The question “why did Kanpo no Yado (かんぽの宿) become Kamenoi Hotel (亀の井ホテル)?” can be answered with two dates: Japan Post’s decision in October 2021 to transfer the business, and the brand unification on July 1, 2022. But readers searching this topic want to know more than that. Four years after the conversion, this article uses primary sources and our own data to check what price band these former public-sector lodgings now sell at, whether renovations are showing up in room rates, and whether the same approach would work for similar public lodging stock. After building a timeline from official announcements and press coverage, we compare the opening decades of the 39 properties with the national ryokan and resort hotel population, calculate a price index against standard properties of the same category in the same municipality for 18 properties, and measure how much the year-on-year change in estimated settled ADR differs between properties that completed renovations in 2025 and those that did not. Finally, we estimate what rate lift is needed to justify a given per-room renovation cost when converting remaining Kyukamura (休暇村) and Kokumin Shukusha (国民宿舎) stock to private-sector brands.

Why Kanpo no Yado Became Kamenoi Hotel — Nine Months from Transfer Decision to Brand Unification

The starting point was a management decision by Japan Post (日本郵政). On October 1, 2021, the company decided to transfer the business of 32 “Kanpo no Yado” properties it owned to five companies including MyStays Hotel Management, and signed the contracts. The transfer price was about ¥8.8 billion. The background cited was an ordinary loss of about ¥11.3 billion in FY2020 due to the spread of COVID-19. Rather than waiting for the lodging business to recover on its own, Japan Post judged that the best course was to hand the entire business over to operators with a track record in running hotels and ryokan.

The acquirer, MyStays Hotel Management (an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group), began operating 30 properties on April 5, 2022. Then, on June 3 of that year, it announced that the properties would be renamed “Kamenoi Hotel” effective July 1. The name comes from Beppu. According to the operator’s announcement, Kamenoi Hotel was opened in 1924 (Taisho 13) by Kumahachi Aburaya, known as the “father of Beppu tourism,” and the company had been entrusted with its operation since 2015. The name of the inn run by a man said to have lived by the creed “treat travelers with sincere care” was thus given to former public lodgings across Japan. The 32 properties at the time of unification consisted of the 30 former Kanpo no Yado plus Okunikko Yumoto (operations started April 28, 2022) and Beppu, making it the company’s largest brand.

In other words, most of the buildings that readers remember as “Kanpo no Yado” are the same buildings that can now be booked as “Kamenoi Hotel.” What changed were the owner and operator, and the brand and pricing approach. At the time of the announcement, the operator said it would renovate a first batch of 10 properties by around February 2023 and increase rooms with open-air baths, kids’ rooms and pet-friendly rooms.

The brand subsequently grew beyond the acquired properties. Following the timeline, four properties joined in October 2023, Kusatsu Yubatake in November, Nachikatsuura and Tsukubasan in April 2024, and the brand reached its 40th property with Aso Park Resort on December 25, 2024. Kusatsu Resort in December 2025 brought the count to 41 at the time of the announcement; in 2026, however, Shiobara and Yamato Heguri moved to a dog-friendly brand and Kanonji moved to another company’s brand after an operator transfer, while Fuji joined in May. As a result, the official site lists 39 properties as of October 2026. HotelBank also covered the 2022 rebrand announcement and the 2021 transfer announcement in news articles at the time (available in Japanese).

Source: Compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team from Japan Post’s announcement (as reported by Reuters), press releases from Iconia Hospitality (formerly MyStays Hotel Management), and the official Kamenoi Hotel website (accessed October 9, 2026)

Where Are the 39 Properties? — Former Public Lodgings in Hot Spring Towns and by the Sea

On a map, the 39 properties are scattered across 24 prefectures from Tohoku to Kyushu: 12 in Kanto, 9 in Kinki, 7 in Chubu, 5 in Kyushu, 4 in Tohoku and 2 in Chugoku/Shikoku. The history of Kanpo no Yado being placed in resort areas across the country remains intact, and the locations are predominantly stay-oriented sites aimed at hot springs and sea views rather than business demand near stations. Circle size represents room count: the largest is Beppu with 322 rooms, followed by Aso Park Resort with 209 and Atami with 159, while the median is only 55 rooms. Blue circles indicate the 12 properties announced as renovated in 2025; gray circles indicate all others.

Source: Compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (39 properties, our hotel master)

Our earlier article What Is Kamenoi Hotel? 39 Former Kanpo no Yado Properties and 2,952 Rooms Nationwide covers breakdowns by prefecture, room size and location type as well as a prefecture-level price index, so here we only briefly restate the distribution and focus on three points: opening decades, the municipality-level price index, and the effect of renovation.

