The voyeurs around the world logged onto a YouTube stream Wednesday, hoping to see a random hotel guest scurry about their room. Instead, the viewers were greeted with an empty manager’s chair and a whiteboard registering mutual disappointment: The guest canceled tonight . . .
“Life happens,” reflected a user named Ruinga, as messages in Turkish, English and Danish mingled with Google Translate-aided Japanese.
“A quiet night will have to do.”
Tetsuya Inoue was soon in the chair, just before midnight Toyko time, patiently explaining his concept of newly viral Room No. 8 in the Asahi Ryokan hotel in Fukuoka, a western Japanese coastal city.
Guests purchase a $1 hotel stay.
They have to appear on a constant live-stream from inside their room, as long as they don’t have sex.
Inoue told CNN that he got the idea after a British traveler live-streamed his stay in the hotel, and says it is the only hotel with such a proposal.
The camera in the minimally furnished room is typically located on a table, but it is out of view of the common area toilet and shower, Inoue told USA Today. The microphone attached is disabled for some semblance of privacy, but can be activated for those guests especially thrilled by being watched.
The rate is about $27 a night at the 10-room hotel, Inoue said in a video, and only Room 8 carries the live-stream deal.