So I had to start work really early this morning, and yesterday I decided that rather than take the long train home and come back early, I’d pack some extra clothes, and my girlfriend and I would get a room for the night in Shibuya. This morning I get up to leave (my girlfriend still has a while before work, so she’s sleeping in) and the door is locked. There’s a sign saying you have to call front desk when you check out and they’ll unlock the door for you remotely. I should also mention that I paid for the room in full the night before. So I call down and explain that one of us is leaving but the other is gonna stay for a bit. The woman at the desk asks me “Is it the man or the woman staying?” …Wtf and why? I reluctant tell her the woman is staying and she unlocks the door and I head to work.
Later, I get a text from my girlfriend. She called the front desk from the room 3 times and nobody picked up. She had to look up the hotel’s number on her phone and call from there to get out…
First of all, never encountered this before, why is this a thing? Secondly, isn’t this a huge safety hazard? What if there was a fire or earthquake and we were trapped in there? Beyond that, I had the paranoid thought later that now they know there’s a (likely naked) woman by herself in that room, and like… I dunno, sketchy. So yeah we will not be going back there. Anyone care to explain wtf that was all about?
23 comments
Generally they only allow one room to leave at a time to avoid the shame of running into a stranger, your boss, or maybe your wife in the hallways.
Totally normal.
You should do that more often with your girlfriends.
Edit:
To add more details, these doors have machine where you pay when entering the door. It will make a loud sound until you paid.
Then, when you get out, you confirm on the machine there is either nothing else to pay, or you gotta pay for extras you used (drink bar, sex toys…). The door will then unlock if timing is right (no other customers are leaving at the same time).
I admittedly haven’t stayed at a lot of love hotels, but the few times I did, I never encountered anything like that.
I would imagine the doors would unlock automatically in case the fire alarm was ever triggered.
That does seem a bit strange. The only thing I ever experienced when partner left earlier was the front desk calling the room to check in and make sure I was safe (which I thought was pretty nice).
Maybe next time stay at a business hotel.
That’s sketch as hell. Damn. Love hotels just sound creepy as f*ck.
If there’s a fire or an earthquake (even a small one) the door automatically unlocks.
I stayed at one like this. It’s not common across the board but there are places like that.
Why not a proper hotel?
Some love hotels want to avoid different rooms doing the “walk of shame” at different times so departures are limited for privacy.
A couple leaving a love hotel separately is also a bit unusual, more common with デリヘル situations.
Never been to a love hotel, and now, as a married man, I probably never will.
Don’t mind too much, as from a hygiene perspective, they give me the creeps.
I just recall that line from Basic Instinct.
>There are cum stains all over the sheets.
I’ve read a lot of stories about weird experiences in love hotels, and I gotta say this one was barely worth unzipping for.
Welcome to Japan
I think this is a huge safety hazard too….
Most love hotels have auto-locks that can only be disabled from the front. The reasons why are to prevent people from abusing the way love hotels work, which is primarily to ensure anonymity and security between two people. Without that front lock control, you could have a woman set up shop in a LH and use it to service multiple men (some women use business hotels for this anyway), a man get one room and call multiple women to it, a couple getting a room and then inviting multiple people into it for an orgy, multiple people using the room for non sexual-services (most love hotels have a capacity of 2 per room), etc.
There is a sign on the door of all love hotels like this. In the event of an emergency all the doors unlock automatically. If the power goes out, it disengages the locks. I can tell you’re a novice when it comes to love hotels. I envy you. I’m not being sarcastic.
Perhaps the staff were banging, and couldn’t reach the phone?
I traveled with my boss (big Irish guy) up north to Aomori-ken on business some years ago. When we arrived there were no vacancies in the local hotels (Emperor visit) and we ended up sharing a sleazy love hotel room. Needless to say the whole adventure sucked. The gal at the front asked us if we had “guests” coming over and raised her eyebrows at me when I answered her. Couldn’t get out of that sleaze hole fast enough the next morning.
What’s the name of the hotel?
At least a sailor didn’t come crashing through your ceiling with his pants around his ankles.
I would bet on an emergency “Unlock All” button. Of course if no one was there to pick up, they weren’t at the desk either probably and people just burn if there’s a fire.
I used to go to love hotel and stay after my gf leaves. They did check that one person was staying, even asked to talk to me on the phone like they were checking there was not a murder in there…
So that first part of questioning seems standard practice.
The fact they didn’t answer in the morning is weird, maybe the front desk operator had stomach issues? Seems more like staff issues than trying to trap her but what do I know