Opulent love motels like ‘Disneyland of sex’
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Drive through the sprawl of any big Brazilian city and there they are, the short-stay love motels beckoning with their neon lights and names like Magnata and Taj Mahal. Some resemble colossal medieval fortresses for trysts. Others evoke ancient Egypt’s Pharaonic excesses.
But such garden-variety ostentation is so yesterday.
The pleasure palaces now surfacing offer services like helicopter rides above this megacity of 20 million. In suites at certain motels, guests slither through water slides that empty into heated private plunge pools.
Other suites that can be rented for a few hours include dinners prepared by prizewinning chefs, private DJs or 4-D movies on an undulating sofa.
“The clients of the best Brazilian motels now demand an experience going well beyond finding a discreet place to have sex,” said Flávio Monteiro, the director of Apple Motel, which recently opened where another motel, the Roma In Ville, once welcomed guests with statues evoking a Roman bacchanal.
“The statues just weren’t doing it for us,” said Monteiro, whose team redesigned the venue to vaguely resemble, at least on the outside, an Apple Store — if an Apple Store had tinted windows that shifted in color from red to blue to green. But once inside, clients unwind in suites with waterfalls cascading into private pools. “We offer something more sublime,” he added.
Cherished by many, frowned upon by others, love motels have long had a special place in Latin America’s largest country. Thought to have been inspired initially by American-style motels, the Brazilian roadside variety developed as places where couples could meet for a secret rendezvous, an escape from cramped living arrangements or just to spice things up a bit.
The Brazilian Association of Motels says the market is so popular and competitive that there are about 5,000 love motels nationwide — 300 in Sao Paulo alone. Owners face constant pressure to roll out new features for an exacting clientele.
“I prefer motels that innovate with standards of good taste,” said Vanessa Antolinez, 36, an interior designer who is a regular client, together with her husband, of Acaso Motel, where suites go for about $120 for a stay of a few hours. Features include a punching bag to let off steam, entrees like lamb with Dijon mustard and a Japanese-style ofuro bath.
“Sometimes you need some privacy and a break from the routine,” Antolinez said. “But you also need something classy.”
Like many other Brazilian enterprises, the motels are grappling with the country’s economic crisis. But some owners, especially those at the high end of the spectrum, say business is resilient, possibly because the sharp devaluation of Brazil’s currency is making vacations abroad costlier, encouraging some to splurge on diversions at home.
“Motels in Brazil are like the Disneyland of sex,” said Dinah Guimaraens, an anthropologist and architect who has written widely about Brazilian motels. “They provide a combination of entertainment, fantasy and escapism, allowing the middle class to feel powerful for a few fleeting moments.”