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The rise of the 'afternoon delight' hotel booking
By Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris
17 February 2016
From the section Magazine
Image copyrightiStock
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Paris, as everyone knows, is the city of love, the place where most people say they would like to have a romantic affair. Well, out of Paris comes a new development in the hotel trade that's calculated to help lovers in their quest for time alone - a website that helps couples book daytime hotel rooms.
Until very recently if you wanted to use a Paris hotel room for a couple of hours in the daytime - whatever your purposes - then you had a choice.
Either you paid top whack to keep the room for the night as well, even though you didn't plan to use it.
Or you went to a sleazy dive in a street like the Faubourg St Denis, near the Gare du Nord - the sort of place that used to be referred to familiarly in English as a "knocking shop".
But lovers of the world rejoice! Times have changed.
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Image copyrightiStock
Not for the first time, liberal economics have joined forces with liberal sexuality, this time to popularise the "afternoon delight".
French website Dayuse.com is even now ushering in daytime guests to crisp-sheeted bedrooms, complete with trouser-press and kettle, from Sao Paolo to Singapore - and of course in Paris.
The business case is obvious.
Of course, there are couples who use Dayuse - and we welcome them. But they are not our priority
Lorenzo Sciotti, Dayuse
The greatest asset for a hotel is its rooms - but most of the time (i.e. in daylight hours) most of them are empty.
In many of the world's big cities, hotels have been hard hit by home-share sites like Airbnb. In Paris there are now more Airbnb rooms on offer than hotel rooms.
Every device to recoup lost income is welcome - so what better way than to sell your rooms twice over?
"We are offering hotels the chance to boost income by 10%," says Lorenzo Sciotti, Dayuse's business development manager in London.
"And for customers - they get a hotel room for a few hours at a fraction of the price they would pay for a full day."
Image copyrightDayuse
Clicking on the Dayuse page, you see a variety of offers. A typical Paris experience might be a hotel in the Latin Quarter charging 80 euros (£62) for a morning booking (0900 - 1300), and 95 (£73) for the afternoon.
Night-time prices would be double that.
Interestingly, Dayuse makes it very clear that no credit cards are needed in order to book. Is this a hint of the target clientele? After all, as everyone knows, rogue receipts are the worst enemy of the undercover Lothario.
Of course couples come here in the afternoon, and everyone knows what it is for - but we regard it all as perfectly normal
Joan Chaussey, Eugene en Ville Hotel, Paris
Not a bit of it, says Sciotti.
"Our primary market is business-people - people who need a rest between flights, or a place for interviews or meetings.
"After that we are targeting people who want to use hotel facilities in the day-time, like spas and swimming-pools.
"Of course, there are couples who use Dayuse - and we welcome them. But they are not our priority."
With no breakdown of the figures, it is impossible to know how many of Dayuse's estimated 320,000 users fall into each category.
Image copyrightiStock
But it is safe to say that, coyness apart, publicity about the lover-potential does Dayuse no harm at all.
After all the moral opprobrium that used to attach to afternoon assignations has largely disappeared - at least in the liberal West.
In Paris - a city whose morals were once looked on with envious horror by foreigners - the institution of the cinq-a-sept (the five-to-seven, ie 5pm to 7pm) allowed faithless spouses to be back home in time for dinner.
The whole thing becomes sexier, because we are in a hotel in the middle of the day!
"Elise"
To carry it off, wealthy men maintained a separate apartment, or garconniere, where lovers could be entertained. Everyone else resorted to knocking shops, or bordellos.
Today checking into a decent hotel for a few hours of daytime intimacy may invite remarks of the nudge-nudge kind, but little more.
"Of course couples come here in the afternoon, and everyone knows what it is for. But we regard it all as perfectly normal. Don't you?" says Joan Chaussey, manager of the Eugene en Ville hotel in central Paris.
"I wouldn't say it is part of any particular Paris tradition. I would just say it is part of life."
For Elise (not her real name), who often uses daytime hotels with her boyfriend, the system is tailor-made for the modern twenty-or-thirtysomething.
Image copyrightiStock
"My boyfriend and I have busy, stressful lives. We often work late and at weekends. It's very important to find time together when and where we can," she says.
"This way we can have a couple of hours of intimacy in the middle of Paris, maybe with a bottle of champagne. The whole thing becomes sexier, because we are in a hotel in the middle of the day!"
The explosion of online dating agencies has presumably provided a rich source of daytime customers, and it is hard to see how hotels can be sure some are not call-girls.
But there is no gainsaying the demand. Last month Dayuse announced that it has raised 15 million euros (£12m) in venture capital to continue its international expansion.
As Dooley Wilson sang, the world will always welcome lovers.
And as time goes by, it finds ever more profitable ways of opening the door.
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The day Japan's 'love hotels' sell out
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 24 December, 2003, 10:26 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version
No room at Japan's Love Hotels at Christmas


By Jonathan Head
BBC, Tokyo

Like many other non-Christian countries, Japan has got into the habit of celebrating Christmas.
But as well as the usual decorations and presents, the Japanese have also made this season into an uniquely romantic one.


Guests pay according to how many hours they stay
For the country's famous Love Hotels - fantastic-looking roadside buildings which beckon travellers with flashes of neon - this is by far their busiest time of year.

Christmas Eve has, for reasons no-one has been able to explain to me, become the most romantic night of the calendar.

At a time when many Christians are in church, it has become a tradition for young couples to enjoy their first moments of passion; for suitors to propose marriage; for older couples to escape the noisy confines of the family home for a rare night of intimacy.

Ideally, this should happen in a luxury hotel. But these are booked up months in advance, and are beyond the pockets of many Japanese.


However strange your preferred theme, there will be a Love Hotel somewhere for you
The alternative is a Love Hotel. With beguiling names like the Hotel Seeds, Hotel Carrot and Hotel Be Free, they offer guests rates for what is called "rest" - two to four hours - or "stay" - in other words overnight.

Inside you are spared the embarrassment of checking in. You simply punch the room you want on a panel of buttons and you are given a key card, which you insert at the end of your stay to pay the bill.

The rooms themselves can have astonishing decorations. The bed might be a full-size 1950s Cadillac car. Some rooms have illuminated displays on the walls and ceiling that make it feel like you are under the sea. Some have Hello Kitty dolls in leather underwear and handcuffs.

However strange your preferred theme, there will be a Love Hotel somewhere for you. The only disadvantage is you cannot book these hotels in advance.

Which means on Christmas Eve, you might have to queue in the cold and unromantic street before you get a room.



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