okay perfect
if you need the toilet quickly you need
not run around the room just go through
the hole there's a reason there's an
estimated 37 thousand love hotels across
Japan worth around 40 billion dollars to
the nation's economy I mean it can be
difficult to enjoy such luxuries as
privacy and intimacy when you live in a
multi-generational household with walls
made of paper now you could go and blow
your pocket money by running off to a
standard business hotel or for just 20
bucks you can stay for two hours in what
is essentially a miniatures soundproofed
theme park I've covered love hotels a
few times over the years now and I'm
always fascinated by the wacky and
absurd room designs used to entice
couples but recently through a
charismatic friend who owns a chain of
love hotels in Sendai I was given the
opportunity to see behind the scenes for
the first time ever with an all-access
pass to a brand-new love hotel in this
video we'll explore three different
themed hotel rooms discover what tactics
love hotels employ to keep customers
staying for as long as possible and have
a look behind the curtain to see the
management systems put in place to make
it all run smoothly
simply put by the end of this video
you'll be an expert on all things love
hotel and like me you'll probably wish
we had a similar alternative outside of
Japan before we go though I've recently
noticed YouTube has been doing a pretty
poor job promoting abroad in Japan
videos particularly to subscribers and I
suspect it's got something to do with
the swearing and the lack of fluffy
gumdrop rainbow bunny rabbits needed to
satisfy YouTube's algorithm if you are
subscribed to the channel be sure to hit
a notification bell to the right of the
subscribe button and it means you'll
actually get notified when the new video
is released you'll be very much at the
front of the queue and not at the mercy
of a spectacularly flawed algorithm
thanks guys right then let's get going
[Music]
so the first thing you usually see when
you walk into any love hotel is a big
screen with options when I say options
the types of room and the length of your
stay that's what comes up here we have
four different types of room depending
on the size and then beneath that you
can see the price you can see here the
short-term price the short stay price
two thousand nine hundred yen for one to
two hours of stay or you can stay the
whole night for six thousand five
hundred yen either way
it's a lot cheaper than the usual
business hotel once you've got your
ticket and you've chosen your room and
your length you stay come over to the
desk notice how you can't see the staff
at love hotel the key in lovato is
anonymity you don't need the staff they
don't need you that's probably a good
thing
so this is our first of three rooms room
two chicken one I have no idea what's
behind this door but why are we going
this is a bit confusing which ways the
this way looks like it's gonna take us a
while to find the bed maybe this is it
here there's a some sort of floor
padding Oracle this is it although the
corridor the maze-like
corridor seems to continues let's go and
pursue things a little bit further oh
look here is I found the bedroom it's
through this through this hole you
imagine like coming back here a little
bit drunk trying to find your way to the
bed and then just being kind of like
which one is it one day we'll find the
bed but not before another one of these
mats apparently the owner she she's your
son who's a rather kinky rascal he he
likes to put these everywhere because in
his own words you never know where you
gonna end up in a love hotel room so we
haven't even made it to the bed and it
already
we've had some possibilities here for
other places to sleep anyway let's carry
on and hopefully one day we'll find the
bed speaking of the bed here we are
that's quite cozy isn't it look there's
the hole
[Music]
come over here the top two are numbers
come in and well so to cochon section
one six two six
oh very tired and well if you need the
toilet quickly you need not run around
the room and just go through the hole
and again I'm not gonna try it because
I'm definitely gonna get stuck
[Music]
one down two to go
this is room t26 known as the sandbag
room she sounds like a wall concert okay
this is quite then looks like a jungle
gym and the first thing I've noticed is
this punch bag in the last room with
three cushions this room the whole floor
is just one big cushion so last time we
had three possibilities this time
unlimited practically unlimited although
calling here okay
two down one to go
room three three six don't know what to
expect again here we go
I think this is the most practical room
so far it's not amazed that you get lost
in it's not a room where you can beat
the crap out of a punch bag okay she
should also cannot hit no concept or not
this or that yep yep so the idea is you
sit here have a bit of dinner and then
you don't just roll onto the bed that's
er that's what you do in this room good
it's a good design yeah very unique
interestingly according to shishito
sounds the most popular of the three
rooms is actually the latest room for
the simple reason people coming to the
hotel on a first date don't want to
scare off their partner with a weird or
surprising room after all taking your
date to a room with a punch bag probably
doesn't give off the best first
impression as we saw earlier on at the
entrance it costs just two thousand nine
hundred yen for two hours of room time
however every hour for an extra thousand
yen you can extend your stay
indefinitely and once you find all the
amenities on offer you can certainly see
why the average amount of time spent in
one of the rooms is four to six hours I
think most people have a CD image of
love hotels just because of what the
whole thing insinuates but really the
name of the game is convenience they've
want you to stay here for as long as
possible they want you to enjoy the
atmosphere eat the food buy the stuff
