Japanese, Hawaiian companies partner for new Nikko Style brand

Hotel Okura Co., a Japanese hospitality company, and Trinity Investments, a Hawaii-based private real estate firm, have teamed up to create Nikko Style, a new upscale select service hotel brand.
 
Nikko Style will be operated by Okura Nikko Hotel Management, a subsidiary of Okura, and will launch under Okura Nikko Hotel Management’s Nikko Hotels International umbrella. The JV aims to capitalize on the “transformational tourism shift” in Japan by filling the “significant void” in the select service category in the country, but also distinguishing itself from other select service hotels with upscale lifestyle features. Currently, the JV will focus on opening Nikko Style hotels in the major metropolitan and regional areas throughout Japan, including Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and Fukuoka, as well as Hokkaido and Okinawa. Following the establishment of the brand and operations in Japan, the brand will expand across Asia, North America and Europe. 
 
“Japan’s hotel inventory is arguably the most underserved amongst developed countries worldwide, with little segmentation by major brand companies into the upscale select service space, where branding and value-driven price points will be highly attractive to the country’s new visitor demographic,” Sean Hehir, president and CEO of Trinity, said in a statement. “This collaboration with our long-standing partner Hotel Okura on Nikko Style will serve to fill this void, allowing for the rapid penetration of a new but familiar brand throughout Japan and then, utilizing our respective companies’ worldwide networks, into selective gateway cities in other Asian countries, North America and Europe.”
 
Okura Nikko Hotel Management operates 72 properties (47 in Japan and 25 overseas) across 10 countries and territories for a total of nearly 23,000 guest rooms (as of October 1) under three hotel groups: Okura Hotels & Resorts, Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City.