Opening Decades — 65% of 34 Properties Opened in the 1970s or Earlier, a Generation Older Than Ryokan Nationwide

The age of these former public lodgings is often discussed based on impressions. Checking against opening years in our hotel master, of the 34 properties with a known decade, 10 opened in the 1960s and 10 in the 1970s — 60% concentrated in those 20 years. Adding the 2 properties from the 1950s or earlier, openings in the 1970s or earlier account for 65%. On the same basis, ryokan nationwide (30+ rooms, known opening year, N=1,677) show 52% opened in the 1970s or earlier, and resort hotels (same basis, N=1,487) only 13%. Kamenoi Hotel’s buildings are a generation older than the national ryokan population, and far older than resort hotels.

Source: Compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (opening year from our hotel master, 30+ rooms, known opening year only. Kamenoi Hotel N=34, ryokan N=1,677, resort hotels N=1,487)

What this distribution means is that the brand’s pricing strategy is inseparable from renovation. Because the original opening year may be used for rebuilt properties, the figures do not match individual construction years, but overall the picture of continuing to use buildings that were 1960s–70s recreation facilities for postal life insurance policyholders does not change. The March 2025 announcement of renovation plans for 12 properties can be read as a direct response to this age profile.

Price Index Against the Same Category in the Same Municipality — Median of 122 Across 18 Properties

Price levels depend on the going rate in each local market. We therefore calculated a price index by dividing each property’s estimated settled ADR by the median estimated settled ADR of the same category (ryokan or resort hotel) in the same municipality. In small towns the median approaches the property itself, so limiting the analysis to municipalities with 8 or more properties in the same category leaves 18 properties. Their median index is 122 — in other words, Kamenoi Hotel sells at roughly 20% above standard properties of the same category in its municipalities.

Source: Compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (finalized months October 2025–September 2026, median of monthly index values; municipalities with 8+ properties in the same category)

The highest indices are Tsukubasan (184), Kusatsu Yubatake (166), Nikko Yunishigawa (156) and Izu Kogen (153), where product scarcity — a mountainside view over the Kanto Plain, proximity to the Yubatake, an all-inclusive format — lifts them above local rates. On the other hand, Tazawako (76), Kii Tanabe (86), Nara (94) and Akita Yuze (95) are below the market standard, showing that the brand uses part of its broad inventory as an affordable price tier. Atami and Atami Annex split into 115 and 99 within the same Atami City (71 ryokan), with the main building and annex playing different roles.

Source: Compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (estimated settled ADR is the median of finalized months October 2025–September 2026; YoY compares the pooled total for the period with the same months of the previous year)

Looking at the two right-hand columns, the property’s YoY growth exceeds its municipality’s YoY in 14 of the 17 properties where YoY can be compared (Kusatsu Resort, rebranded recently, is excluded because its prior-year results were under a different brand). While the municipal median was +6.4% (median of 18 pairs), the brand side shows a string of double-digit gains. This suggests that the brand’s own pricing and product revisions, not just a rising market, are driving room rates. The next section examines this by splitting properties by whether they were renovated.

Rates at Renovated Properties — +26.9% YoY, About ¥2,200 per Night Above Non-Renovated Properties

On March 26, 2025, the operator announced that 12 properties — Atami, Aomori Makado, Nagatoro Yorii, Kamogawa, Ome, Kujukuri, Yaizu, Oarai, Ako, Awajishima, Arima and Aso — would be renovated between March and winter of that year. The work centers on refreshing lobbies, some guest rooms and restaurants, with product additions such as rooms with open-air baths at Atami and Kamogawa, a villa wing with saunas at Kujukuri, and an increase from 40 to 53 rooms at Yaizu. The pick-up section of the official website also features renewals at Kujukuri and Yaizu (July 1), Oarai (July 18), Ako (July 19), Awajishima and Arima (August 1) and Aso (October 24).

For the 11 of these 12 properties for which estimated settled ADR can be calculated, pooling monthly ADR for October 2025–September 2026 against the same months a year earlier gives +26.9% YoY (median by property +28.2%). The 23 properties with no renovation announcement in the same period posted +15.3% (median +14.8%), a gap of about 12 percentage points. Applied to the renovated properties’ prior-year level (pooled average ¥19,000), the renovation premium works out to about ¥2,200 per room per night (tax-excluded equivalent). Kusatsu Resort and Fuji, rebranded in December 2025 and May 2026, are excluded from the YoY analysis because their prior-year results were under different brands.

Source: Compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (estimated settled ADR; pooled October 2025–September 2026 vs. same months of prior year. Blue = properties announced as renovated in 2025, N=11; gray = others, N=23)

By property, Arima (+48.5%) leads the renovated group, followed by Ako, Awajishima, Aso and Atami with gains of 30–40%. Arima added rooms with open-air baths fed by free-flowing “kinsen” golden hot spring water, and Atami added 7 rooms with open-air baths — examples of product upgrades translating directly into higher rates. Among non-renovated properties, some such as Atami Annex, Tondabayashi and Toba still grew by more than 30%, reflecting spillover from the main building’s renovation lifting the annex’s rates and changes in product design through all-inclusive conversion. Conversely, Okunikko Yumoto and Kitsuregawa were flat to slightly down; both serve the affordable price tier in hot spring towns with a thick layer of high-priced inns.

