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A is a type of short-stay hotel found in Japan operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy to have sexual intercourse.
Love hotels usually offer a room rate for a "rest" , as well as for an overnight stay. The period of a "rest" varies, typically ranging from one to three hours. Cheaper daytime off-peak rates are common. In general, reservations are not possible, leaving the hotel will forfeit access to the room, and overnight stay rates only become available after 10pm. They are often used by young couples, since many young Japanese people live with their parents. They are also commonly used for prostitution.
Entrances are discreet and interaction with staff is minimized, with rooms often selected from a panel of buttons and the bill settled by pneumatic tube, automatic cash machines, or a pair of hands behind a pane of frosted glass. While cheaper hotels are utilitarian, higher-end hotels may feature fanciful rooms decorated with cartoon characters, equipped with rotating beds, ceiling mirrors, karaoke machines or decked out like dungeons complete with S&M gear^[1].
These hotels are typically either concentrated in certain city districts such as in Shibuya, Tokyo, near highways on the city outskirts, or in industrial districts. Few Japanese people wish to have a love hotel in their neighbourhood, and construction in residential areas is often opposed.
Love hotel architecture is sometimes garish, with buildings shaped like castles, boats or UFOs and lit with lurid pink and purple neon lighting. However, many love hotels are very ordinary looking buildings, distinguished mainly by having small or covered windows.
In recent years, the love hotel business has drawn the interest of the structured finance industryForbes'' May 6th, 2006. . Several transactions have been completed where the cash flows from a number of hotels have been securitised and sold to international investors and buy-out funds.

Contents

History

References

See also

Further reading

External links

History

In Japan, love hotels developed from tea rooms , mostly used by prostitutes and their clients, but also by lovers. After World War II, the name , literally "bring-along inn" was adopted, originally for simple lodgings run by families with a few rooms to spare. These establishments appeared first around Ueno, Tokyo in part due to demand from Occupation forces, and boomed after 1958 when legal prostitution was abolished and the trade moved underground. The introduction of the automobile in the 1960s brought with it the "motel" and further spread the concept.
The name "love hotel" may originate from an establishment in Osaka called Hotel Love, which had a revolving advertisement on the roof, with "Love" on one side, and "Hotel" on the other. The sign was thus easy to misread as "love hotel", which was adopted for the entire concept. The original term has since fallen into disuse thanks to the euphemism treadmill and an ever-changing palette of terms is used by hotel operators keen on representing themselves as more fashionable than the competition. Alternative names include 'romance hotel', 'fashion hotel', 'leisure hotel', 'amusement hotel', 'couples hotel', 'no tell motel', and 'boutique hotel'.

References

1.
"Developing a passion for love hotels", New Zealand Herald, June 09, 2007

See also

★ List of types of lodging

Further reading

★ Bornoff, Nicholas. ''Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan''. New York: Pocket Books, 1991. ISBN 0671742655.

★ Chaplin, Sarah. ''Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History''. London: Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0415415853.

★ Constantine, Peter. ''Japan's Sex Trade: A Journey Through Japan's Erotic Subcultures''. Tokyo: Yenbooks, 1993. ISBN 4900737003.

★ Preserve Japan's tacky shag shacks as World Heritage sites, says love hotel aficionado Ryann Connell

★ De Mente, Boye Lafayette. ''Sex and the Japanese: The Sensual Side of Japan''. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0804838267.

★ Keasler, Misty (photographer), Rod Slemmons (essay), and Natsuo Kirino (foreword). ''Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan''. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0811856410.

★ Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan, , Natsuo, Kirino, Chronicle Books, 2006,

External links

★ Rabuho.com Love Hotel Information Guide.

★ [1] Photographs of Japanese Love Hotels by photographer Misty Keasler who published a book on the subject.

★ Japonismo.com Traditional and modern Japanese culture, with an article about Love Hotels, included in the section "Japón y el sexo" (Spanish).