Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a hotel that rents out some or all of its rooms to prostitutes, adulterous couples and others who wish to use the beds for short periods rather than for overnight accommodation; also used of individual rooms .

c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 231: The Swamp was [...] real solid with whorehouses, hot sheet hotels rented by the hour.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 42: There are motels that do not go in for the hot sheet trade, but most do.
1988		J.T. Henke Gutter Life and Lang. 15: The establishment that Ned Ward describes [...] is the 17th c. ancestor of what Americans sometimes call ‘hot-sheet motels,’ i.e., hotels/motels that let rooms for short periods of time to amorous couples, no questions asked.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 223: He found a motel strip, a hot-sheet flop.
1999		Sun. Tel. mag. 12 Dec. 18: He bought a ‘hot-sheet’ hotel in the red light city of Angeles.
2001		N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 71: Marty, in some hot-sheet house, up in the Bronx.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 377: Did he enjoy pretend anonymous sex with his ex in hot-sheet motels?
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 26: Rent a hot-sheet room and find hubby at his favourite gin mill.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 14: Fleet #2 tailed the roundheeled redhead to juke joints and hot-sheet motels.
2016		Times 17 July 🌐 [The motel] became synonymous with illicit sex, or what Gerald Foos, the subject of Gay Talese’s slimy book, calls the ‘hot sheet’ trade.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 33: Donkey Don lured ladies to hot-sheet hotels and instigated insertion.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 27: [H]ot-sheet flops on the Appian Way.