Japanese hotel Asahi Ryokan offers $1 rooms for guests who live-stream everything

Visitors to Fukuoka, Japan, can get a hotel room at the bargain price of $1 — but there's a catch.

To take advantage of the deal, visitors must agree to live-stream almost everything. That doesn't include using the bathroom, which is outside the range of the table-mounted camera, and the guests are permitted to turn out the lights during sleep, the Washington Post reported. 

Everything else is fair game for 24 hours. 

"Young people nowadays don't care much about the privacy," 27-year-old Tetsuya Inoue, the hotel's manager, told CNN.

Inoue was looking for ideas to broaden revenues for the 30-year-old guesthouse, which his grandmother owns, when he hit upon the idea of streaming after an English visitor live-streamed his own stay, according to the Washington Post. 

While a $1 a night price (including all taxes and tips) is clearly unprofitable, Inoue hopes to monetize the gimmick by selling advertising against the live stream, he told CBS News in an email. YouTube allows streams to sell ads once they reach 4,000 views.

The hotel's YouTube channel, which started streaming just this week, has quickly gained popularity. It had 8,200 subscribers as of Friday, double its numbers since mid-week.

The hotel does warn guests to shield their passports and credit-card numbers from the camera. The camera also does not have sound, although guests can activate its microphone if they wish, CNN reported.

Guest are also asked not to have sex or engage in "lewd activity."

Just one room out of the 10 in the guesthouse comes with the streaming offer, the hotel told CBS News via email. When the room is unoccupied, Inoue turns the camera on himself working in the office.

Five people have taken advantage of the $1 offer so far, of whom three were Japanese, the email said.