[Browse the Love Hotels category here]
Japanese Love Hotels have had entire books written on them, and it should not be too difficult finding plenty of information online.
The Love Hotels listed here are a small subset of places with notable features (BDSM rooms etc): hundreds more can be easily found, walking through one of the many Tokyo Love Hotel neighbourhoods.
What to Expect
Aside from being mainly geared at people looking to have sex, Love Hotels tend to be great value with better amenities than equivalently-priced mid-range hotels. Most rooms will have: adjustable mood lighting, full set of toiletries, digital radio (whether you fancy having your session to the sound of Hawaiian guitar, to 1980s hard rock, or to the entire work of Chopin: there will likely be a channel for you), large spa bathtub, vending machines with food, drinks and toys, TV with a selection of (Japanese, pixellated) porn etc. Some places might even have karaoke machines, game consoles, or other special themed set-ups.
The level of amenities and freshness of the rooms varies enormously from one hotel to the next. Some of the older places (including some of the well established BDSM-friendly hotels) can have faded interiors that have seen better days.
For a number of reasons, most love hotel rooms have no windows to speak of (if they do, they are obscured and can’t easily be opened). Do not go if you want a view or suffer from claustrophobia.
Checking In
Most Love Hotels do not take booking (and even when they do, you are much better off showing in person to pick your room).
Love Hotels are designed to minimise any interaction with other humans (aside from the ones you are bringing along), and it’s quite common not to see any staff from check-in to check-out.
A screen in the lobby will show the rooms available (with pictures) and let you choose directly (by pressing a button or on the touchscreen). Depending on the place, you might then be expected to either 1. pay at the machine 2. pay at a nearby teller window (usually with a small curtain that only lets you see their hands) 3. pay inside the room, on the way out.
Better be sure your credit card (/cash) works, in case of the latter: you’ll be in for a tough time to get out otherwise.
Once you’ve picked the room, you just make your way there (sometimes with blinking lights guiding you) and go in. Beware that the only in-and-out allowed, is the one you might have planned with your companion(s): any exit is final (the room will lock behind you when you leave).
Pricing
Pricing system is often quite convoluted, based on room chosen and length of stay. The two main categories are:
- “Rest” (休憩): for only 2-3h. Sometimes only available during daytime.
- “Stay” / “Freetime”: from evening until next morning (check-out time varies, but rarely later than 10-11am).
Random Notes & Tips
- If you can read Japanese (or with the help of Google Translate), websites like happyhotel.jp will make it very easy to browse through all the hotels in a given area (with a lot of filtering options, such as “Has BDSM rooms”, “black light”, “outdoor bath” etc). Note: happyhotel.jp seems to block access from outside Japan, so you will need a VPN if you are trying to browse from abroad.
- Specific hotels’ website will usually have a list of their rooms with their particular amenities (if any). Most usefully, many hotels have real-time occupancy information, letting you know which rooms are available.
- The near-absence of human interaction, makes it fairly accessible to non-Japanese speakers. Do expect some guessing on buttons and switches (and final price might be a bit of a mystery if you can’t decipher the pricing grid).
- The vast majority of places have a strict 2-people only policy (many even forbid solo use). Places that allow a 3rd, will tend to charge 50% extra for it.
- On the other hand, many hotels now have “Party Rooms” that can allow up to a dozen people (surprisingly, these are often used for actual parties like birthdays etc, and not necessarily the kind of party you’d have in mind). In addition to being a lot bigger, these rooms might have special amenities like large-screen karaoke etc. Pricing also tends to be per-person, which does not make them the greatest deal for your special group fun plans.