Business is Booming for Japanese Love Hotels

Love hotels are Japan's no-tell motels, often used for a quick and discreet tryst or an escape from cramped Japanese apartment life. And despite the recession, they're still big in Japan, reports the BBC News. The hotels, some of which have themes such as Titanic, Alcatraz, and Hello Kitty,  number in excess of 25,000 and are bringing in $43 billion a year.

"Of course some hotels did [suffer], but not love hotels," says Joichiro Mochizuki, an executive with a company which runs a number of love hotels, including the Asian P-Door in Tokyo.

"Not like city hotels, not like business hotels - for this love hotel we had a 3-4% drop but otherwise we have kept a 400% occupancy rate."

That 400% occupancy rate means the rooms are occupied four times a day. Eww. Though we do hope to someday occupy some ourselves.