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For property owners

The business of short-term rentals, from the operating side

What running our own apartments has taught us, written so it is useful to an owner making a decision. These are not sales documents: where hiring us would be the wrong call, we say so.

窓辺の机に開かれた契約書と、その上に置かれた鍵

Reading a management contract: eight clauses that set the price of leaving

The price of a contract is set on the day you leave, not in the fee column. Eight clauses decide it: the listing account, photographs, notice, straddling bookings, the definition of revenue, penalties, the figures you are handed, and whose name the furniture and lock are in. For each: where to look, and what happens if it is not written.

木の机に置かれた鍵と、署名欄の見えない契約書

Master lease or management: who carries the empty month, and what is left when the contract ends

The difference is not the rate. It is who carries an empty month, whose name the permit and the listing account are in, and what an owner is left holding on the day the contract ends. We lay out our own month-to-month occupancy swing and say plainly which owners are better served by a master lease.

テーブルに並べられた2組の部屋の鍵

Self-managing or hiring an operator: with one property near home, doing it yourself usually wins

Odd for a management company to say, but with one property near home, running it yourself often leaves more in your pocket. The fee is a bigger line than cleaning, and it earns its keep only once distance, property count and nights stack up. Here is where the line sits, in numbers.

机の上の手描きの曲線が描かれた紙と湯のみ

Seasonality: in one city, the best month is 1.3 to 1.4 times the worst

The seasonal trough looks small in a company-wide figure, because Tokyo and Sapporo move in opposite directions and cancel each other out. An owner with one building has no such cancellation, so the cash plan has to be built on that city's worst month rather than on an annual average.

ベッドの端に置かれた畳んだリネンと3枚のタオル

An average stay of 3.3 nights: a long-stay discount stops paying at about 9%

A booking runs 3.3 nights on average. Merging two of them into one saves a changeover, but that changeover is worth only 0.58 nights, so past a discount of about 8.8% the saving is gone.

来月のページが開かれた卓上カレンダー

Booking lead time: a median of 42 days, so next month is already half sold

The median gap between booking and arrival is 42 days, exactly six weeks. Next month's occupancy is therefore half decided today, and anything done at the last minute happens only on the remainder.

机の上に積まれた領収書と電卓

Operating costs: 27.9% of revenue, and one line outweighs the other six

Managing operating costs is, in practice, managing one line. Our own 27.9% broken out, the four lines that are not in it, and the order to rebuild the ratio for a property of your own.

ほとんどのマスが塗られた紙の月間カレンダー

Occupancy: an 83.6% average that never once happened in a month

Occupancy is a number you can buy by lowering the price, so it means nothing without the rate beside it. Why our 83.6% swings 14.0 points month to month, and why a 15% discount only breaks even at 98.4% occupancy.

雪の積もった玄関前に立てかけられた雪かきスコップ

Winter in snow country: the hard month is November, not February

The hardest part of a snow-country winter is not February with a metre on the ground. It is November, our weakest month of the year at 68.3%, which is when the whole winter bill arrives. Twelve months from our own three rooms.

木のテーブルに開かれたゲストブックと万年筆

Guest ratings: you do not raise an average, you stop lowering it

A rating is a lagging number, so it is not raised, it is stopped from falling. Why six rooms run by one team spread 0.19 apart, and how many fives it takes to cancel a single three.

木の扉に取り付けられたキーパッド式スマートロック

Key handover at a Japanese rental: three buildings, three methods

Installing a smart lock does not end the key problem. Why our six rooms ended up on three different methods, what actually fails at the door, and the part that is closed by people rather than hardware.

夕暮れの住宅街、ネットの掛かったごみ集積所

Neighbour complaints at a rental: the four that actually arrive

There are few varieties of complaint and they cluster in time. What the pre-opening walk actually changes, what we do in the first hour, and which complaints booking rules prevent.

夜の寝室で淡く光るスマートフォン

Does a rental need 24-hour guest response, and what happens at 3am

Round-the-clock reception is necessary. Keeping a person awake around the clock is not. What actually arrives at 3am, where a human has to get involved, and what it takes to run it yourself.

雨の日の玄関棚に置かれた傘と封筒

Insurance at a Japanese rental: 0.4% of revenue, for the worst day

Insurance is the smallest line we publish, 0.4% of revenue. It is also the only line that pays for the worst day. How we think about coverage, how guest damage really gets paid for, and what to ask before signing.

廊下に置かれた消火器と天井の煙感知器

Fire inspections after opening: the calendar a licensed rental lives on

The day the permit is issued is the best condition the fire equipment will ever be in. Our three buildings' inspection calendar, how the contractor cycle works, and what we check at every turnover.

整えられたベッドの傍らに置かれた清掃用具

Cleaning: the largest cost line in a Japanese rental, and how it actually runs

The biggest operating cost is cleaning: 17.5% of revenue across our own six rooms over twelve months. What seven or eight turnovers a month contain, and where cutting the price shows up instead.

帳簿と硬貨のある静かな机

What property management costs in Japan, and what you keep

Comparing headline percentages is not comparing. Here are the four fee models used in Japan, and what each one leaves in your pocket when revenue moves.

図面と鍵、町家の模型

Getting a hotel-business permit in Japan, step by step

Three buildings, three municipalities, three permits. The order nobody puts in the brochure, what it actually cost us, and how to spot a property that will never qualify.

鍵の引き渡し

Switching management companies without pausing your bookings

The fear that keeps owners in bad contracts is losing bookings and reviews. Whether it is justified comes down to one thing: whose name the listing account is in. How to check, and the handover order that never takes you off sale.

改装中の和室に差し込む光

Turning an empty Japanese house into a licensed rental

The question is not whether an empty house can become a rental, but whether it is worth it. What the first thirty minutes of checking decides, real cost ranges, and the cases where the answer is no.

庭で分かれるふたつの小道

Permit or notification: which framework should an owner choose?

This choice is not about which paperwork is lighter; it is investment design. What the 180-night cap does to the numbers, which properties suit which framework, and the practical sequencing move most articles miss.

カレンダーと硬貨、緑茶のある机

The monthly P/L of a vacation rental, line by line

'The revenue is there but nothing is left' almost always traces to the same few lines. The monthly P/L line by line, with typical ratios and the four classic leaks.

夕暮れの東京下町の路地

Tokyo's 23 wards: why there is no such thing as 'Tokyo rules'

The most dangerous assumption in Tokyo is that 'Tokyo rules' exist. Each ward layers its own limits on the national framework. The overlay patterns, the permit route around them, and the checking order that works in any ward.

雪の札幌の住宅街、灯りのともる窓

Starting a vacation rental in Sapporo: the operator's view

Sapporo is a different business from Tokyo: thinner competition, better price-to-rate ratios, deep seasonal swings, and a winter that runs on snow shovels. What to know before starting, from someone who operates there.

A desk with a key and documents, Tokyo skyline beyond the window

Owning a Japan rental from abroad: about seven arrivals a room, every month

Distance does not reduce the work at the property. Across our own six rooms a room is opened by a new guest about seven times a month, and every one of those times is physical. What that means for a non-resident owner: which framework you can run on, what the monthly report has to contain, and where we are the wrong choice.