A love hotel (ラブホテル, rabu hoteru^?) is an originally Japanese type of hotel offering privacy for a couple to have sex. Alternative names include romance hotel, fashion hotel, leisure hotel and boutique hotel. Love hotels are often used by young couples, since many young Japanese people live with their parents. They are also commonly used for prostitution. The areas around love hotels are often littered with posters advertising "delivery health" (a euphemism for call girls).

Love hotels usually offer a room rate for a "rest", kyūkei (休憩, kyūkei^?) as well as a night's "stay." The period of a "rest" varies from one establishment to the next, typically ranging from one to three hours. Very cheap daytime (off-peak) rates are also 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.

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 love hotels are utilitarian, higher-end hotels may feature fanciful rooms decorated with cartoon characters, equipped with vibrating beds, or decked out like dungeons complete with S&M gear.

Love hotels are typically either concentrated in certain city districts like Dōgenzaka (道玄坂, Dōgenzaka^?) in Shibuya, Tokyo, near highways on the city outskirts, or in industrial districts. Very few Japanese people wish to have a love hotel in their neighbourhood, and often oppose construction in residential areas.

Love hotel architecture is sometimes garish, with buildings shaped like castles, boats or UFOs and lit up with lurid pink and purple neon lighting. However, many love hotels are very ordinary looking buildings, distinguished mainly by having small or covered windows.

As in any industry of this nature, it is often thought that the proprietors of love hotels must be linked to crime, gangs and in particular the yakuza. In recent years, and as Japan continues to change, the love hotel business has drawn the interest of the structured finance industry. 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.

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 (partly due to demand from Occupation forces) and boomed after 1958 when 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. In Japan, however, the original term has 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.

Other countries

In South Korea, many modern yeogwan (여관), also locally known as "motels", are effectively counterparts to Japanese love hotels. Since they are usually clean and cheap, and are frequently located close to train stations, they are also an excellent place for tourists or visitors to stay for short periods of time.

In Taiwan a motel is synonymous with the Japanese love hotel. These businesses generally offer drive in garages directly connected to the room or suite, and check-ins are done from the relative privacy of the car, much like a drive-through restaurant. The rooms feature various themes, hot tubs, adult movies, and condoms. These motels normally cater to married couples looking for a bit of excitement, or lovers looking for privacy, though prostitution is certainly not unheard of.

In other countries such as Brazil or the Philippines, cheap hotels intended primarily for sex are known as short-time hotels or motels (even if they are actually meant mostly for pedestrian access). In Argentina these establishments are called Albergue Transitorio ("Temporary lodging"), though known as telo in vesre-slang. In Singapore, cheap hotels often offer a slightly more euphemistic "transit" stay for short-time visitors. In Manila, a campaign against the hotels, believed by religious conservatives to contribute to social decay in the predominantly Roman Catholic country, ended with the city banning hotels from offering stays of very short duration.

Trivia

• Hiroshi Yamauchi, before he became the third president of Nintendo, a company primarily known today for video games, ran a love hotel in the 1960s.

See also

• List of types of lodging

External links

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