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Some love hotels have multiple complex entrances designed for the discretion of customers.

Some love hotels have no windows.

Love hotel in Tokyo, designed to look like a European castle.

A selection of available rooms.

A love hotel sign in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

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. Similar establishments also exist in other East Asian countries and regions such as South Korea,^[1] Singapore,^[2][3] Taiwan and Hong Kong. The same concept also exists in Central and South America, particularly in Guatemala, Chile, Mexico where they are called "autohotels",^[4] and in Argentina and Uruguay, often called "albergues transitorios" but also referred to as "telos" (after reversing the syllables of the word "hotel").

Love hotels can usually be identified using symbols such as hearts and the offer of a room rate for a "rest" (休憩, kyūkei^?) as well as for an overnight stay.^[5] 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. These hotels may be used for prostitution or by budget-travelers sharing accommodation.

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. Although cheaper hotels are often quite utilitarian, higher-end hotels may feature fanciful rooms decorated with anime characters, equipped with rotating beds, ceiling mirrors, or karaoke machines,^[6] strange lighting or styled similarly to dungeons, sometimes including S&M gear.^[7]

These hotels are typically either concentrated in city districts close to stations, near highways on the city outskirts, or in industrial districts. Love hotel architecture is sometimes garish, with buildings shaped like castles, boats or UFOs and lit with neon lighting.^[5] However, some more recent love hotels are very ordinary looking buildings, distinguished mainly by having small, covered, or even no windows.^[8]

History

Love hotels developed from tea rooms (chaya (茶屋^?)) used mostly by prostitutes and their clients but also by lovers. After World War II, the term tsurekomi yado (連れ込み宿, lit. "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 original term has since fallen into disuse within the industry itself 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", and "boutique hotel".^[8]

Economic aspects

The annual turnover of the love hotel industry is more than ¥4 trillion,^{[citation needed]} a figure double that of Japan's anime market. It is estimated that more than 500 million visits to love hotels take place each year, which means around 1.4 million couples, or 2 percent of Japan's population, visit a love hotel each day.^[8] In recent years, the love hotel business has drawn the interest of the structured finance industry.^[9] 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.^[6][10]

See also

• List of human habitation forms

References

Further reading

• Bornoff, Nicholas (1991). Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0671742655. 
• Constantine, Peter (1993). Japan's Sex Trade: A Journey Through Japan's Erotic Subcultures. Tokyo: Yenbooks. ISBN 4900737003. 
• De Mente, Boye Lafayette. Sex and the Japanese: The Sensual Side of Japan. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0804838267.
• Jacob, Ed. Love Hotels: An Inside Look at Japan's Sexual Playgrounds. [Raleigh, N.C.]: Lulu Press, Inc, 2008. ISBN 9781435741867.
• 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, ISBN 0811856410.
• Takahara, Kanako (October 16, 2007). "No-tell love hotels cash in catering to the carnal". Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071016i1.html. Retrieved 2008-01-02. 

External links

• Japan's Love Hotels - An English guide to using love hotels (English)
• rabuho.com "Love Hotel Information Site"
• www.mistykeasler.com—Photographs of Japanese love hotels by photographer Misty Keasler, who published a book on the subject (see the Further reading section above) (English)
• Japonismo.com—Traditional and modern Japanese culture, with an article about love hotels, included in the section "Japón y el sexo". (Spanish)