Divorce Hotel Encourages Friendships With Exes? Ends Marriage in 3 Days (VIDEO)
The "Divorce Hotel" is a new concept that has popped up in the Netherlands and could now be heading to the United States with a reality show to boot.
Breaking up is hard to do, so why not make it easier? Jim Halfens asks, and that is precisely what he has set out to do. Halfens, 33, is happily assisting very unhappily married couples into a more happy divorce in just three days.
"They arrive on Friday and we give them everything they need to leave Sunday with their divorce papers," Jim Halfens, the Dutch entrepreneur who came up with the idea, told ABC news. "Divorces can cost a lot of money and a lot of time. Here, it's done in three days."
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While the hotel can stay can still run anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000 depending on the complexities of the case, Halfens suggested that at the "Divorce Hotel," couples can at least look at the positive aspects of the split.
"The marriage failed, and that's negative. But it's also a new start, and that's positive. The only thing we can do is offer a better solution than fighting for years," Halfens said.
If it sounds too good to be true though, then it is according Robert S. Cohen, the lawyer who helped guide Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Christie Brinkley, Ivana Trump and others through rocky divorces.
"The notion of being able to - at the beginning of a split-up - spend a weekend putting these various pieces together and coming to a solution to them would be virtually impossible," Cohen said. "I don't see how one would do it and come up with a fair result."
One man, who did not wish to be named, gave the "Divorce Hotel" rave reviews.
"It wasn't weird or wrong," the man told the Times after spending a charming weekend with his soon to be ex-wife, "We felt great - like friends."
Halfens admitted that a few couples often got along well, spending time on the beach or even a night in the honeymoon suite before still deciding to go through with the three day divorce. According to the entrepreneur, his record is quite good too, only one couple who stayed at the hotel was unable to achieve a divorce.
To get the word out that the "Divorce Hotel" can really work, Halfens is now considering a move to the U.S. and a reality show that documents proof of his success.