Brand-wide, the median by property for finalized months was ¥21,100 in September 2026, up +28.4% YoY, and ¥26,600 in August, up +13.0%. Overlaying the monthly lines by year, the 2026 line runs above the 2025 line throughout the year.

Source: Compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (estimated settled ADR for finalized months, median by property for each month; 32–36 properties per month)

Note that the median listed price (average of all plans, 2 guests per room, tax included) across the 39 properties is ¥43,600, a different level from estimated settled ADR. This is because the listed price is the average of all plans including higher-end plans with meals, whereas estimated settled ADR is a tax-excluded equivalent derived by applying an adjustment factor to the lowest-plan price. The expected average price indicated by the operator at the 2022 rebrand was ¥11,000–20,000 per person per night (operator announcement, per person), so the current median estimated settled ADR of ¥19,900 per room for 2 guests (tax-excluded equivalent) can be regarded as running broadly within that expected range.

What Reviews Show — Bath/Hot Spring Is the Top-Rated Dimension at 19 Properties, Food at 13, Location at 7

From the 137,196 guest reviews for the 39 properties aggregated by HotelBank Editorial Team (all reviews posted through September 2026), the property-level medians of scores by dimension (out of 5) put staff at 4.17, dinner at 4.14 and breakfast at 4.13 at the top, followed by bath/hot spring at 4.07, food at 4.07 and location at 4.06. Facilities/amenities was relatively modest at 3.74 — the very area the renovations described in the previous section aim to improve.

Counting which of the three dimensions — “bath/hot spring,” “food” and “location” — scores highest at each property, bath/hot spring leads at 19 properties, food at 13 and location at 7. At half of the properties, hot springs are the core of the rating, showing that the asset of Kanpo no Yado having been placed in hot spring towns is directly reflected in reviews. The top 5 properties for each dimension are as follows.

Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (137,196 guest reviews for 39 properties; extracted from properties with 100+ mentions per dimension; out of 5)

Izu Kogen ranks first on all three dimensions, consistent with its price index of 153. Okunikko Yumoto ranks 2nd for bath/hot spring at 4.51 and 4th for location at 4.28, yet its estimated settled ADR of ¥18,100 is below the brand median (¥19,900) — an example of a property with highly rated bathing placed in an affordable price tier, symbolizing the division of roles within the brand.

Investment Implications — Per-Room Conditions for Converting Public Lodging Stock to a Private-Sector Brand

The Kanpo no Yado conversion is one of the largest examples of lodging facilities held by the public sector being moved onto a private-sector brand. Stock of the same type still remains. The Kyukamura Association operates 35 Kyukamura properties nationwide, and municipal Kokumin Shukusha — as cited by Ibaraki Prefecture from a survey by the National Kokumin Shukusha Association — numbered 39 in FY2025, down steadily from 52 in FY2021. In our data, among properties with “Kokumin Shukusha” in their name, 50 properties with 1,353 rooms showed observable sales on OTAs and other channels in the last 12 months (listing basis, including privately run ones). Municipalities and public bodies looking for designated managers or buyers are likely to continue.

So when such buildings are moved onto a private-sector brand, what rate lift justifies the renovation cost? We estimate this per room using the figures measured in this article. The assumptions are three renovation cost levels — ¥3 million per room (mainly interiors and plumbing), ¥6 million (including an allocation of common areas) and ¥10 million (conversion to rooms with open-air baths) — and simple 10-year payback ignoring taxes, depreciation, interest and lost revenue during construction. The required premium is “renovation cost ÷ (365 days × occupancy rate × 10 years).” Three occupancy levels were used: 38.2% for ryokan and 56.9% for resort hotels from the Japan Tourism Agency’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey for 2025 (final figures), plus 70%.

Source: Estimates by MetroEngines Research & Consulting (premium per room per night required for simple 10-year payback, tax-excluded equivalent. Occupancy rates are by facility type from the Japan Tourism Agency’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey, full-year 2025 (final figures))

The renovation premium derived in the previous section was about ¥2,200 per room per night. Checking against the table, even at the average ryokan occupancy of 38.2% (full-year 2025, Japan Tourism Agency), a ¥3 million per-room renovation can be recovered with ¥2,200, almost exactly the measured premium (about ¥2,200). At a resort-hotel-level 56.9%, even a ¥6 million renovation requires only ¥2,900, again within the range of measured values. On the other hand, a ¥10 million conversion to rooms with open-air baths requires a premium of ¥7,200 at 38.2% occupancy (same source) and ¥4,800 at 56.9%, beyond what the measured lift from interior renovations delivers. Rooms with open-air baths have been observed to carry a listed-price premium of about ¥10,000 (+23.4%) over standard rooms at the same property, and as shown in Private Onsen Room Premium: About ¥10,000 per Night (+23%) — 792 Same-Property Comparisons and 5.7–11.1-Year Payback, investments that change the room product itself need to be evaluated against a different premium level.

