Hotel Vintage Kagurazaka is a 4-minute walk from Kagurazaka Station on the Tozai Subway Line and a 4-minute walk from Edogawabashi Station on the Yurakucho Line. In spring 2021, the hotel utilized the project to make accommodation facilities accessible to equip both the Accessible Standard Room (30 m2) and the Accessible Deluxe Room (42.3 m2) with gentle slopes to eliminate all steps. The bathrooms in the spacious rooms are now more comfortable for guests in wheelchairs.

The hotel's concept of "retro-modern" and "vintage" has been kept alive to create a hotel that is not only a place to rest but also a place that inspires the senses of all the guests who stay there. Their goal is to create a hotel that inspires the senses of all guests. Their goal is not only to pursue functionality and convenience but also to create an oasis in the city, a hotel with the characteristics of a retreat.

We spoke with Aoi Ozone and Aoi Nakano, two brand managers of 7garden, the management company of Hotel Vintage Kagurazaka.

To create a hotel where everyone can stay comfortably

Kagurazaka is a popular tourist destination for foreign travelers, but there are relatively few accommodations in the area. We hope that all of our guests will enjoy sightseeing in Kagurazaka, a place filled with sensitivity and intelligence and that their stay at our hotel will be one of the most memorable moments of their trip. At the time of opening, we had envisioned the demand from foreign tourists, and we were conscious of creating spacious rooms that could accommodate overseas families in a relaxed atmosphere with a vintage feel, but it was an incident at our sister hotel, Hotel Vintage Tokyo in Irifune, Chuo-ku, that triggered the renovation to accessible rooms.

The Hotel Vintage Tokyo, which opened before the Hotel Vintage Kagurazaka, had steps due to the size of the site area. One day, we received a request from a guest who was traveling with an elderly family member and wanted to stay in a room with no steps. However, we were unable to accept the reservation because there were steps at the entrance of the room at the Hotel Vintage Tokyo.

Based on this experience, the hotel owner of Hotel Vintage Kagurazaka decided to renovate the rooms to be accessible because of his strong desire to provide rooms with no steps.Since the room was originally larger than a typical hotel room, we were able to renovate it while maintaining the existing ceiling height by installing a two-step slope (a gentle slope near the room entrance and a gentle side slope inside the room). The stylish accessible rooms with vintage-style furniture have been introduced on YouTube and other media, but we also recruited monitors on the hotel's official Instagram to let more people know about the rooms. We are also asking for feedback from wheelchair users who stayed at the hotel.

Approaches to Accessible Tourism

The newly accessible rooms are designed for the comfort of a single wheelchair user, but we have also considered demands from families and groups. If you are staying with a small group, we suggest that you share a family room or a deluxe room on the upper floor so that you can all relax together.

We are also focusing on creating new demand. We have been selling accommodation plans for women such as "overnight girls' party" and "birthday party" for some time, but we are now thinking of providing information so that friends in wheelchairs can join too. Since the newly renovated accessible rooms can be used not only by themselves but also in conjunction with the 76 m2 deluxe family rooms (with a capacity of 8 people) and 54 m2 deluxe rooms (with a capacity of 6 people), we are thinking of suggesting new plans where friends in wheelchairs can join too.

Since we started our efforts for Accessible Tourism, the age range of our guests has been increasing. We hope that the elderly can enjoy an extraordinary vintage hotel life with their family and friends.We are working on Accessible Tourism to make everyone's stay in our hotels comfortable and memorable, and we are also creating a good synergy among the hotel staff. For example, conversations between the front desk staff and cleaning staff have led to discussions about the placement of equipment and amenities based on their opinions when actually cleaning the accessible rooms, and a sense of unity has been created to create a manual for handling the accessible rooms.
The efforts in improving the hotel’s accessibility have been a great opportunity for us to feel a connection with other hotel employees and guests. We will continue our efforts to make the hotel a place where everyone can spend their time comfortably and with peace of mind.