Room number 8 was the least requested at the Asahi Ryokan. To give it more visibility, Tetsuya Inoue, the hotel manager in Fukuoka, came up with an unusual offer: charge 100 yen — about one dollar — per night to guests who agreed to have their stay livestreamed on YouTube.
The camera had its limits. No sound was recorded, the bathroom was out of view, and guests could turn off the lights whenever they wanted. They were also asked not to show documents or bank cards and to avoid intimate acts in front of the livestream.
The proposal attracted international attention and turned the least popular room into one of the small hotel’s biggest draws: 100 yen for a night under the camera, but without sound.