Privacy doesn’t come cheap at this hotel.
A Japanese hotel is offering rooms for under $1, but there’s a catch: Guests will be livestreamed during their stay.
Nicknamed the “One Dollar Hotel,” a room at Business Ryokan Asahi in Fukuoka, Japan, costs only 100 yen, or about $0.92, but part of the “price” of staying is that guests must agree to be featured on the hotel’s YouTube for 24 hours, reports Insider.
However, don’t expect any free X-rated voyeuristic footage from the hotel’s YouTube channel. No nudity, sexual activity or any other “lewd acts” are allowed while staying in room No. 8. Guests are required to sign an “Accommodation Pledge” during their stay and must get changed in the hotel’s shared bathrooms.
The small room comes with a traditional Japenese tatami floor mat, a foldable sleeping mat, a small coffee table, a TV and a kettle.
Livestream video does not have any sound and guests are permitted to turn off the lights, although the video cannot be turned off.
As local Japanese site Sora News 24 points out, guests are not required to “give a performance or really do anything that makes for compelling viewing” during their stay, although some visitors have had fun holding up signs asking to interact with YouTube followers.
The hotel says its livestreamed room isn’t a publicity stunt, but rather a way to book a room that’s rarely rented, according to a reporter who documented his stay for Sora News 24.
“The management told us that room eight is the least-often booked room in the hotel, and they thought this would be a good way to convince people to stay in it,” he says.