A love hotel (ラブホテル, rabu hoteru?) 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" kyūkei (休憩, kyūkei?), 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 Dōgenzaka (道玄坂, Dōgenzaka?) 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 industry[2]. 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[citation needed].
History
In Japan, love hotels developed from tea rooms chaya (茶屋, chaya?), mostly used by prostitutes and their clients, but also by lovers. After World War II, the name tsurekomi yado (連れ込み宿, tsurekomi yado?), 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. [citation needed] 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.
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