Jun Sakaki, Ikyu CEO, revealed at Web in Travel Japan 2016 (WIT Japan 2016) that Japanese OTA targeting luxury travelers showed his willingness to enter a vacation rental business specializing in licensed luxury properties. “We hope to deal with luxury and exotic properties in a one-house rental style to meet our customers who seek different experiences from traditional hotel or ryokan,” he said at an exclusive interview with Travel Voice.

Ikyu has already started renting traditional houses in Kyoto and Okinawa and old second houses in Kamakura and Niseko since a few years ago. All of the properties are licensed by the current Hotel Business Act. As of today, Ikyu offers just 10 vacation rental properties and expects to increase them to 200 houses in the new future, for which the vacation rental team was launched in April 2016.