Be a Pure Hotel Operator

An Interview with Mr. Yoshiharu Hoshino， the President of Hoshino Resorts

2017年9月12 日、13 日，日本度假村管理公司星野集團在北京、上海兩地召開了在中國的首次發(fā)布會，宣布為中文用戶打造的 “星野界”中文官網(wǎng)：kai-ryokan.cn 正式上線。期間，星野集團社長星野佳路先生與《酒店精品》雜志出版人王奕先生在北京會面，分享了很多關(guān)于酒店經(jīng)營的獨到見解。星野先生謙虛、務(wù)實的談話風格尤其讓人印象深刻。

September 12 and 13， 2016， Hoshino Resorts held two brand conferences in Beijing and Shanghai for the first time in China to announce the launch of kai-ryokan.cn， the official Chinese website of KAI designed for Chinese users. Mr. Yoshiharu Hoshino， the President of Hoshino resorts met with Mr. Wang Yi， publisher of Hotel Elite magazine in Beijing to share his thinking about hotel operation and his easy-going and down-to-earth style was quite impressive.

About KAI Brand

關(guān)于“界”品牌

星野佳路先生：星野集團目前經(jīng)營著37家酒店，兩家在海外（注：分別是巴厘島虹夕諾雅和大溪地的Hotel Kia Ora Resort Spa ），另外35家在日本。

我們的界品牌是日式傳統(tǒng)溫泉旅館，目前在日本有14家。這是一種主打天然溫泉和日式美食的傳統(tǒng)住宿形式，這種形式在日本已經(jīng)有300多年的歷史，深受日本民眾喜愛，目前界品牌80%的客源是日本人。界品牌的房間數(shù)量一般在50間左右，屬于精品溫泉旅館，我個人非常推薦體驗界品牌，因為它有著非常傳統(tǒng)的日式風格。當然，我家鄉(xiāng)輕井澤的虹夕諾雅酒店也特別推薦給中國客人。中國游客最初喜歡去東京、大阪這樣的大城市，現(xiàn)在越來越對探索日本未知的地區(qū)感興趣。

Mr. Hoshino： We are managing 37 resorts， 2 outside Japan （ Note： one is Hoshinoya Bali and the other one is Hotel Kia Ora Resort Spa in Tahiti） and 35 in Japan.

Our KAI properties are Japanese traditional hot spring resorts. We have 14 KAI properties now in Japan with natural hot spring， Japanese cuisine and very traditional accommodation style which has existed for more than 300 years and is quite popular among Japanese. More than 80 percent of KAI's guests are Japanese especially during weekends and summer vacation. I do recommend KAI brand to Chinese guests for its authentic Japan experience and of course Hoshinoya Karuizawa in my hometown. Chinese guests like to visit big cities like Tokyo， Osaka at first but now they begin to explore the unknown areas in Japan.

About Hotel Design

關(guān)于酒店設(shè)計

星野佳路先生：對于星野的各個酒店品牌，我們會找到合適的專屬設(shè)計師。虹夕諾雅的建筑設(shè)計師是東利惠女士，只要是虹夕諾雅品牌，我們就會與她合作。溫泉旅館品牌“界”目前的擴張速度很快，因此我們對于界選擇了三位建筑設(shè)計師。

我想說的一點是，度假村設(shè)計與城市酒店設(shè)計的區(qū)別還是很大的。對于度假村設(shè)計，我們首先需要一位景觀設(shè)計師，其在項目初期的作用非常重要。通常，當我找到了合適的選址，我會和景觀設(shè)計師一起到現(xiàn)場考察，一起構(gòu)思建筑的合適位置、造景的創(chuàng)意等等。這些計劃工作結(jié)束后，才是建筑設(shè)計師登場之時。

Mr. Hoshino： By different sub brands， we work with different architects and designers. Ms. Rie Azuma is our architect designer for Hoshinoya and we always work with her for all Hoshinoya resorts. We work with 3 architects for Kai brand. Since we are expanding the KAI very rapidly， we need multiple architects for KAI.

One point I want to mention about the design of a resort is， it's quite different from designing a building in the cities. We usually bring in landscape architect first who takes more important role at the beginning of a project. So when I find a site， I usually go there with the landscape designer together to find where to locate the buildings and landscape ideas. We will bring in the building architects afterwards.

About City Hotel

關(guān)于城市酒店

星野佳璐先生：目前星野只經(jīng)營著一家城市酒店，就是84間客房的東京虹夕諾雅。它的業(yè)主是日本最大的房地產(chǎn)商三菱地產(chǎn)，我們受業(yè)主委托完成對酒店的設(shè)計和管理。

城市酒店的定位往往是面向商旅人士，然而我們的興趣一直是為純粹的游客設(shè)計酒店，哪怕是城市酒店也一樣。通過對旅游市場的研究你會發(fā)現(xiàn)，一個占很大比例的細分市場是城市旅游。很多人來東京這樣的大都市只是單純的游玩觀光，體驗這里的文化，與商務(wù)沒有關(guān)系。因此，我們確定了開發(fā)城市酒店的定位，只設(shè)計運營面向游客的酒店。