and we've got big grand menu here filled
with items pizzas pastas steaks beer
everything you could ever one and also
each TV comes equipped with a menu where
you can order it all nice and easy from
here oh we can you can buy things as
well they want you to buy things what
kind of things can we buy
oh what's that you can even buy lingerie
this one unikitty is actually sold out
as it's so damn popular fifteen hundred
yen it's pretty cheap stockings you can
even get stockings if you want to
reenact the the famous lost in
translation state rip my ripped my
stockings that's what that is therefore
by this point you might be wondering why
doesn't everyone just stay in a love
hotel
well usually rooms at a love hotel can't
be booked in advance and obviously
there's no concierge to help you with
your luggage and when you do order food
to your room it's not wheeled in
elegantly on a trolley but instead
passed through a hole in the wall in
order to maintain precious anonymity
this level of discretion is even
extended to the car park where if you
come by car a handy license plate cover
is on hand to help give drivers peace of
mind as a result the moment you arrive
at a love hotel the whole experience
feels almost like a glitch in the matrix
locked away in your bunker eating
copious amounts of food watching TV in
the bath and deciding which cushion to
relax on while the invisible workers run
the show like clockwork behind the
scenes
having watched issued Oh Sam collapsed
and roll onto various beds
I was taken behind the curtain to get a
glimpse of the hotel's management system
so the key to running a love hotel is
having good and good management system
you can see here these screens showing
which rooms are vacant which rooms are
being used the ones in yellow short-time
these people had just come into like an
hour or two for a bit of relaxation and
ones in red they've actually stayed
overnight this one here in green is
being cleaned currently you can even see
if they're a member of the hotel that
bonus law har symbol so from here the
entire hotel is effectively managed
without the issue being our Charter
nightmare
[Music]
so this is the kitchen where they
prepare all the room service orders most
love hotels have kind of a menu they've
made in-house but this love hotel have
actually got a menu that's been designed
and created by an Italian restaurant
they've gone a little bit step further
although to be honest the last door that
we saw was just fried chicken and chips
which to be fair is exactly what I would
order if I was staying in a love hotel
so he needn't there
fried chicken chips another order that
lots of orders loss of lots of chicken
and chips having wandered through the
back office I turned my attention to the
man himself about a decade ago shishito
sans mum bought a love hotel was an
investment and after struggling to
manage it handed over day-to-day
operations to her son and it's been his
life ever since over a light lunch I
have a very very light lunch indeed i
sat down with xu shido-san
to discuss some of the ups and downs of
owning a love hotel so three years ago
we made our first love hotel they came
together and naturally a lot of the
comments were about cleaning is the
hotel clean and things like that what do
you guys do compared to a normal hotel
to keep my love hotel clean above and
beyond
toronto throne to stop there mr. tim
rocky thomas so lodging on the Orioles
the Orioles shelter Santa Barbara honey
those of you already destroyed it all
Kate goes through buying order to
monitor it was of war Chaka Demus
is for you mean I just get go toe to toe
come home yeah buddy doughnuts got no
chance to succeed after how to escape me
I got a nice we got tree stands a
Japanese culture there's still
definitely a stigma attached to running
a love hotel due to its image of being
associated with the sex industry to be
able to turn that into your life
requires the ability to stand firm
believe what you're doing is making a
positive impact
but I caution after uh motivation are
you free stuff you get by but it's 138
which not shine that you oh sure da e
I'm gonna vote Adagio nobody must
accustom I said okay that could all
cheer I hate dammit I do MA
but that's not motivation again Canada -
despite sheshe dos adds obvious
enthusiasm for his work
I was surprised to find he was reluctant
to recommend others to follow his career
path sign us then why do you know well
it's not some bio K to create derivative
of the world
no Katara Aang to master somebody
Asakura Juergen is canceled some
revisions to do people do are so tender
so not Connie more time that the moon
day MA yeah thanks doc cider car machine
I could look I'm Hari san you uh
Schneider not to our hotel Oh Mitchell
Tamara Wow
stay stay - left rest
3:3 says well is they beating around the
bush I guess these valleys
[Music]
so there you have it behind the scenes
in a Japanese love hotel but which from
would you've stated I mentioned earlier
that typically love hotels can't be
booked ahead but this one actually can
for an additional fee you can snap up a
room in advance at the hotel it's still
cheaper than a business hotel and a
whole lot more fun if you're visiting
Sendai want to experience a love hotel
firsthand you can find the link to the
hotel yawn in the description box below
just a few minutes from Sendai station
my taxi or uber and send eyes one of the
few places over works in Japan again all
the details can be found in the
description box below that was a lot of
fun I've filmed in love hotel before but
I've never actually got to see behind
the scenes how it works how it operates
so that was really really quite
interesting and but thank you guys
that's all for now thanks for watching
as always and thank you to my cameraman
for making this all possible it's almost
as if the cameraman is Reata out but
he's too afraid to publicly be on camera
our love hotel guests will never know
hear it no it is it's definitely see you
next time have a good one
[Music]