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 :)

Love Hotel Books

Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History by Sarah Chaplin

Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan by Misty Keasler (photographer), Rod Slemmons (essay), and Natsuo Kirino (foreword)

also see Misty Keasler's website.

Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan by Nicholas Bornoff Nicholas.

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)

Love Hotel Articles

"Love Hotels - between a rock and a soft place" by Andreas Stuhlmann in the Tokyo Journal (including an interview and a Top Ten list). [pdf 1.7M]

"Kinki Sex & Love Hotels" by Ivan Corsa & Ed Jacob at SeekJapan (including some choice quotes from real love hotel diaries)

"Love Hotels in Japan" by Simon Moran at JapanVisitor

"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 Reading List

Japan 10th edition by Chris Rowthorn (Lonely Planet)