The conditions for success can be summarized in three points. First, an interior-focused renovation that keeps costs to ¥3–6 million per room falls within 10-year payback using the measured rate lift, even at average ryokan occupancy. Second, the hot spring and seaside locations of former public lodgings function as assets that support post-renovation rates, as shown by bath/hot spring being the top-rated dimension at half of the properties. Third, ¥10 million-class product conversions are realistically limited to locations where a clear premium, such as for rooms with open-air baths, can be expected. With renovation costs rising, reactivating buildings that could not be newly built at the same location and scale is gaining weight as a supply-side option. In the context of revitalizing large ryokan, Kinugawa & Kawaji Onsen: 3,574 Rooms, 60% in 14 Large Ryokan with 100+ Rooms — Who Will Revive Them and the Rate Upside addresses the same question in a different hot spring area.

List of 39 Properties — Opening Year, Estimated Settled ADR, YoY and 2025–26 Changes

Below is the list of the 39 properties forming this article’s population. Opening years are from our hotel master; properties whose opening year is recorded as the brand conversion date and those with unknown opening years are shown as “—”. YoY excludes the 2 rebranded properties and 3 properties for which estimated settled ADR cannot be calculated.

Source: MetroEngines Research (estimated settled ADR is the median of finalized months October 2025–September 2026, N=36 properties; property list matched between the official Kamenoi Hotel website as of October 9, 2026 and our hotel master). Renovation and rebrand dates are from Iconia Hospitality press releases and the official website

Summary

Kanpo no Yado became Kamenoi Hotel because Japan Post, facing an ordinary loss of about ¥11.3 billion in FY2020, decided in October 2021 to transfer 32 properties, and the acquiring operator unified the brand on July 1, 2022 under the name of a long-established Beppu inn it had operated since 2015. The brand has since added properties through new openings and rebrands, and as of October 2026 the official site lists 39 properties with 2,952 rooms in 24 prefectures.

Looking at the current picture through actual data, although 65% of the 34 properties with a known opening year are older buildings that opened in the 1970s or earlier, the brand maintains a price index of 122 against standard properties of the same category in the same municipality, and properties that completed renovations in 2025 saw estimated settled ADR rise +26.9% YoY, clearly outpacing non-renovated properties and local market rates. The premium attributable to renovation is about ¥2,200 per room per night — a level at which a ¥3–6 million per-room interior renovation pays back in 10 years even at average ryokan occupancy. The conditions for moving public lodging stock — represented by 35 Kyukamura properties and 39 municipal Kokumin Shukusha — onto private-sector brands can be worked back from these measured values.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Are Kanpo no Yado and Kamenoi Hotel the same buildings?

A. Of the 32 properties unified under the brand on July 1, 2022, 30 directly took over the former Kanpo no Yado buildings transferred from Japan Post. Properties added later include hotels other than former Kanpo no Yado that were rebranded, and Kusatsu Yubatake, which opened after renovating an existing hotel.

Q. How many Kamenoi Hotel properties are there now?

A. As of October 9, 2026, the official website lists 39 properties in 24 prefectures. After reaching its 40th property in December 2024 and 41 at the time of the December 2025 announcement, 3 properties moved to other brands in 2026 and 1 property joined.

Q. What are room rates at Kamenoi Hotel?

A. Our median estimated settled ADR (2 guests per room, tax-excluded equivalent) was ¥19,900 for October 2025–September 2026 (N=36 properties). Rates range from about ¥10,000 to about ¥37,000 depending on the property, and the median price index against the same-category median in each municipality was 122.

Q. How much did rates rise at renovated properties?

A. Estimated settled ADR at the 11 properties that completed renovations in 2025 rose +26.9% YoY on a pooled basis for October 2025–September 2026. The 23 non-renovated properties rose +15.3%, implying a renovation premium of about ¥2,200 per room per night (estimate, 2 guests per room, tax-excluded equivalent).

Q. How much per room can a renovation that converts public lodging to a private-sector brand cost and still pay back?

A. On a simple 10-year payback basis, a ¥3 million per-room interior renovation can be recovered with a premium of just under ¥2,200 per room per night even at average ryokan occupancy — almost the same as the premium measured at renovated Kamenoi Hotel properties. A ¥10 million-scale conversion to rooms with open-air baths requires a premium of ¥4,800–7,200, which the measured lift from interior renovations alone does not reach.

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