Hospitality, tech, and business in Japan
LatestHow to prepare a Japanese short-term rental for winter: what heating to provide, how to stop condensation and mold, and how to answer guests' heating questions.
Buying a guesthouse in Japan that's already operating? Here's how to check the seller's revenue, costs and occupancy claims before you trust the yield they advertise.
Why we built the BenStay AI concierge: a chatbot that prioritizes a property's registered information and answers guest questions 24/7 in multiple languages.
What belongs on a monthly owner statement for a Japan short-term rental: revenue by channel, accommodation tax, fee basis, receipts, and the KPIs owners need.
Why reservation changes and refund requests still need a human, and how small Japanese short-term rental operators can handle them quickly, fairly and on-platform.
LINE dominates messaging in Japan, and its Official Account tools let small guesthouse operators automate the guest questions that repeat most. Here's how to set it up.
Finding good craft beer in Tokyo on a short trip is harder than it looks. Here's the DIY approach, and why we built BenTours' small-group craft-beer experience.
A practical autumn maintenance checklist for short-term rental operators in Japan — heating changeover, mold prevention, and the safety checks that matter before winter guests arrive.
A plain-English guide to 小規模企業共済 (Small Business Mutual Aid), the tax-deductible retirement savings program many sole proprietors and small operators in Japan don't know exists.
A founder's guide to Japan's Business Manager Visa (経営管理ビザ) for foreigners running short-term rental or guesthouse businesses — capital, office, and renewal rules.
Japan's accommodation tax varies by city — flat, banded, or percentage. We open-sourced the calculation logic we built for our own properties as japan-stay-tax.