy and artists looking for dependable distribution. - The model shifts the hotel from a place to sleep into a 24/7 retail and gallery channel, which could widen revenue beyond room rates if the concept scales. - The focus on second-generation hotel owners abroad suggests DIVE IN is targeting operators more open to experimentation than legacy hospitality managers. - The Pangyo location matters because the company needs booking systems, PMS integration and other technical infrastructure to support international expansion.

What’s next: - DIVE IN aims to grow from about 150 rooms to 250 rooms by next year. - The company is actively pursuing additional projects in Southeast Asia and the U.S. - Continued tech upgrades in Pangyo are intended to support scaling the booking and operating model across more hotels.

The bottom line: - DIVE IN is betting that hotel rooms can function as both hospitality inventory and art retail space, with no upfront cost to owners and a longer revenue tail for artists and hotels alike.