對于虹夕諾雅度假村和溫泉旅館界來說，感到放松是重要的，而城市游客則需要更多的興奮感，所以我們會確?？腿巳胱|京虹夕諾雅時能有興奮的體驗。

游客來到一座城市觀光，通常是不想在酒店里用餐的，而是希望體驗當?shù)氐暮貌宛^。比如我來到北京，我就不想把時間都花在酒店里。我們的想法是不和城里的餐館競爭，而是與他們合作。我們鼓勵客人外出就餐，等晚上9點或10點外面的餐館打烊后，客人回到酒店里，才是酒店服務(wù)開場的時間。將酒店里的酒廊、酒吧、夜宵這些服務(wù)運營好，在我看來對城市酒店更加重要。

Mr. Hoshino： We only have one city hotel in Tokyo which is the 84-room Hoshinoya Tokyo. Its owner is Mitsubishi Estate， the largest real estate company in Japan. They asked us to design and manage the resort for them.

Usually city hotel mainly targets business travelers， but what we are interested in is designing hotels just for the tourists even as a city hotel. If you look at the tourism market， a big segment is the city tourism. Many tourists coming to Tokyo have nothing to do with business. They just come to the city to enjoy themselves， sightseeing， experiencing the culture. So we want to design and operate a hotel just targeting city tourists. That's the idea of our concept of new city hotels.

For Hoshinoya resorts and KAI resorts， relaxation is a very important part， but city tourists want more excitement. We want to make sure the excitement exists even in our city hotel.

When people come to the cities for sightseeing， they usually do not want to dine in the hotels. They want to go outside and experience a good local restaurant. When I come to Beijing， I don't want to spend more of my time in hotels. Our idea is we should not really compete against the local restaurant but to work with them instead， so we encourage our guests to go outside to experience the local restaurant. But after they are closed around 9 or 10 o'clock， that's the time we should operate our lounge， bar and night snack well. Those services I think are more important to tourists in cities.

About Corporate Strategy

關(guān)于企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略

星野集團至今有103年歷史，經(jīng)過了四代人的經(jīng)營。我父親將輕井澤的家族旅館經(jīng)營了30年，然后在1991年的時候傳給了我。而我決定成為純粹的酒店經(jīng)營者，卸下業(yè)主包袱。擁有一家酒店時，如果你做得成功，利潤是相當可觀的，但是發(fā)展速度將會被拖延，因為你需要貸款來實現(xiàn)對資產(chǎn)的持有。為了和日本市場上的國際酒店品牌競爭，我們需要盡快擴大規(guī)模。因此，我們選擇放下業(yè)主包袱，從而為擴張?zhí)崴佟?/p>

我認為酒店業(yè)的業(yè)主和投資者們會獲得最多的收益，因為高收益是和高風險掛鉤的。我們不想成為酒店的業(yè)主，一方面是因為沒有足夠的資金。而作為單純的酒店經(jīng)營者同樣能從酒店經(jīng)營中獲取可觀的收益，同時還能快速擴張。所以，我們創(chuàng)立了星野集團房地產(chǎn)投資信托基金公司，并在東京證券交易所上市，隨后將全部資產(chǎn)出售給了這只基金，包括我家鄉(xiāng)輕井澤的家族資產(chǎn)在內(nèi)。我們不想擁有任何資產(chǎn)，所以轉(zhuǎn)由這只上市基金持有，而我們?yōu)樗\營。

其實很多人并不能理解，質(zhì)疑我為什么連家鄉(xiāng)的資產(chǎn)都出售了，這在日本是很罕見的。同行們通常是擁有幾家酒店，同時運營幾家酒店，完全舍棄擁有是很難做到的。但對我來說，一旦確定了正確的戰(zhàn)略，就要將其貫徹實施。

Mr. Hoshino： Hoshino resorts is a family business with 103 years history for four generations. My father owned one hotel in Karuizawa and operated this hotel for 30 years and in 1991 I took it over， then I decided to become a pure operator instead of owning it. Owning a hotel is very profitable if it's successful， however it slows your growth down since you have to borrow money to own the asset. We have to expand our size to compete with international hotel brand in Japan， so we take up the speed of expansion instead of owning it.

I believe the owners and investors gain the most profits from the properties since it is high risk and high return. But we don't have enough capital and we thought we should be just pure operator. That really produce a huge profit from the operation and we can also expand very quickly. We created this REIT which is now listed in Tokyo stock exchange and we sold everything to the REIT including properties in my hometown. I didn't want to own any of that， so I let the REIT own it and we operate for them.

Many people don't understand at the time since I even sold hometown facilities， but I think that is the right strategy for Hoshino resorts. This is very rare situation because few companies are doing that in Japan. They usually own some and operate others. They can't really get away of owning. For me， once we come up with the right strategy， we do it and we stick with it. We concentrate on our strategy.

《酒店精品》：最后請對中國的游客們說一句話。

星野佳路先生：請您來日本時入住星野的酒店，

我們已做好準備招待來自中國的客人。

Hotel Elite： Please say one sentence to Chinese guests.

Mr. Hoshino： Please visit us in Japan and we are ready to welcome guests from China.