Inbound travel is back and “hotels in Japan are too expensive to stay”… “Unexpected secret measures” for summer vacations and business trips.

More hotel openings to come, but only in price ranges that are unaffordable to the average person

In Japan, a rush of hotel openings has been continuing since just before Corona. In Kyoto, a popular destination not only among visitors to Japan but also within Japan, the hotels scheduled to open in the summer of 2011 or later will be four- to five-star hotels called “luxury hotels,” such as the Six Senses Kyoto and Capella Kyoto.

For example, the DoubleTree by Hilton Kyoto Higashiyama, scheduled to open on August 8, ’23, starts at 23,940 yen per room per night. Including taxes, the price is 29,957 yen. This is an early bird discount for Hilton Honors members and is a “non-cancelable” price. Incidentally, the Doubletree by Hilton brand is positioned as a four-star Hilton business hotel, and at about 30,000 yen per room, the price seems a bit high, even for Kyoto City.

In addition, there is a rush of hotel openings in central Tokyo. The Bulgari Hotel Tokyo, which opened in April of this year, has become a hot topic with prices starting at 250,000 yen per night. Even so, there is reportedly a waiting list for available rooms.

None of the hotels, whether in Tokyo or Kyoto, are primarily targeting the average Japanese. With Japan’s average annual income not having risen in the past 30 years since the bursting of the bubble economy in the 1990s, and the rush to raise prices of everyday items and inflation, even several tens of thousands of yen per night would be difficult for many people to afford.

COVID-19 crisis offered “GoTo Travel,” “Prefectural Discount,” and “National Travel Support,” making it possible to travel in Japan at a very reasonable price. Moreover, even if the price of lodging went up slightly, the respective discounts offset the increase. The loss of these discounts has made travelers feel that they are paying a premium.

There is another reason for the soaring hotel prices,” said an expert from a trade newspaper.

Are inbound travelers the only reason for soaring hotel prices in Japan? We interviewed Kazuyuki Tomimoto, editor-in-chief of “Travel News at,” a newspaper specializing in the tourism industry.

He said, “As travel demand began to return due to GoTo Travel and nationwide travel support, inns and hotels across the country simultaneously raised their room rates. And now, even though discounts are no longer available, once they raise the price, it is hard to lower it. There is another reason for this. There is a serious ‘labor shortage’ at lodging facilities.”

The COVID-19 crisis caused a series of temporary hotel closures, and not a few people left the hotels or changed jobs from the travel industry to other industries. Even when demand for travel returns, wages are not high to begin with, and the pace at which people return to the front lines, where hard labor is required, is said to be quite slow.

In order to secure human resources, it is necessary to raise wages, which means that accommodation rates must be raised,” he said. This is especially true in urban areas. Inbound travelers feel a sense of affordability due to the weak yen, and rooms are filled even at high prices for Japanese travelers.

However, the current situation is not good for Japanese people in the long run, as it is becoming difficult not only for overseas travel (which is still difficult due to the weak yen and high airfares), but also for domestic travel.