Although there isn't a great guide book for Love Hotels out there, there is lots of information about the art, beauty, culture, and business of the industry if you know where to look. Here's a reading list to get you started. Don't worry, it shouldn't be too shocking :)
Books | Articles | Websites | Fiction
Love Hotel Books
Love Hotels: An Inside Look at Japan's Sexual Playgrounds by Ed Jacob
also see Ed's quirky japan site. This is probably the best overall recent guide to Japanese Love Hotels. There is a large directory of love hotels throughout the country (with a heavy emphasis on Tokyo and Osaka), but the descriptions are relatively brief. There's also a lot of information about history and culture of Love Hotels. Unfortunately, the book suffers from some sloppy writing and sometimes confusing organization. You can order a black and white copy from Amazon, or download a full color copy from the publisher. (December 2008)
Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History by Sarah Chaplin
This is a very academic but fascinating look at love hotels by an architecture professor. In addition to an analysis of the history of love hotels and their place in Japanese society. Professor Chaplin deconstructs all aspects of the love hotel, including the techniques for styling, naming, and advertising hotels. There's a great section on the business of love hotels as well. Given the price tag, you may want to check this out on Google Books or through your library. (June 2007)
Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan
also see Misty Keasler's website. An amazing coffee-table book of photographs taken in love hotels (mostly in Osaka). Striking both for highlighting the over-the-top decor of love hotels, and for the lack of people (making the photographs somehow sterile and kinky at the same time), it's a great conversation starter for your living room! (November 2006)
Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan by Nicholas Bornoff.
Japan's Sex Trade: A Journey Through Japan's Erotic Subcultures by Peter Constantine
Sex and the Japanese: The Sensual Side of Japan by Boye Lafayette De Mente
"Love Hotels: Sex and the Rhetoric of Themed Spaces" by Derek Foster, in The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nation, and Self, ed. Scott A. Lukas (pp. 167–181)
"How to Stay at a Love Hotel in Japan" by Lisa Gay at WorldHum.com. A good overview, but not a lot of specifics about individual hotels. (7/16/2009)
"Rabu Hoteru: Lost in Japan’s Love Hotels" by Amy Baker at vagabondish. (An entertaining 2009 essay about two failed attempts to stay at love hotels)
Descriptions of a handful of love hotels in Shibuya (Tokyo) from Rob Sullivan (12/2007)
"Kinki Sex & Love Hotels" by Ivan Corsa & Ed Jacob at SeekJapan. This article includes some choice quotes from real love hotel diaries. (5/1/2005)
"Love Hotels in Japan" by Simon Moran at JapanVisitor. A good overview with some interesting reporting on how hotels take care of their customers, and their local yakuza.
A bunch of articles about Love Hotels at HotelChatter.com
A few articles about the business and legal side of love hotels:
"Japanese Love Hotels: Legal Change, Social Change, and Industry Change" by Mark West, Michigan Law and Economics Research Paper No. 02-018. [pdf 216K]
"Japan’s love hotels are a big hit" by Chris Cooper and Makiko Kitamura at mydigitalfc.com. (5/21/2009).
"Goldman Sachs flirts with Japan's love hotels" by William Sparrow at the Asia Times (3/11/2005).
Some older articles:
"Love Hotels - between a rock and a soft place" by Andreas Stuhlmann in the Tokyo Journal. An essay, interview, and Top Ten list. (4/2000) [website] [pdf 1.7M]
"Love Hotel: Between Fantasy and Desire" - an archive of JapanAsItIs.com (4/12/1996)
"Love Hotels" at KansaiNow.com. A brief overview of love hotels from circa 1999.
Love Hotel Websites
Rabuho.com, the "Love Hotel Information Site" with short descriptions and information about love hotels in various parts of Japan. Organized as a blog, you can see when each description was last updated (most recently in March 2007)
www.japanleisurehotels.com - an investment company renovating and operating love hotels under the 'Bonita' brand.
stay81.com A new website focused on "inviting more overseas travellers to the Land of the Rising Sun" with information about lots of different kinds of hotels.
Love Hotel Fiction
Lost Girls and Love Hotels: A Novel by Catherine Hanrahan