New trailer hotel to open in north Japan’s Akita in April amid growing demand

AKITA — A new trailer hotel, where such units are converted into wooden guest rooms, will open in this northern Japan city on April 1 amid growing demand for the accommodation.

The rooms can be moved in the event of an earthquake or other emergency, and a sales representative said they expect that demand will increase, saying, “Hotels and residences have been strongly thought of as fixed locations, but more and more people are paying attention to the flexibility of being able to move freely from one place to another.”

The Trailinn Akita port hotel will open with 11 single and four double rooms. The single rooms are about 5.8 meters long, 2.2 meters wide and 3.3 meters high, and weigh about 3.4 metric tons. The guest rooms are equipped with a modular bathroom, kitchen, washing machine and microwave oven. When entering the room, it feels almost like an economy hotel room.

Recent years have seen expanding wind farm construction off the coast of Akita, and the number of long-term stays by people connected to construction companies plus facility maintenance and management has increased, driving up hotel rates in coastal areas including in the cities of Akita and Noshiro. It is not unusual for rooms to be fully booked or their rates to exceed 10,000 yen (approx. $66) per night. The operator hopes to meet this demand for long-term use with its trailer hotel, which is a relatively inexpensive 5,000 yen to 6,500 yen (roughly $33 to 43) per night or so.

According to Makoto Suzuki, president of Akita-based Create Homes, which is marketing the trailers in the prefecture, rooms that can be moved on trailers are in demand not only as a disaster response measure but also as mobile stores and for camping, and inquiries from the local communities have been pouring in. The company also accepts investments in trailer houses starting at some 6.6 million yen (about $43,900) per room.

The first Trailinn hotel opened in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, in March 2021. The one in Akita will be the 10th in Japan. It will be the second in the country’s northeast Tohoku region, after one that opened in December 2022 in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, where factories are expanding.

In a related development, Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture-based container hotel operator Develop Co. concluded an agreement with the Daisen Municipal Government in Akita Prefecture on Feb. 27 on priority provision of container rooms in the event of a disaster.

(Japanese original and video by Akira Kudo, Akita Bureau)