Manila’s love lodges can barely meet demand

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 18

Manila’s love lodges can barely meet demand

By

JAMES DALLMEYER

of AAP

Manila The Anito Royale’s' special attractions this month are “Rain shower with love mat” and “Wall mounted love machine.” The Kamagong across the road offers “Rainy days memories” and brags it can give its customers “More satisfaction.”

The Blue Marlin, pristine white and newly opened, claims only to be the place “Where nice moment begins”. These are just three of the eight drive-in lodges competing for business in Manila’s Cuneta Avenue, a narrow winding street nicknamed “Lover’s Lane” by the locals. The constant stream of taxis and cars in and out of the lodges at all times of day and night attest that Cuneta Avenue is. the > centre of bur£eonin£

business that rakes in a fortune by exploiting a big local preoccupation — sex.

In an unguarded moment one of the country’s leading academics confessed he had yet to meet a married Filipino male who could look him straight in the eye and honestly claim he had always been faithful to his wife.

The former president, Ferdinand Marcos’ running mate during the 1986 election, Arturo Tolentino, aged 81, has had to hotly deny rumours that he keeps at least three mistresses. No matter how many new lodges open, business for the leading chains is still brisk and at peak times such as Christmas and Valentine’s days couples have to be turned away. One operator of a big chain of lodges with about

500 rooms says last year’s turnover was close to 100 million pesos (SNZB.2 million), of which roughly 25 per cent was clear profit.

Operators hasten to point out that they are not running brothels, but merely catering to the needs of couples who have already decided to make love.

The rooms, usually spotlessly clean and disinfected, cost anything from 100 pesos ($8.20) for three hours for impoverished taxi clients, to 400 pesos ($33.00) for those seeking more luxurious titillation.

Mirrors are a big feature of all the rooms so that couples can be their own voyeurs at any angle from any position at any time. > X-rated videos are shown 24 hours day , “to provide ment for, our clients,” as

one operator put it. All rooms have showers and of course most of the space is taken up by the bed.

Larger rooms offer a bewildering array of love seats, swings and shower straps that look highly dangerous for all but trained gymnasts. Waterfalls, fountains, pocket gardens and artificial rain are some of the attractions offered in de luxe rooms, not forgetting jacuzzis and multiple showers which provide the simulated rainfall under which couples may place their love mats, if so desired. With so much money to be made, most operators study almost everything, from the profiles of the clientele to what height the bed should be to the firmness of the pillows and mattresses.

Luis Limgenco, of the seven-lodge Victoria

group says his research reveals most of his patrons are blue collar workers who come to consumate office romances.

“We do get a few honest married couples,” he concedes,

In contrast, a rival operator who requested anonymity estimates about 20 per cent of his chain’s business comes from married couples. “Many of them live with the children in crowded apartments, so they come here for the privacy,” he says. Mr Limgenco says thqre is a direct relationship between the availability of money and the trade his chain does.

“It peaks at election time and when people get their Christmas bonuses, and falls off at the beginning of school terms when people have to pay their school fees.”