It’s peak cherry blossom season — and our properties are fully booked, as expected. But what’s changed this year is who is booking, and for how long. A noticeable chunk of our April stays aren’t the usual weekend leisure tourists. They’re Japanese workers on workation: arriving Sunday evening, leaving Friday afternoon, and joining Zoom calls from our living room in between.

The workation trend in Japan has quietly become a real booking segment. If you manage short-term rentals here and aren’t thinking about it yet, you’re leaving mid-week revenue on the table.

TL;DR

  • Workation (ワーケーション) is a hybrid work-travel trend that took off in Japan during the pandemic and has since become a mainstream domestic tourism segment
  • Workation guests book longer stays (typically 3–14 nights), reducing turnover costs and boosting revenue per booking
  • The non-negotiable amenity is fast, stable WiFi — guests compare speeds and will choose a competitor over a vague “WiFi available” listing
  • Standard weekend-heavy pricing needs rethinking; workation guests are rate-sensitive on weekdays and respond well to weekly discounts
  • Japanese companies can often expense workation trips, which is driving corporate and team-offsite bookings

What Is Workation, Exactly?

Workation is a blend of “work” and “vacation” — guests travel somewhere appealing and work remotely from their accommodation instead of their home or office. In Japan, the concept took off during COVID when the government actively promoted it alongside remote work adoption, and it has since become an established category within domestic tourism.

The typical workation guest is a Japanese knowledge worker — IT, finance, creative fields — booking solo or as a couple. Some companies now formally budget workation trips for employees, and a handful of prefectures offer subsidies to attract workation visitors to their regions.

This is meaningfully different from digital nomad tourism (foreign remote workers on longer visas), which I’ve written about before. Workation is largely domestic, shorter-term, and driven by Japanese corporate culture slowly warming to flexible work arrangements.

How Big Is the Workation Market in Japan?

The Japan Tourism Agency has tracked workation as a distinct category since 2021. Recent surveys put workation participation among Japanese remote workers at around 20–25%, with intent to try it considerably higher. JTB research suggests the average workation trip runs 5–7 nights — roughly double the average leisure weekend trip.

For property managers, that arithmetic matters. A six-night workation booking creates fewer turnovers, less cleaning overhead, and often better treatment of the property than back-to-back weekend stays covering the same calendar period.

What Do Workation Guests Actually Want?

Talking to enough workation guests gives you a reliable answer: stable, fast internet is non-negotiable. Not “has WiFi” — specific, verifiable speed. Our listings now include the actual Ookla speed test result (typically 400–600 Mbps on our Nuro fibre connections), and it consistently ranks as the most-mentioned positive in reviews from this segment.

After WiFi, the priorities are:

  1. A proper desk and chair — a dining table works if it’s comfortable height; a low Japanese coffee table does not
  2. Good lighting for video calls — natural light, or a well-placed lamp that illuminates the face
  3. Quiet — harder to engineer, but flagging proximity to noisy bars or early-morning delivery routes in your listing saves you bad reviews
  4. A real kitchen — workation guests are cooking some meals, not eating out every night

Location flexibility is higher than for leisure tourists. A workation guest doesn’t need to be a five-minute walk from the top sightseeing spot — they need somewhere pleasant, with workable transport to explore on weekends.

How Should Workation Change Your Pricing Strategy?

This is where operators most commonly leave money behind. Standard short-term rental pricing is built around leisure demand: weekends high, weekdays discounted. Workation guests invert this — they occupy the property on weekdays, and they care about the total cost of a five-to-seven-night stay.

A few things worth testing:

  • Weekly rate discounts (typically 15–25% off the nightly rate for 7+ nights) convert well for workation guests browsing on Airbnb and Booking.com
  • Weekday/weekend rate smoothing — flattening the weekend premium for stays spanning a full week can increase total revenue while making pricing feel more transparent
  • Corporate billing readiness — if you receive group workation or team-offsite inquiries, know your monthly rate and have a process for issuing proper receipts; companies can often expense the stay and may pay a premium for smooth invoicing

We have been experimenting with workation-focused listing descriptions on some properties — foregrounding the desk setup, WiFi speed, and kitchen rather than tourist proximity. Early results are positive for mid-week fill rate.

Should You Market Your Property as Workation-Ready?

Yes, but be specific. “Perfect for workation” means nothing without evidence. “Dedicated desk with ergonomic chair, 500 Mbps fibre, and natural morning light” means something a guest can evaluate.

On Airbnb, the dedicated workspace amenity filter is increasingly used by guests specifically searching for workation properties. Make sure your amenities are accurately categorised: dedicated workspace, fast WiFi, laptop-friendly workspace. On Rakuten Travel, there is a dedicated workation filter and campaign page — if you are listed there, confirm your property is tagged correctly. Jalan has similar filtering.

What We Changed at BenStay

After paying closer attention to this segment, we made a few concrete adjustments:

  • Replaced folding chairs with proper desk chairs in all units
  • Started publishing WiFi speed test screenshots in the listing photo gallery
  • Set our weekly discount to 20% across all properties
  • Added a “workation” section to the house manual covering nearby cafes with reliable WiFi as backup options

Small investments, but workation guests now account for a meaningful portion of our mid-week occupancy.

FAQ

Q: What WiFi speed do workation guests actually need?

For standard video calls on Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet and typical office file work, 50 Mbps symmetric is perfectly adequate. That said, workation guests are conditioned to compare speeds before booking — listing a verified result of 300 Mbps or higher is a genuine differentiator. If your property is on a shared building connection with inconsistent performance, it is worth addressing before targeting this segment.

Q: Can Japanese companies deduct workation trips as a business expense?

Generally yes, if the trip has a legitimate business purpose component. The National Tax Agency (国税庁) has issued guidance recognising workation under specific conditions. Companies that formally adopt workation policies can typically treat travel and accommodation costs as welfare benefits or business expenses. Corporate guests will already know this — it is part of why team-offsite workation bookings are growing. For specific advice on any individual situation, consult a qualified tax professional.

Q: Which OTAs support workation-specific search filters?

Airbnb has a dedicated workspace amenity category and filters that surface properties to guests specifically searching for work-suitable accommodation. Rakuten Travel added a workation filter and campaign pages in 2022. Jalan offers similar filtering. Accurate amenity categorisation on each platform is what connects your listing to guests actively searching in this segment.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Please consult a qualified professional for your specific situation.