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The Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga Springs

(screengrab from Google Maps)

An Upstate New York wedding resort revealed today that it will be the location for "Divorce Hotel," a business that helps couples finalize divorces over the course of a weekend stay.

Saratoga Springs' Gideon Putnam Resort specializes as a wedding venue, but will now also serve as a divorce getaway for couples looking to put an end to their marriages, The New York Post reported. For a $5,000 fee, couples get separate rooms for the weekend while working with a mediator to finalize their divorce.

"Practically, they are divorced after signing on Sunday," Divorce Hotel founder Jim Halfens, told The Post. "After signing, all work is done and we send it to a judge who only puts a stamp on it to make it official."

Some guests will take part in a Divorce Hotel reality TV show, according to the Post. Most will conduct mediation in private.

Divorcees will be required to use mediators and lawyers provided by the program. They will also have access to the Gideon Putnam Resort's other services, like golf courses, swimming pools and spas.

"They want people to get into an environment that minimizes the stress of the situation and that's exactly what we offer," hotel representative Rob Sgarlata told the Post.

Divorce Hotel's website presents the program as a way to handle your divorce free from any "partisan or perhaps 'unprofessional' family members, friends, etc." who might interfere in the process.

"We see your separation not only as the end of your marriage, but would like to look at it very much as the beginning of a new phase in your life," the website says.

Halfens plans to start the service by the end of September. He has successfully run Divorce Hotels in the Netherlands for several years.

Halfens began looking for opportunities to expand Divorce Hotel into the U.S. two years ago, according to a 2012 article from the New York Times. He came up with the idea for the business after watching a friend go through a painful divorce.

"He was losing weight, he was unable to have fun in life anymore and they were fighting every time you saw them—it was horrible," Halfens told the Times. "I was convinced there has to be another way."

Halfens negotiated with hotels in cities around the U.S., and finally reached out to Gideon Putnam about two weeks ago.

Sgarlata told the Post that weddings and divorce proceedings will be kept separate, but that he doesn't think that Divorce Hotel will tarnish the hotel's reputation as a wedding venue.

"From our point of view, these are more guests with a specific need, and we have an opportunity to help them to fill that need," Sgarlata said. "We don't see it as it different from any of our other groups."

Can it work? Robert S. Cohen, a lawyer who has helped the likes of Michael Bloomberg, Ivana Trump and Christie Brinkley through divorces, told the Times that while Divorce Hotel might be useful for uncomplicated separations, it might not be a viable option for couples with significant business and financial holdings.

"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."

But the idea has apparently been working overseas for years. Maybe it's because of the program's policy of sticking with more peaceable divorces.

The hotel's website reads, "You can rely on us when you have decided to separate, but also feel it is important to wish each other well after."

Do you think Divorce Hotel can work in New York? Leave a comment below.