Rakuten Teams Up with HomeAway in Minpaku Biz

June 6, 2018

Tokyo- Rakuten Lifull Stay Inc. has said it will promote the utilization of "kominka" old Japanese-style houses for minpaku private lodging services in collaboration with two entities.

The two partners are HomeAway Inc. of the United States, one of the world's largest vacation rental website operators, and the Japan Kominka Association, a group of old house appraisers, according to the plan, announced by the affiliate of major Japanese shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. <4755> on Monday.

Kominka houses will be assessed by experts of the Japanese association based on earthquake-resistance, comfort and other criteria.

A house that passes the screening will be given a sticker indicating that it is a "certified traditional house" and listed as an assessed house on HomeAway's website.

In Japan, there are about 1.28 million houses built at least 50 years ago, and many of them are empty, according to the association.

Local areas facing depopulation are apparently hoping to utilize these empty houses for minpaku services to revitalize their communities. But there have been no standards to assess whether they are appropriate as lodging facilities.

A HomeAway survey covering people in seven countries has shown that many of respondents are interested in kominka in Japan. Jiji Press