Some prefer to spend their vacation budget on luxurious accommodation with personal butler service, designer amenities, and five-star room service. This article is not for them.
But just because we don’t want to spend our money on a place where we’ll be largely unconscious, doesn’t mean we can’t have nice things.
Enter the business hotel chain.
Business hotels in Japan are clean, comfortable, functional, and convenient. They are generally near major train stations. They usually come with basic amenities like toothbrushes and slippers, Wi-Fi, and TVs with major Japanese channels. They often have a breakfast option, and sometimes it’s even free. They tend to be compact (to put it politely), but there’s space to sleep and bathe, and you can probably borrow an iron from the front desk if you need to press something.
Word to the wise: some of these hotels do not list their rooms on hotel aggregator sites, so if you don’t see them on your fave accommodation search engine, use their native webpage (many available in English) to make your booking.
Here are several of the most popular chains:
Toyoko Inn
With over 300 hotels within Japan and 70,000 rooms, Toyoko Inn is by far the largest business hotel chain in Japan. They are ubiquitous, with a property near almost every major train station in Japan — and sometimes multiple hotels at a single station: Kawasaki Station has three, including this one, while Shin-Osaka has four, each less than about ten minutes’ walk.
The bog-standard business hotels are easy to spot with their neon-blue signs within sight of the train station, and their facilities have a comforting sameness: bed with space for your luggage underneath, small prefab bathroom, tea kettle, pajamas.
The morning breakfast buffet is free and standard in all rooms, offering tea, coffee, rice, salad, and various other bits and bobs. Another budget-friendly aspect is that they rarely participate in surge pricing, keeping a standard set of rates even during holidays or major events. Interesting factoid: the CEO is a woman, as is about 95% of their workforce and the large majority of their managers — a rarity in Japan.
Dormy Inn
Though they have a smaller overall share of hotels, with about 80 nationwide, Dormy Inn is a crowd favorite. Loyalists love that each hotel has large public bathing facilities, usually using natural hot-spring water. Another favorite perk is “midnight noodles,” a ramen station where you can slurp up a late-night snack or three.
The chain also offers lots of little free treats, like “midnight noodles,” popsicles and ice cream after the bath, and a “welcome drink” area in the lobby with coffee, tea, and soft drinks. Many, but not all, of the room plans also include breakfast, so if you’re watching your food budget, this hotel can cover a lot of your bases. Check out the Ikebukuro and Kōrakuen locations for a taste of what Dormy Inn can offer.
Super Hotel
Another major player in the business hotel sphere is Super Hotel, with over 170 hotels nationwide. Their brand concept is “natural, organic, smart,” and they aim to incorporate elements reflecting this into their chain. About 100 of the hotels offer a natural hot-spring public bath in addition to the in-room bathrooms. A number of the amenities and breakfast offerings are organic, with highlights being the organic salad and freshly baked breads in a number of the facilities.
Breakfast in most locations is free; “Premier” locations often charge ¥1,500. A list of hotels here shows whether they have hot springs, large public baths, and free welcome drinks. Their Otsuka location is a popular one, with a buffet breakfast that gets rave reviews.
Daiwa Roynet Hotel
The Daiwa Roynet Hotel chain, with 76 locations across Japan, has a reputation for being a little fancier than the average business hotel. The holding company specializes in real estate, including housing construction, and their buildings and interiors are high quality. Daiwa Roynet offers “ladies’ rooms” with extra amenities like facial-care products, foot massagers, and face steamers.
Breakfast is not included in all rooms, but their buffet offers a good variety of both Japanese and Western choices. Their Shimbashi location has an “amenities buffet” in the lobby where you can pick out the razors, facial wash, and toothbrush of your choice.
Hotel Livemax
With 167 hotels in the country, Livemax is a big player in the business hotel scene, with a pledge of convenience and walkability to train stations, restaurants, and convenience stores. One thing that sets them aside is their “dog stay” plans, which allow you up to two small-sized pooches per room (and the cute tagline “Always together”).
Other differentiating factors include Slumberland Simmons mattresses, air purifiers in each room, and microwave ovens in addition to the ubiquitous mini fridge. The single rooms can be quite snug, with the Tokyo Kanda East single room measuring only 9 square meters, but the rooms are clean and comfortable otherwise.
Richmond Hotels
Richmond Hotels is also on the nicer end of the business hotel spectrum, with 44 properties in total. Their check-in time of 2 p.m. and out time of 11 a.m. (12 p.m. for members) are a little more generous than standard. Room sizes are also on the larger size compared to some of the competition in this category (think 18 sq. m. vs. 12 sq. m.), and have desks big enough to work on.
The family-friendly chain offers kid-specific amenities like cute toothbrushes and slippers. Their membership program is free to join and offers perks like discounts on stays, late checkout, and points accumulated for each stay that can be used toward things like breakfast. The Asakusa location is only 3 minutes from the station.
Smile Hotel
The cutesy Smile Hotel has about 70 locations and a focus on cleanliness and friendliness. Breakfast isn’t included in all room plans, but if you do opt-in, they boast about 60 options in a buffet style. Size-wise, it’s on the smaller end, but not the tiniest, with a single at their Nihonbashi location clocking in at 12 sq.m.
Pro tip: They advertise that if you book on their website, you get a checkout extension of an hour, from 10 to 11 a.m. They also offer 24-hour plans, where you can stay, for example, from 1 p.m. to 1 p.m. the next day.
Honorable mentions
- Hotel Route Inn: 300 hotels nationwide, some near train stations and others near expressway interchanges.
- Comfort Hotel: Related to Comfort Inn
- Via Inn: Operated by the railway company JR West.
- R&B Hotel: High hopes for their elevator music
- Tokyu REI Hotel: Slightly higher-end
- Sotetsu Fresa Inn: 5-minute radius from major stations
- Hotel Alpha-1: Singles from around ¥5,000; look for the Greek letter logo
- Hotel MyStays: 18 locations in Tokyo
Also read: Tokyo Mega Accommodation Guide
While we do our best to ensure it’s correct, information is subject to change.
