Japan Tourism Boom Drives A Surge In Capsule Hotel Stays For Business Professionals
Japan’s tourism boom is driving hotel prices to record highs, forcing business travelers to adapt with budget options like capsule hotels to manage costs.
After traveling to Tokyo for business meetings, Yoshiki Kojima’s IT company staff often find themselves staying in capsule hotels. A booming tourism industry has driven regular hotel prices beyond the budget for many business trips.
Japan’s weak yen is fueling record-breaking tourism, with new figures revealing an estimated 36.8 million international visitors last year—a historic high.
However, this surge in tourism is also driving up accommodation costs for Kojima’s employees and other Japanese business travelers.
Capsule hotels, a hallmark of Japanese hospitality, provide compact, bed-sized pods typically stacked in rows. Despite their cramped quarters, these pods are more affordable than standard private rooms in Tokyo’s business hotels, which averaged 20,048 yen ($130) per night in November.
This marks a sharp increase from April 2019, when prices peaked at 12,926 yen ($80 at today’s exchange rate), according to research from Tokyo Hotel Kai, an organization representing around 200 hotels.