With the boom in minpaku (homestays), how do you feel about opening up your place as a bed and breakfast? When the Asahi Shimbun’s “be between” Internet survey put that question to its readers, it got 1,891 responses. Of those, 91% gave a resounding “No!”
The main reasons, in descending order, were “No room for outsiders”, “Worried about the traveller’s manners or possibility of an accident”; “Too much work involved in preparing”; and “Getting into the spirit of omotenashi (hospitality) seems really demanding”.
“No matter how familiar you act towards one another, both host and guest feel anxious”, said a 50-year-old woman in Shizuoka. “There are things such as food preferences, wake-up time, using the bath, the type of bedding … Accommodating strangers is difficult”.
When assessing accommodation in general, the highest priorities were given to affordability (with 779 replies); convenient access (334); spaciousness and attractiveness of the room (301); palatability of the cuisine (194); and proximity to sightseeing destinations (133).
Among all respondents, 28% said they saw the increase in minpaku stays as a positive thing, while 43% said they saw it as neither a positive nor negative development.
Quite a few respondents related happy memories of their own homestays overseas. A 34-year-old woman in Ibaraki Prefecture recalled how surprised she was when her host handed her a key and said she was free to come and go as she pleased. “They were helpful when I needed something, and weren’t overbearing in their hospitality”, she said.