Rio de Janeiro - Can't get a room at the Rio Olympics?
Worry not, the Villa Reggia has beds - oh, and sex chairs and an S&M cage.
With 500 000 tourists expected to flood Rio de Janeiro for the Games starting August 5, Brazil's second biggest city is bending over backwards to make sure there's enough lodging.
Hotel capacity has been massively expanded, Airbnb participants are looking to seize the moment, and small businesses in the impoverished but often spectacularly located favela neighborhoods hope for a payday.
The city's infamous by-the-hour “love hotels” are also up for the party.
About 5 000 rooms from the network have been made available, at prices a seductive 70 percent less than in traditional establishments according to Antonio Cerqueira, vice president of the Association of Rio Love Hotels.
“The love hotels are keeping their same tariffs for 12 hours (about $100 to $375),” he said.
undefinedThe round beds and ceiling mirrors have made way for regular hotel furniture - but if guests want to mount their own sexual Olympics, Cerqueira says his own hotel, the Villa Reggia in the recently refurbished port area, can help.
The golden themed Versailles Suite and the Hollywood Suite offer glamor, while for something more exotic there's a Japanese Suite and the Sadomasochism Suite complete with black walls, a leather studded bed, chains and a cage.
“They'll be available to tourists,” Cerqueira said. “My hotel will be full during the Olympics.”
AFP