Reminds me of supers in NYC apartment buildings, who also live on-site rent-free and serve the residents and the building without a clear demarcation of worktime vs off-time, or provisions for overtime.
Very interesting. Total Energies in Uganda once had a similar model for operating their gas stations. They called it the "young dealer program". A young person with experience working on a gas station, would be given a gas station that is full stocked with gas, engines oils etc. The initial stock was a zero interest loan to the young dealer. The loan would be discounted from the operating profit of the gas station over several years.
Interesting! While the pay still isn't great, it is a great model to get more people interested in entrepreneurship. And like you said, this could easily be implemented in other industries in Japan and even other countries.
I'll have to look up the retirement home/community business in Japan. I'm in real estate and have considered getting into this even in the US anyway
First of all, thank you for reading and adding your comment.
Yes, it is a bit unclear. Based on my conversation with the husband and wife innkeepers in Tokyo, it sounds like the company provides a lot of "support" and "guidance" along the way. Also, many new "recruits" get their initial on-the-job training while working almost like an apprentice in a hotel run by a mentor. So, as long as you have a strong work ethic and are willing to apply the suggestions you get from the various sources of advice available, the chances of success seem pretty good.
However, what happens if, for example, a particular hotel in the network is cited in the kuchikomi (word-of-mouth, like Yelp) section of Rakuten Travel for some sort of violation (e.g., lack of cleanliness)? IDK, but you can bet that the parent company's quality assurance department would be all over that kind of issue and ready to provide remedial guidance. It is, after all, quite similar to a typical business format franchise. The management structure of the Super Hotel chain probably keeps pretty close tabs on how their brand image is being perceived in the marketplace.
Like the innkeeper couple I met in Tokyo, I suspect that once a particular innkeeper has some initial success with their first property, they probably consider taking on responsibility for another, and so on. So a virtuous cycle of growth is probably what the company wants to encourage.
It would be interesting to find out what happens far down the line when a hotel gets old and expensive to maintain. This seems to be a common downfall of many of Japan's business hotel chains, which end up with a large portfolio of properties of varying quality standards...with one major exception that I have written about before, The Toyoko Inn, which really does provide a high level of quality - albeit no frills - throughout its network (see https://realgaijin.substack.com/p/ode-to-the-toyoko-inn).
Reminds me of supers in NYC apartment buildings, who also live on-site rent-free and serve the residents and the building without a clear demarcation of worktime vs off-time, or provisions for overtime.
Very interesting. Total Energies in Uganda once had a similar model for operating their gas stations. They called it the "young dealer program". A young person with experience working on a gas station, would be given a gas station that is full stocked with gas, engines oils etc. The initial stock was a zero interest loan to the young dealer. The loan would be discounted from the operating profit of the gas station over several years.
Kudos to the Yamamoto family for their inn-ovative idea!
Good story with a positive spin. It certainly has a lot of potential. I’m only worried a little about what happens when you lose the early safety net.
Interesting! While the pay still isn't great, it is a great model to get more people interested in entrepreneurship. And like you said, this could easily be implemented in other industries in Japan and even other countries.
I'll have to look up the retirement home/community business in Japan. I'm in real estate and have considered getting into this even in the US anyway
Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. That program does sound similar.
First of all, thank you for reading and adding your comment.
Yes, it is a bit unclear. Based on my conversation with the husband and wife innkeepers in Tokyo, it sounds like the company provides a lot of "support" and "guidance" along the way. Also, many new "recruits" get their initial on-the-job training while working almost like an apprentice in a hotel run by a mentor. So, as long as you have a strong work ethic and are willing to apply the suggestions you get from the various sources of advice available, the chances of success seem pretty good.
However, what happens if, for example, a particular hotel in the network is cited in the kuchikomi (word-of-mouth, like Yelp) section of Rakuten Travel for some sort of violation (e.g., lack of cleanliness)? IDK, but you can bet that the parent company's quality assurance department would be all over that kind of issue and ready to provide remedial guidance. It is, after all, quite similar to a typical business format franchise. The management structure of the Super Hotel chain probably keeps pretty close tabs on how their brand image is being perceived in the marketplace.
Like the innkeeper couple I met in Tokyo, I suspect that once a particular innkeeper has some initial success with their first property, they probably consider taking on responsibility for another, and so on. So a virtuous cycle of growth is probably what the company wants to encourage.
It would be interesting to find out what happens far down the line when a hotel gets old and expensive to maintain. This seems to be a common downfall of many of Japan's business hotel chains, which end up with a large portfolio of properties of varying quality standards...with one major exception that I have written about before, The Toyoko Inn, which really does provide a high level of quality - albeit no frills - throughout its network (see https://realgaijin.substack.com/p/ode-to-the-toyoko-inn).
What do you think?