Hoshino Resorts: This CEO Built an Iconic Japanese Hotel Brand

17.03.2024 - 14:59 / skift.com / Sean Oneill

Hoshino Resorts is small but punches above its weight. It only has 68 hotels, but several of them regularly top the most-recommended lists of Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure.

The 110-year-old company began with traditional inns. Since becoming its CEO in 1991, CEO Yoshiharu Hoshino has led the business in championing Japanese hospitality against a rising sea of sameness from global brands.

The group has grown its property count by 74% since 2019. It has another 11 in the pipeline. Notably, it’s developing hotels nationwide, not just the best-known tourism centers.

The brand’s strength is revealed in that “60% to 70%” of the Hoshino-branded reservations come directly through its website, a share of direct distribution exceeding that of the global hotel groups.

“One reason we’ve worked so hard to have this large brand awareness is to boost our flow of direct bookings because that is one of the important sources of profitability,” Hoshino said.

Hoshino Resorts’ rising status as an iconic national brand is one reason its CEO was named Japan’s “master entrepreneur of the year” in 2022 by the consulting firm EY.

Hoshino made opportunistic moves during the pandemic. The crisis caused distress for many hotel operators and investors, who sought Hoshino Resorts to either take over the management or ownership of their properties. The company saw a once-in-a-generation chance to claim desirable locations at discounted prices.

In 2019, the company had 3,074 rooms. It has added 4,010 rooms since then.

Hoshino Resorts has a long-term strategy of spreading out its footprint nationwide.

“In cities and prefectures across the country, manufacturing used to be the main industry,” Hoshino said. “But we expect tourism to become much more important in the coming years.”

Hoshino’s strategy sometimes involves jointly developing projects with the Development Bank of Japan. With 10 hotel projects so far, collaboration has provided “risk money” to support revitalization.

In September 2023, for instance, Hoshino teamed up with DBJ to develop a Risonare-branded luxury resort in Shimonoseki, a waterfront city in Kanmon whose domestic tourism industry needs revitalization. When the project opens in 2025, all guestrooms will have an ocean view.

This year, the company will open its Omo7 brand in Kochi, a city whose tourism sector remains nascent.

One of the most intriguing questions for hoteliers outside of Japan is whether Hoshino Resorts — which had a half-billion dollars (82.2 billion yen) in gross transaction volume last year — would enter into a licensing partnership with an international hotel group.

Given that it already has over 60% of its bookings coming directly through its site, it’s not clear that a