Hotel Erotica was a weekly half-hour softcore TV series that aired late nights on Cinemax and Showtime, starting back in 2002. Lauren Hays starred as Chloe, the owner of the infamous Blue Hotel, a very high-end hotel and resort on an unnamed island. Hays herself rarely took a direct role in show. The basic premise and format of each episode was that it would begin with Chloe receiving a letter or postcard in the mail from a previous visitor to the hotel, telling her about their experience, and she would sit back and read it (usually while topless or fully nude, relaxing in a bathtub or hot tub). So the rest of the episode would be a flashback of that previous visit, narrated by the character who wrote the letter.  Guest stars would include several softcore veterans, some of whom would appear on more than one episode, playing different characters. The first season consisted of 13 episodes.

X-TREME SPORTS
Written by Anthony L. Greene and directed by Mike Sedan
This episode featured Beverly Lynne and Gian Keys as Karen and Billy, an adventurous couple in a long-term but open relationship. These two like to travel the world and engage in various sports and physical activities and have stopped at the Blue Hotel for a restful interlude. As the show begins, both seem to be happy but neither is particularly interested in having a more traditional committed relationship. Despite having a healthy sex life (we see two different separate sex scenes with them), during the course of their visit they each sneak away from each to have sex with other residents at the hotel. Karen hooks up with another visitor, played by Evan Moore, while Billy has sex with a hotel masseur, played by Mara Kelle. Somehow, these extra-curricular activities make Karen and Billy realize how much they want each other. And Karen tells Chloe in her letter that they have since gotten married in Africa.

MODEL BEHAVIOR
Written by Karen O’Hara and directed by Gary Dean Orona
This is an infamous episode because of one its stars. Candice Michelle, who a few years later wouldgo on to star in a high-profile Go Daddy commercial that premiered during the Superbowl and then become a popular WWE Diva for several years, appeared here in one of her very first acting roles. She plays Natasha, an up-and-coming model. She arrives at the Blue Hotel for a series of photoshoots for a popular bikini magazine. Also starring is Tina Wiseman as Heidi, an older and more established supermodel. She is also at the hotel to shoot for the magazine. Heidi is beginning to feel insecure because she’s getting older, and worried that younger models like Natasha are going to replace her in the industry. Both women are competing to see who gets the coveted spot on the magazine cover, as well as for the attention of Marco, the photographer for the magazine (played by Fabrizio Brienza), so they don’t get along very well. Both women get topless, as in various string bikinis during the scenes where they’re being photographed (separately and together). Sex scenes include one between Candice and Fabrizio, and then there’s a threesome with them and Wiseman, during which the women engage in light lesbianism. That scene alone is worth the price of this entire DVD. I’ll also note that there is a scene between Wiseman and a man credited as Brett Taylor, who plays her personal assistant. As I rewatched this scene I couldn’t help but notice that he is actually the man known as Garren James, the agency owner from Showtime’s GIGOLOS. So all the more reason to make this an infamous episode.

THE FAST AND THE CURIOUS
Written by Anthony L. Greene and directed by Gary Dean Orona
In this episode Lauren Hays does take the rare spotlight. Rafe Urquhart plays Jere a famous race-car driver. And, I mean, really famous. Apparently, in this fictional universe, race-car drivers are like A-list movie stars and rockstars, as in he can’t go anywhere without being hounded by fans and having women throw themselves at him. He broke his leg in a recent race and has come to the hotel to rest and recuperate in peace. But that proves to be difficult, because of the aforementioned women throwing themselves at him. There is an instant attraction between Jere and Chloe, and they flirt with each other, and there’s a scene where Chloe imagines having sex with him in the shower, but Chloe holds back because she’s under the impression the he’s just a celebrity playboy. However, as we see, he’s really not. Over the course of the episode he rejects several women. Chloe’s ex, Maurice (played by Massimo Avidano) shows up and they have sex, but that ends up being a distraction and, in the end, she finally connects with Jere. This is a great episode for showcasing Lauren Hayes.

CHATROOM
Written by Karen O’Hara and directed by Gary Dean Orona
Dru Berrymore and Frank Mercuri play Cathy and Thomas. They’re a couple who met online and have been having cybersex for months. They’ve now come to the Blue Hotel to finally meet in person. But first they play a series of games where each secretly watches the other in public. Thomas watches as Cathy strips and masturbates in a secluded lake. Then the next day Cathy watches as Thomas brings another woman (Tiffany Starkey) to that lake and has sex with her. Finally the two of them get together and have sex.

