HOTEL THAT LIVESTREAMS YOU SLEEPING

A Japanese hotel is offering a room for under $1, but there’s a catch: Guests will be livestreamed during their stay. To book Room 8 at the Business Ryokan Asahi in Fukuoka, Japan for a dollar, you must agree to be featured on the hotel’s YouTube for 24 hours. No nudity, sexual activity or any other “lewd acts” are allowed while staying in the room, and guests are required to sign an “Accommodation Pledge” and must get changed in the hotel’s shared bathrooms. The small room comes with a traditional Japanese tatami floor mat, a foldable sleeping mat, a small coffee table, a TV and a kettle. The streaming video – which cannot be turned off – does not include sound, and guests are permitted to turn off the lights. Guests are not required to 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.
* For a dollar. Fabulous new revenue stream!
* Why can’t they rent it? Was it a former Indian burial ground?
* Mostly the videostream features people tossing and turning on the freaking foldable sleeping mat.
* If I want to watch someone sleeping, I do it the old-fashioned way – with a ladder and binoculars.
* I know Japanese can be eccentric, but this idea is Fukuoka.