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Hostel in Japan

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Phillip started this discussion 15 years 4 months ago

Hi All,

Myself and my partner are planning a new hostel in Japan and have joined to see how other places are working and to get ideas. We both have had plenty of experience in Hostels around the world and I have had plenty of experience in hostels in Japan. Japanese Hostels are a complete world unto their own compared to some places overseas. Hopefully we can change this and offer something different and exciting in the market here.

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Josh Hostels

15 years

Myself and my partner are planning a new hostel in Japan and have joined to see how other places are working and to get ideas. We both have had plenty of experience in Hostels around the world and I have had plenty of experience in hostels in Japan. Japanese Hostels are a complete world unto their own compared to some places overseas. Hopefully we can change this and offer something different and exciting in the market here.

Welcome to the site :)

We're going to have the Japanese section of HostelManagement.com online soon. My thought after visiting Japan was that many Japanese hostels might want to share tips, especially on marketing hostels to foreigners, and helping them understand the different ways of doing things in Japan. :)

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Phillip

15 years

Welcome to the site :)

We're going to have the Japanese section of HostelManagement.com online soon. My thought after visiting Japan was that many Japanese hostels might want to share tips, especially on marketing hostels to foreigners, and helping them understand the different ways of doing things in Japan. :)

Thanks. We hope to learn a lot from other people to try and make something different and unique.

A lot of Japanese hostels here mostly rely on word of mouth marketing and what is on HW or HB or Google. You do see a lot of people still with their list from Frommers / Lonely Planet. Marketing to the traveller is interesting as you do have a good percentage of who want to stay the traditional japanese way.

What did you think of the Japanese Hostels you stayed at when you were here?

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Josh Hostels

15 years

What did you think of the Japanese Hostels you stayed at when you were here?

Most of the Japanese (Okinawan) hostels I stayed at were high quality, but marketed mainly at Japanese backpackers. I only found some of the hostels because I had someone who could read Japanese available to help me out. I saw one Japanese guide to hostels in Japan and there were many that seemed nearly impossible to find for people who don't read Japanese.

The cheapest hostel in Japan I found was about $10 per night, but definitely impossible to find without reading Japanese.

Once inside the hostels, sometimes the signs with notices to guests were only in Japanese. Some of the signs looked important, but I couldn't tell what they said.

It's difficult for a first time visitor to even figure out how to flush the toilet -- pushing the wrong button could be dangerous, especially if standing up... :D

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Phillip

15 years

Haha, yes the toilets are always quite interesting the first time you see one. After you get used to them you wonder why they are not popular elsewhere. Everytime I go back to my parents place in the middle of winter I miss my heated toilet seat! :)

That's two issues that a lot of hostels here in Japan do badly. Having Japanese signs and English signs should be the the norm in a public/common area for any hostel here. Japanese only signs does cause confusion to the guests. I know from past experience when i could not read Japanese going into places I wasn't suppose to. :rolleyes:

They also often do not think about the foreign backpacker and the difference that may be needed. Some Japanese hostels are in a closed off system only available to Japanese and the owners sometimes worry about foreign guests staying. There is a good selection of hostels here but they rarely help guests looking for the next place to stay.

Also quite a few of HI Hostels here are run with military precision which is not comfortable to the guests! :eek:

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Josh Hostels

15 years

They also often do not think about the foreign backpacker and the difference that may be needed. Some Japanese hostels are in a closed off system only available to Japanese and the owners sometimes worry about foreign guests staying.

I got that impression about some of the hostels :)

Others looked like they wanted to market to foreigners (HW, HB), but didn't speak enough English to write signs for people who don't read Japanese.

I'm hoping the Japanese Language Forum section (coming soon) will be a place for Japanese hostels to exchange tips...

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Phillip

15 years

Just spent the weekend going thru the regulations for the Japan Hostel Network (HI Hostels) and all I can say is wow. I converted this to rough USD$.

One off Charges:
1: $800 Non refundable application fee
2: $2000 Contract Agreement
3: $100 International Registration
4: $??? Unknown other fees decided by the Society! :confused:

Yearly Charge (Rough calculation as its based on previous 2 year occupancy etc)
1: $5000 Membership Promotion Fee (Based on 30 Beds / 100% Occupancy / 365 days)

Advertising in the JYH Guide book is free for 1/3rd page but if you want a full color page it's $1500.

I ordered the Japan Youth Hostel Guidebook to check, but wow. That's a tad bit expensive. :eek:

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Josh Hostels

15 years

Looks like over $8000. Do HI organizations in other countries have similar prices?

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Phillip

15 years

Looks like over $8000. Do HI organizations in other countries have similar prices?

Back from holidays! :)

Looks like things are a bit cheaper overseas when joining the HI group. Now that i'm back i'll look into it more deeper.

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