The residence overlooks two discreet streets in the center of the small town of Remiremont (Vosges). It is for its tranquility, in addition to access to private parking, that Jessica and Raphaël De Abreu, a couple of restaurateurs, decided to buy an apartment there with a view to a somewhat special rental project.
Called Le Spa de la Quarterelle, this love room, designed as “a naughty nest”, attracted its share of criticism even before its opening. “What mainly caused people to talk”recalls Raphaël De Abreu, it is the contrast between the concept of housing, oriented towards carnal pleasures, and the history of the residence, which has long housed nuns. But the angry letters and anonymous calls “quickly stopped” after the studio is rented at the beginning of 2023, notes the forty-year-old. “Neighbors noticed that customers are polite, discreet people, who just come to spend a romantic evening. »
Remiremont, but also Perpignan, Flers, Cannes, Saint-Brieuc… The regional press regularly reports on the opening of these love rooms, advertisements for which are popping up on rental platforms (Airbnb or Booking), as well as on around ten specialized sites (LoveRoomers, Nuit d’amour, etc.). “The phenomenon has become more widespread since the Covid-19 crisis”, notes Jérôme Forget, specialist in the independent rental market and manager of the consulting firm Guest & Strategy. “Before 2020, there were only around ten goods of this type, with very sexual connotations. Today, there are more than a thousand of them throughout the country”he notes.
A success all the more surprising since a similar concept, that of Japanese love hotels, did not take off in France at the turn of the 2000s. “Love rooms embrace the same underlying trends, which have since infused society: the need of couples to escape from their homes to recreate bubbles of intimacy and a liberalization of sexual practices”explains Didier Arino, general director of the Protourisme firm.
Spice up everyday life discreetly
Justine – who did not wish to give her last name – is the founder of the rental platform Evasion Romantique, launched in 2022 with her partner, after having looked for this type of property themselves. For her, “a love room is much more than a place for sexual escape Fifty Shades of Gray : it’s a place to escape, period”. « The typical customers are couples, between 35 and 55 years old, who come to get together and spice up their daily lives,” agrees Samuel, co-founder of the Love'n Spa site, which brings together a selection of nearly six hundred properties of this type.
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