25 July,2016 08:26 AM IST | | AFP
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
People enjoy the day at Copacabana beach as a ship patrols the coast, enhancing security ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil yesterday. Pic/AFP
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 neighbourhoods hope for a payday.
The city's infamous by-the-hour "love hotels" are also up for the party. Some 5,000 rooms from the network have been made available, at prices a seductive 70 per cent 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. The 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 Love Time hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pic/Getty Images
Exotic location
The golden themed Versailles Suite and the Hollywood Suite offer glamour, 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." More adventurous tourists can look for hotels in favelas where the steep walk up narrow streets and the higher risk of violence are compensated by great views and the chance to see authentic Rio life. "When you climb up and see the little houses, that and the people here make you a bit nervous, but by the next day you're feeling completely at home," said Marcelo Luis Pirelli, a 48-year-old Argentine traveler staying at the Green Culture Hostel in Chapeu Mangueira favela.
