Two women in heavy make-up wait idly in the lobby of the Sir Motel along one of suburban Taipei's busiest streets on a September weeknight. Massage parlours, karaoke dens and a sex-toy shop all thrive within a few hundred metres of the hotel in New Taipei City's Sanchong District. The Sir Motel typifies the low-end hotels optimised for quick bouts of sex in Taiwan. Many bill themselves as "business" hotels or "motels" even if they offer no parking.
They often occupy just a floor or two of a mixed-use building near a railway station or in old red-light districts. They use the term "rest" rather than "stay" to signal that rooms are bookable by the hour. Many are linked to karaoke bars. Inside, a red car and a mock Shell petrol pump sit to one side of a bed with a yellow bedspread.
A motel room called "Dancing with Wolves" features totem poles beside the bed. The room establishment sometimes fills up on holidays, the manager says. Read also Japan govt looks to convert 'love hotels' into regular hotels for Olympic visitors. Back in Taipei, a procession of cars with tinted windows passes through the check-in gate of the landmark Wego Boutique Hotel one weekday afternoon. It has been open for some 40 years and protects guests' privacy by forgoing a lobby. Most guests drive in and are ushered to a parking space, from which they ascend directly to one of the hotel's 86 rooms.
Rooms sport multiple sofas, wall mirrors and bluish lighting. In at least one room, there is a bathtub built for two people. The site manager declines an interview, saying only that his service is "different" from that of other boutique hotels in Taiwan. The low-end cater to couples in a hurry; the high end to people seeking racy room decor. There are basically no middle-priced hotels because they all struggle to exist," says Yang Lianfu, a resident of New Taipei City and publisher of books on local history.
Both ends of the price scale get steady business from privacy-seeking couples, people hiding extramarital affairs, and men with prostitutes, Yang says. It is hard to know how many love hotels operate on the island. Taiwan's Tourism Bureau does not break down its roughly 3, legally registered hotels by subcategory, a bureau spokeswoman says. And spokeswomen for the authorities in Taipei and New Taipei City decline to estimate how many love hotels operate within their boundaries. The love hotel market looks stable as long as operators keep up with people's changing tastes in decor, says Liang Kuo-yuan, president of the Taipei-based Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute.
