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Hoshino Will Open a Chain of Luxurious Inns in Japan

Hoshino Resort Corp., a Japanese hotelier, will open a chain of inns located on hot springs in Japan. All inns will be referred to the upscale segment and will start operating already this October.

In Japanese language inns on hot springs are called ryokans. Hoshino underlines that this chain of ryokans is going to be the first one in the country. Currently this hotelier owns 24 hotels in Japan and has ambitious plans of competing with foreign hotel chains and their luxurious properties on the territory of Japan.

First four ryokans will be opened in Shimane and Nagano prefectures. They will be opened under the common brand that will be then applied to hotels with 50 rooms and less only. Hoshino also plans launching its own brand dedicated to hot spring inns only. The company wants to create a chain or ryokans on all popular hot springs of Japan by managing already existing properties under the new brand.

The plans of the company are really big – it plans having as many as 30 locations until 2014 with the yearly turnover of 22 billion yen (around US$277 million). Hoshino also reports that current occupancy rate of Japanese ryokans is around 40-45%. They are mostly run by families or unknown brands. Hoshino wants to offer better service and make an easily recognized brand that will allow boosting the occupancy rate to 75 percent.

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