Short guide to using love hotels for beginners

I wanted to make this guide because I think love hotels are difficult to approach for foreigners and people that have never visited such an establishment, and there are some distinct differences compared to Western Style Business hotels. There's a lot of content online for Japanese people that has some guidelines but not much in English, so I'll put this out here for those who need a helping hand.

The following are generally the case but there may be some exceptions. I wasn't quite sure how to order all these tips so it's mostly sporatic.

Entering the hotel

1. Generally, love hotels cannot be booked in advance. You can call the facility to see if there is any space available, but as far as booking a room, it's first come first serve.
2. With few exceptions (such as 女子会), love hotels are designed with couples in mind. If you show up with 3 or more people, you will likely either be rejected, or be charged some sort of fee.
3. When entering the hotel, you can choose between two categories, 休憩 ("rest") or 宿泊("overnight"). The former allows you to rent the room for some amount of hours without staying the night.
4. Love hotels make every effort to ensure there is as little interaction with other people as possible.
   1. Often, there are separate doors for entrance and exit, ensuring that you don't run into people who are finishing their stay as you enter the facility.
   2. Rather than talking with an employee, rooms are picked from a large touchscreen-panel where you select the available room by tapping it. You will also see price information on this panel, as well as the specific perks of each room.
   3. The front desk is setup in such a way that there is a blockade between the face of you and the employee, so even in the case that you have a specific request, you can talk to the employee without having to look at each other directly.
5. After selecting your room from the panel, in many hotels you will get a receipt that you can hand to the representative at the counter, at which point they will give you the key to the room.
6. As you head to your room, keep in mind that your room number (above the door) will be lit up or flickering on and off, to let you know which room to enter.
7. Sometimes all the available rooms are booked, in which case you will likely be given a waiting number and directed to a waiting room, where there will likely have be amenities such as manga or a water server. You will be called when the next available room opens up.
8. Before entering the hotel I would highly recommend checking the website, 9 times out of 10 the hotel will likely have some sort of promotion/coupon that you can only redeem upon entering the facility. Some are quite significant: for example, one hotel I went to had a 50% discount offer, where the only condition was that to print out the coupon from the website and show it upon entry. Alternatively you might receive free drinks or food etc.

The Room

1. You'll find that one main difference between a love hotel and a business hotel is the focus on TVs. Generally, there will be a large TV in front of the bed that will have a huge menu with many options, including ordering food/drinks or toothbrushes, adult items, etc. You should definitely check out this ordering menu, cause oftentimes some items are free: first drink, breakfast, bathrobe, bathmat, soaps, etc.
2. Sometimes rooms are tailored to specific themes or even fetishes, so be careful when you pick from the panel initially.
3. The rooms will very frequently have a large bathtub area, also equipped with a TV. Check around the sink area for bubblebath soaps etc.
4. Depending on the hotel and room smoking may or may not be allowed. Be sure to phone the front desk if you're not sure.

Payment

1. This one is a bit tricky cause I've seen it several different ways. Here are the cases I've seen:
   1. Pay after you select from the panel by going to the front desk and paying immediately
   2. After you go to your room, sometimes there will be a machine on the wall for payment. If you're lucky, it will be a modern vending-machine style machine that can work for cash or card. If you're unlucky, it will be a tube-like portal looking thing like the tube from the polar express. Those work by putting in cash and pressing a button and it sends the money to the front desk with air pressure.
      1. Either you pay upon entering the room (the machine will beep and let you know) or you pay upon leaving the room. Sometimes the door will lock you in until you pay, so that's what's going on if you ever have to deal with that.
   3. The last case is paying at the front desk when you leave the hotel.

This is mostly the extent of what I came up with now, but please ask questions. Overall, I highly recommend the experience for couples! They're often quite cheap and a worthwhile experience.