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In the Edo period, wayside inns welcomed weary travellers at each staging post along the highways of Japan. As railways spread across the country, railway stations became the focus for travellers and around them hotels sprang up to welcome them. At first these hotels were traditional Japanese ryokan, but as Japan adopted western ways, they were gradually replaced by western style establishments. However the accepted view was that the western style hotels were by definition luxurious, and therefore they charged premium prices. They did little to satisfy the need for good quality reasonably priced accommodation which the pre-war eki-mae ryokan (the ryokan in front of the station) had satisfied. There was therefore a real need for western style hotels which could cater to the needs of the ordinary busy traveller. The Toyoko Inn concept was specifically designed to meet that need. Toyoko Inn hotels represent the traditional travellers' ryokan in modern form. From the outset, we deliberately ignored the accepted ideas of what a hotel should be. Rather, starting from our own conviction of what the traveller really wanted, and discarding many of the features which had come to represent the western style hotel in Japan, we set out to develop and refine our concept through trial and error, learning from our mistakes and taking advantage of our successes as we went along. Our starting point was not to look for land on which we would build our own hotels. We looked for owners of property in convenient locations who were not extracting the real value from their land, using it only for parking lots or other inefficient purposes. We would propose that they construct the hotel building to our design, and we would then rent it from them for a fixed period of years. Our second basic principle has been to establish first-class but cost effective management. At the same time we have really tried to replicate some of the warmth and hospitality which was such an important part of the ryokan. The okami-san (usually the wife of the establishment owner) never failed to be at hand to receive and see off guests, and to represent the standing of the house. Most of our Toyoko Inn's managers are women like the The okami-san. It is eighteen years since the first Toyoko Inn was opened in Kamata, in the suburbs of Tokyo, in February 1986. Thanks to the loyal support of our many guests we have been able to develop hotels in strategic locations through Japan from Hokkaido to Okinawa. We are determined to continue the expansion of our network, never losing sight of our founding principles to provide modern, reasonably priced accommodation while preserving the time-honoured traditions of the wayside ryokan. |
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Domestically, we intend to expand the number of rooms to 10,000 in the near future. We are also planning to go international to China, Hong Kong (SAR), Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar and to the West Coast of the United States. Our subsidiary company, Japan Business Hotel Reservation Service Co, Ltd., has already developed bases in Taiwan, Hong Kong (SAR), and South Korea. We are grateful for the firm support we have recived from so many friends in the past, and look forward to being of service to you in the years to come. |
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| Kuninori Shigeta | ||
| President and Chief Operating Officer | ||
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| Copyright© TOYOKO INN Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. |