SHE’S THE BOSS
Written by Anthony L. Greene and directed by Lane Shefter Bishop
Jim Tin plays James, a meek young man who works as the personal assistant to a ball-busting arrogant businesswoman named Risa (Mary Shannon). They’ve checked into the Blue Hotel so that Risa can close some major business deal. Due to a screw up, James and Risa are forced to share a room, and we quickly see how Risa walks all over James and takes him for granted, including casually stripping naked in front of him. James meets a woman named Christina, played by T.J. Hart, who is the personal assistant to Blake (Joe Palermo), the businessman that Risa is there to meet, and she is similarly taken for granted. So while Risa and Blake negotiate, which includes sex (during which SHE remains on top, of course), Jim connects with Christina, which eventually leads to sex in a hot tub. This makes Jim act more assertive, which attracts Risa. He holds her off at first but eventually gives in. And it ends with Jim getting a promotion and continuing a relationship with Christina.

FALLING IN LUST AGAIN
Written by Karen O’Hara and directed by Lane Shefter Bishop
Brad Bartram and Sunny Lee play Nick and Serena, a divorced couple, who have coincidentally arrived to stay at the Blue Hotel with their current lovers. Nick is with Honey, played by Allysin Chaynes, and Serena is with Alberto, played by Alberto Boggiani. And, further coincidentally, the two couples are in rooms right next to each other. So there are scenes of each couple having loud sex while the other is forced to listen to it through the walls. Nick and Serena keep running into each other, which leads to reminiscing about their past, and when they happen to catch Honey and Alberto together, they finally give in to their own impulses and reunite.

CHASING JAMIE
Written by Anthony L. Greene and directed by Gary Dean Orona
Angela Nicholas (as Angela Davies) stars as the title character, who has been unlucky in love lately, and comes to the Blue Hotel to figure out what she wants in life, and just enjoy some alone time. By freakish coincidence, three of her ex-lovers all happen to also be staying at Blue Hotel as well. There’s Mickey (Danny Pape), the “bad boy”, Julianna (Stephanie Swift), the lesbian supermodel, and Giovanni (Lee Dahlberg), the wealthy businessman. Jamie meets and is seduced by each one of them in turn, in three hot sex scenes, but as the exes all fight to basically “win” her from the others, she re-affirms her own independence, and desire to remain single for now.

HEART’S DESIRE
Written by Dwight Brown and directed by Gary Dean Orona
Ananda St. James plays a Latin pop singer named Dusure (that’s how it’s spelled, and it’s pronounced Deh-zur-ray), who has arrived at the Blue Hotel by accident. She was supposed to go to Acapulco for a mini-vacation, but her manager screwed up the arrangements, so she arrived here by accident, without any of her ID or luggage. She’s forced to wait until her assistant shows up the next week for her stuff. In the room next door to her is Rob (Daryl Cleveland), a young wealthy investor who is going through a brutal divorce, as his wife left him for his best friend. Dusure and Rob bump into each other while passing each other in the hallway and Rob clearly makes an instant impression on Dusure as she goes to get a massage and while that’s happening she imagines having sex with Rob. Rob then shows up to get his own massage, and he and his masseuse (Emily Webster) end up having sex for real. Later Dusure and Rob officially meet while having lunch at the Hotel, and sparks fly. The next morning Dusure comes to Rob’s hotel room to ask if she can use his shower since the hot water in hers is out. She takes a sensuous shower and seems to hope that Rob will peak on her, but Rob resists the temptation. Eventually, the two of them do hook up, having sex on a massage table. The problem with this episode is that St. James and Cleveland just don’t have any chemistry. IMDB shows that this was Cleveland’s one and only acting role, and I can see why he didn’t last.

LEGALLY YOURS
Written by Dwight Brown and directed by Gary Dean Orona
Pamela (Janie Rau) is a young lawyer who has come to the Blue Hotel so her bosses can work on a merger with another law firm. She’s also there with fellow lawyers Ellie (Mara Kelle) and Todd (Robbie Cucurull). Softcore film legend Monique Parent (under the screen name Scarlet Johansing) stars as Leslie, the woman who owns the rival law firm that they are trying to merge with. Pamela has a little crush on Todd and asks him to join her for dinner that first night, but he’s already been invited to dinner by Leslie who has set her sights on him as well. Pamela has a dream where she and Todd are beginning to make love on the beach but are interrupted by Leslie. Todd and Leslie do have sex in real life, in a bathroom. Pamela later finds Leslie and a man named J.R. (Luis Xavier Posada) who is the chauffeur that drove Pamela and her coworkers to the hotel (and who has sex with Ellie earlier in the episode). Leslie noticed Pamela watching and actually motions for her to join them, but Pamela walks away and Leslie and J.R. keep going. Pamela finds some bad info about Leslie and her law firm, which causes the merger to be put off, and then she and Todd finally do have sex for real, on the beach.

