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Japan’s capsule hotels set sights on women, tourists

TOKYO — Capsule hotels with tiny spaces and affordable prices are no longer banking on their traditional clientele of salarymen who have missed their train after a night’s drinking.

First Cabin's capsule rooms for travellers. Photo: ファーストキャビン FIRST CABIN/Facebook

First Cabin's capsule rooms for travellers. Photo: ファーストキャビン FIRST CABIN/Facebook

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TOKYO — Capsule hotels with tiny spaces and affordable prices are no longer banking on their traditional clientele of salarymen who have missed their train after a night’s drinking.

A new breed of lodging featuring such hotels’ signature stack of sleeping capsules is targeting women, younger travellers and foreign tourists as well as men seeking more than the bare essentials.

New Japan Kanko — whose launch of a capsule hotel in Osaka City’s Umeda district in 1979 is said to be the first in the country — opened the Cabana exclusively for male guests two years ago.

The capsule hotel in Dotonbori, one of the western Japan city’s prime tourist spots, provides compartments roomier than the company’s other capsule units — roughly 2m long and 1m wide and high — which the company says is big enough for a person 180cm tall to sleep or sit upright.

Amenities have also been readied to accommodate foreign tourists. Multilingual staff speak English, Thai or Korean, while the restaurant on the first floor provides a menu in English and serves sushi handmade by chefs.

Equipped also with a sauna and gym, Cabana rooms range in price from ¥4,100 (S$55) to ¥4,600 per night.

The company says the Cabana has proved to be popular among foreign or repeat guests. “In order to secure rooms for repeat Japanese customers, we are restricting availability for visiting foreign clients to around 70 per cent (of the capacity),” an official said.

In Tokyo’s bustling Shinjuku entertainment district, the Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 offers 22 rooms for female guests on the basement and the first floor, while upper floors are for men, with separate check-in areas and facilities.

Since the 2008 opening, the women’s section, called Ladies 510, at Sanno Kanko K K’s property has been running at more than 80 per cent occupancy, and nearly all rooms are normally booked on weekends, the company says.

Conveniently located within a 10-minute walk from the Shinjuku rail and bus terminal hub, the hotel draws guests such as people visiting the area from other cities and towns for sightseeing, concerts and other events. The hotel, which charges ¥3,600 to ¥4,800 per night, is also a choice for many students who visit Tokyo from local cities for job-hunting.

“Our principal guests used to be company employees who missed the last train after drinking in entertainment districts,” Tetsuya Akasako, president of Sanno Kanko, said. “But we need to attract younger people as new guests to continue our business.”

First Cabin has designed its rooms along the lines of the first-class cabin of a passenger airline, aiming at a slightly more upscale feel than its competitors. The company runs five cabin hotels in Tokyo and one each in Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka. Rooms are 2.1m high and occupy 2.5 or 4.4sqm and cost guests ¥4,600 to ¥6,800 per night.

“We eliminate wedding, banquet and other fringe facilities (common at other hotels in Japan) to cut costs and raise the quality of services,” Tadao Kimachi, president of the company, said.

Some 60 per cent of guests are frequent visitors who the company says like the comfort and sleek designs of rooms.

First Cabin plans to establish a chain of 50 hotels at home and abroad, including those under franchise, by 2020 when Tokyo hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company says its cabin hotels require less cost and time to build than regular hotels.

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