A new travel experience
The Spotify of ryokan (luxury inns in Japan)
current problem
- in 2023
- 25M inbound visitors to Japan
- ¥1.8B lodging spending (34.6% of all visitor spending)
- 12% spent in ryokan with 37% occupancy rate, compared with 69% for hotels
- Unlike standard hotels, each ryokan has different styling and amenities
- Booking sites make it tough to navigate the big spectrum of ryokans
current solution
- booking sites only show similar ryokans by location or price
- users can only search by location, date and price. They can’t search by qualitative attributes such as style, design, historical building, therapeutic hot spring, etc,
who suffers
- first time travelers who budget for 1 night ryokan stay to taste the authentic Japanese experience
- those who are baffled by the vast choices in ryokan selection
OUR solution
We are NOT a hotel booking website. Rather, we
- are a gallery of ryokan experiences around themes
- curate ryokans on qualitative data
- romantic getaway, luxury retreat, viewing seasonal flowers/foliage, traditional architecture, enjoying wagyu, ocean view, local dishes, etc.
- recommend ryokans similar to what you like
why us?
- We have a combined 40 years of experience traveling to Japan
- We have stayed in various ryokans across prefectures, at different price points
- you don’t need to decipher the varieties of ryokans or their specialties. We do the learning for you
- We provide a curated experience so you will find more you like, and like what you found
why now?
- strong rebound of inbound travelers w/ projected annual growth of 7.6%
- 2030 target: 60M tourists and ¥15T total spending
- joint effort by central and prefecture governments to redirect tourists outside of of metropolitan areas (where most ryokans are)
- strong marketing push to attract wealthy tourists, with a surge of newly opened high class ryokans (>¥100k/person/night)
opportunities
- promote ryokan to first time and/or wealthy tourists, increasing ryokan spending from 12% of total lodging spending
- provide more pinpointed recommendation for high-end lodging, increasing the current average stay spending of ¥17000/pp/night
revenue model
- as affiliate
- redirect traffic to major booking sites in ryokan detail page, earning affiliate fee @~2-6%
- as service provider
- provide paid service to travel websites to augment their recommendation functionality
timeline
2024Q2: gallery open with recommendation