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Travel News Releases
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(EMAILWIRE.COM, May 23, 2009 ) Renting a hotel room by the hour has always conjured up images of a seedy, backstreet venue attracting those with something to hide – not so, says the Japan Leisure Hotels group, which aims to buy up more of Japan’s ‘love hotels’ and create a lucrative sector attracting young professionals seeking a classy spot in which to spend their leisure time – or an hour of it at least…
Love hotels – those which rent out rooms by the hour - have played a significant part in the social life of Japan. As many young people continue to live at home with their parents until they reach their thirties, the hotels have provided an escape and a place to ‘entertain.’
Love hotels or ‘exotic hostelries’ are big business, turning over £31 billion a year in Japan.
Now, the British based AIM-listed group Japan Leisure Hotels (JLH) is hoping to raise £50 million to buy up a series of Japan’s love hotels, all of which offer fantasy settings for affordable hourly rates.
JLH currently own six love hotels and plan to inject some life back into the ailing Japanese commercial property market through their buying spree. It hoped to more than quadruple its current room total, becoming the big cheese in the lucrative love hotel sector.
JLH Chairman Alan Clifton said, “We believe that with further funding and an expanded portfolio there is scope to achieve a significant increase in both capital value and distributable income as economies of scale are brought to bear.”
So far, JLH is doing well with its six hotels. Average occupancy rates over the course of an entire year for all 242 rooms in the companyÂ’s portfolio were 250 per cent - each room gets at least two couples using it per day.
The company made a pre-tax profit of £4 million on revenue of £6.1 million in 2008.
Cash generated from operations was £1.1 million leaving the debt free company with net cash of around £2 million at the end of last year.
Each of the hotels offer rather, er, gaudy facades, jungle themed rooms, matching bathrobes and a pricing plan that reflects the average visit of around 90 minutes – just long enough for a good old chat.
And, in the light of the distinctly un-gaudy credit crunch, love hotels and the escapism they offer could become even more popular.
Steve Mansfield, the Director of the asset management company that runs JLH's hotels, said, “Life gets miserable in a recession and you are going to find people deciding that the way they want to spend their £40 is to take themselves to a leisure hotel and just enjoy the fantasy for a couple of hours.”
Are you feeling the love yet?
For more information on commercial properties and the property market in general, please visit http://commercial.themovechannel.com/
-ENDS-
Notes to editors:
TheMoveChannel.com is a property website that was founded in 1999 as an online resource for buying, selling and learning about property. It now receives as many as 300,000 visits per month and advertises over 50,000 properties in nearly 90 countries, which are listed by over 500 partner organisations.
For further information, please contact:
Dan Johnson
Managing Director
www.themovechannel.com
0207 952 7650
TheMoveChannel.com
Dan Johnson
020 7952 7650
dj@themovechannel.com 
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