The Kahala Hotel & Resort to open in Yokohama

Resorttrust Inc, a Nagoya-based hotel operator and developer, is planning to open The Kahala Hotel & Resort Yokohama in the city’s waterfront district of Minato Mirai by 2020.

Resorttrust plans to capitalize on the Kahala brand-name to attract both domestic and foreign tourists. The project will include two 14-storey hotels - one that is open to the general public, and one that is a members-only hotel. The smallest room will be a 50 sqm suite that is expected to be 100,000 Yen (890 USD) per night. There will also be four rooms of 120 sqm each that will be priced at around 300,000 Yen (2,675 USD) per night.

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Restauranteur planning hotels for Karuizawa and Nasu

Hiramatsu Kashiko Island, Mie Prefecture

Restaurant and wedding function company, Hiramatsu, has announced plans to open an additional two auberge-style resorts in Karuizawa and Nasu.

Both resorts will have around 30 guest suites and are scheduled to open in 2020. The Karuizawa property is located on a 53,000 sqm site of leased land in Miyota Town, just west of Karuizawa. Annual revenues are forecast to be 1.1 billion Yen (approx. 10 million USD), and the total investment will be around 3 billion Yen (approx. 27 million USD).

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Renovated machiya guesthouse in Kyoto makes 1 million Yen in first month

A renovated guesthouse located just 7 minutes from Kyoto Station has made a gross turnover of 1 million Yen (approx. 9,150 USD) in the first month of operations.

Yadoru Kyoto Washi-no-Yado is a 102-year old traditional Kyoto machiya-style townhouse that was given a full renovation and converted into a holiday rental. The occupancy rate for the month of July was over 97%. Over 80% of the guests have been foreign travelers, with visitors from China and Taiwan making up 60% of bookings.

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Sankei Building to enter Kyoto machiya hotel business

The machiya townhouse before renovations.

On July 27, The Sankei Building Co., a Tokyo-based real estate company, announced that they will be entering the Kyoto machiya hotel business. Their first property is a traditional machiya merchant residence located a kilometer from Nijo Castle that is scheduled to open in April 2018.

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100+ year old convent to be converted into luxury hotel

On July 31, Mori Trust announced that they have acquired the historic former Maria-en Catholic nursery school in Nagasaki. Mori will restore the 119-year old building and convert it into an internationally-branded luxury hotel targeting wealthy foreign tourists with an opening scheduled for around 2022. Mori Trust operates 21 hotels across Japan, and this will be their first venture in the Kyushu region. The seller was the Minami Yamate-kai social welfare corporation.

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400-room hotel planned opposite Olympic Stadium

jingu-gaien-hotel-2

Major Japanese real estate company Mitsui Fudosan and Meiji Shrine are planning to develop a 13-story, 400-room hotel to be located directly across the street from the Olympic Stadium.

If approved, construction of the 50-meter tall building could start in January 2018 with completion by mid-2019.Read more


NTT to develop luxe hotels with fine-dining restauranteur

Hiramatsu

NTT Urban Development, the real estate development arm of the NTT communications group, is jointly developing several high-end hotels with restaurant and wedding planning company Hiramatsu.

Hiramatsu is known for their French and Italian restaurants, wedding planning, catering and wine businesses. In May 2015, they announced their foray into the hotel industry with the establishment of Hiramatsu Hotels & Resorts.

Meanwhile, NTT Urban Development has decided to pursue the development of hotels and resorts to cater to the explosive growth in the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan. On October 1, 2015, they established a hotel and resort division in their commercial department. Read more