THE COMPETITION
Written by Anthony L. Greene and directed by Gary Dean Orona
This episode stars Jennifer Lawrence (no, not that one) as Jana, a woman who has arrived at the Blue Motel for a vacation to recover from a really bad breakup. She’s there with her two best friends, Constance and Naomi (April Flowers and Cynthia Shaw). Constance and Noami are both more sexually open than Jana and are convinced that she needs to have sex with someone new to get her over her breakup, but Jana is reluctant. However, she soon catches the idea of a hotel employee named Vincenzo (Zay Harding). Constance and Naomi soon propose a bet to see which of the three of them can get him into bed first, although Jana never officially agrees. The other two women throw themselves at Vincenzo, but he avoids them as he seems genuinely interested in Jana. But when he hears about the bet, and believes she’s part of it, he gives in and has a threesome with Constance and Naomi. Jana finds out and is heartbroken, and also angry at her friends. But, well, let’s just say it all gets resolved and there’s a happy ending.

BLUE PLATE SPECIAL
Written by Anthony L. Greene and directed by Lane Shefter Bishop
Toby Bedford stars as June Bell, a Southern woman who worked as a waitress at the Blue Hotel the previous summer, while on break from college. She quickly noticed the lustful air around the hotel, catching an attractive couple (Lauren P. Lutker and Zach Powell) having sex behind the hotel (just a brief scene, we don’t really see anything). Belinda Gavin and Leland Jay play Crystal and Dave, another waitress and the cook, who are also pretty randy. June catches them having sex in the hotel and strips off her suit and plays with her herself as she secretly watches them. Brian Harmon plays Lex, a customer at the hotel, and after a bunch of flirting, he and June finally get together and have sex on the beach, while Dave and Crystal secretly watch and then have sex again themselves.

LUST TAKES A HOLIDAY
Written by Karen O’Hara and directed by Gary Dean Orona
Glen Meadows stars as William Nash, a famous romance novelist, who has come to the Blue Hotel to write his latest novel. Beverly Lynne plays Elaine, who takes care of the plants around the hotel. She happens to be William’s #1 devoted, some would say obsessed, fan. William is suffering from writer’s block, and at one point tries to envision a scene from his book, and we get a couple of brief sequences with a man and woman (Janie Rau and Lee Dahlburg) making love on the beach. Elaine gets it in her head to start dressing up as characters from William’s books and role-playing scenes with him. This gradually does help inspire him, and he and Elaine have sex twice, once while “in character” and then again as themselves. William and Elaine end up getting married and we see Chloe at the end reading William’s latest book, inspired by events at the hotel.

LOVE POTION NO. TEN
Written by Anthony L. Greene and directed by Gary Dean Orona
Monique Parent returns, this time as Lindsay, the owner of a rival hotel on the opposite side of the island. She writes about how 6 months earlier she had signed into the Blue Hotel under false pretenses. She was certain that there was some kind of secret about the Blue Hotel that made its visitors so aroused. Perhaps “something in the water.” So she hired a young scientist named Sean (Justin Kane) to come along with her, and they checked in as a romantic couple. The two of them watch a couple (Juliete Beres and Jordan Biamante) have sex in a secluded area of the beach, and Sean takes a special flower from that area and mixes it with the water from the hotel pool, thinking it might create some kind of love potion that makes people horny. Sean tries it out on a woman named Ivy (Elena Ayala) whom he meets at the Hotel bar. Then watches later as she has sex with a man (Joe Berber) in a hot tub. Lindsay tries it on herself, gets horny and masturbates on her bed. Eventually, after fighting their mutual attraction, and having their true identities exposed by Chloe, they give in and have sex.

I’ll note that in that final episode there is also the culmination of an ongoing subplot between Chloe and Terrance the mailman (played by Celestin Cornielle aka Celestino Cornielle). He many of the previous episodes he is seen delivering the mail to Chloe in the beginning, and there are always clear looks of flirtation and smiles between them. This is the first episode in which he actually speaks, as they make small talk as he hands her that day’s mail. She then invites him to stay awhile as she reads a letter to him. And then at the end of the episode, she takes him by the hand, apparently to her bedroom but, unfortunately, we don’t actually get a sex scene between them. That would have been nice as Cornielle is Black, and we don’t get many interracial scenes in softcore productions. But oh well.

Overall this was a very good series. Well-written and directed, the love scenes are hot, and shot very well. With mostly decent acting. I recommend this with a Chacebook rating of 5 STARS

Get the UNRATED DVD on iOFFER

Note: the only downside to this 2-disc DVD is that it doesn’t give you a “play all” option, which is odd. So when you put in each disc, if you want to watch all the episodes in a row, you have to start at the first one and then when it’s over, go back to the main menu and click on the next one, and then so on. It’s a slight annoyance.