The Hotel Homecoming: Why Hoshino Resorts OMO Suits Visiting Family

Share of Obon-week stays booked for a hotel homecoming (OMO5 Kumamoto survey)about 20%Hoshino Resorts announcement, 29 June 2026

Proposed by

Hoshino Resorts (the OMO brand)

Properties

18 nationwide: Hokkaido 3, Tokyo 4, Yokohama 2, Kanazawa 1, Kyoto 3, Osaka 2, Kochi 1, Kumamoto 1, Naha 1

Rooms

From one guest up to six. Rooms for three or more make up about 40% of the total

Posting campaign

“#私たちのホテル帰省” (our hotel homecoming), 1 July – 30 September 2026 (entries closed)

Prize

A voucher for one night with breakfast at the property posted about, covering two rooms (valid about one year from issue; some blackout dates)

Checked on

2026-10-12

Spend the day at the family house and go back to a nearby hotel at night. That is the “hotel homecoming” that OMO, the city-hotel brand of Hoshino Resorts, put forward on 29 June 2026. The Instagram campaign that went with it closed on 30 September, but the idea still works for a New Year visit. What follows sets out how far the arrangement holds up on three points: the size of the rooms, the walk from the station, and where the family can sit together inside the hotel. It draws only on what the hotels and the company have published.

Family house by day, hotel by night: about a fifth of Obon-week stays

According to Hoshino Resorts, the background is an idea that took hold after the pandemic, “the right temperature for a family”: each person keeps to their own rhythm and the household keeps a comfortable distance. Guests who book a hotel in order to meet relatives or friends over the summer holidays and the New Year are increasing, and an OMO5 Kumamoto survey put them at about 20% of Obon-week stays.

The announcement named three ways to use it: three generations staying across several rooms, going home with the family dog, and meeting an old friend. The point is less to avoid the family house than to sleep somewhere else so that the time spent together stays good.

Not sleeping at the house splits bedtime, meals and meeting places

The biggest change is that sleep happens at a different time and in a different place. A child’s bedtime and the morning wake-up no longer have to follow the parents’ routine. For the parents, the preparation disappears: pulling out futons, cooking for the whole party, and running the washing the next morning.

The meeting place is OMO Base, the shared space in every OMO, which gathers a café, a lounge and a neighbourhood map and is open 24 hours. If the house is too small for the number of people who want to gather, tea and conversation can happen here. Local Rhythm Night, an evening event between dinner and bedtime built around the music and food of the town, is normally for guests only. In July and August alone, family who were not staying could join, provided a guest accompanied them and told the front desk. That period is over.

The trip back at night happens every day. A hotel near a station makes the train home from the family house workable. All four hotels in the table below are a few minutes’ walk from the nearest station.

Asakusa, Yokohama, Kyoto Sanjo and Tokyo Otsuka compared by rooms and location

All four let a child up to six sleep in the bed with a parent, up to the same number as the room’s capacity. None accepts pets. The family dog in the announcement belongs to other OMO properties, such as OMO5 Tokyo Gotanda.

A family of four fits in one room at Asakusa, Kyoto Sanjo and Yokohama

Capacity turns directly into the number of rooms you book. OMO5 Tokyo Otsuka tops out at three guests, so two adults and two children end up in two rooms. Asakusa and Kyoto Sanjo have rooms for up to four, and Yokohama sleeps up to six. The ceiling depends on the room type, though. At OMO5 Kyoto Sanjo the Twin (20 m²) and the Queen (16 m²) take one or two guests and the Superior (27 m²) takes one to three, so capacity varies by type.

At OMO7 Yokohama, the Yagura Room takes one to three guests at 24–25 m², and the Katariba Room takes one to four at 41–55 m². The Yagura Room has two 200 cm “yagura” bed platforms and a sofa bed, and when three people use it the guest makes up the sofa. The building keeps the former Yokohama City Hall designed by Togo Murano and opened on 21 April 2026. The building’s history is in our piece on the opening, and how it sits against the other new hotels in the city is in the Yokohama comparison.

Shoes-off rooms are common across OMO. A small child can play on the floor, which makes the hours after dinner easier than in a room with nothing but beds.

Where the family gathers: the top floor in Asakusa, a radio night in Otsuka

At OMO3 Asakusa, the OMO Base on the top floor looks out over Sensoji and Tokyo Skytree. On the 13th floor the Food & Drink Station sells, around the clock and self-service, the confectionery of the old shop Ryushotei Nishimura and the inari sushi of Fukujuya. After dinner at the family house, a late return still leaves something to eat in the room or the lounge.

OMO5 Tokyo Otsuka is one minute from JR Otsuka Station, in a town with a tram line, and its evening event is called “Okaeri, Otsuka Radio Night”. The building has a shop, vending machines, a coin laundry, microwaves and irons to borrow. OMO7 Yokohama sits at the south exit of Kannai Station, from where Chinatown, Yamashita Park and Noge are within walking distance.

The homecoming features Hoshino Resorts lists are free self-service lockers, the latest smart laundry that uses no detergent, the OMO Cafe & Bar, and a neighbourhood map the staff keep up to date. If you visit the family house several days in a row, being able to wash clothes at the hotel changes how many changes of clothes you carry.

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What to settle with the family before you book

It is gentler to tell the family why you are staying at a hotel before you book. Hoshino Resorts calls it “the right temperature for a family”, which makes it easy to explain as a way of reducing the parents’ preparation. Decide too whether lunch and dinner are at the family house, or whether you meet again at OMO Base after dinner, and the number of rooms and the arrival time narrow down. Telling the parents the hotel’s name and your expected arrival when you book also helps them time the meal.

Check-in starts at 15:00; the OMO5 Kyoto Sanjo page gives 23:59 as the end of check-in. Luggage can be left in the free self-service lockers, before check-in and after check-out. Put the bags down before going to the family house, or leave them on the last day and go sightseeing.

Built from the official times, a day could run like this. In the morning leave the bags in the locker and go to the family house, and have lunch and dinner there. Any time after 15:00 you can check in; after dinner take the children back to the hotel for a bath and bed. The next morning you can follow the children’s waking time until the 11:00 check-out, and on the last day return the bags to the locker and use the hours before the train home to walk around the station. If the grandparents stop by the hotel after dinner, OMO Base is open 24 hours, so there is no clock to watch.

If you are considering OMO5 Kyoto Sanjo for the New Year, note the renovation dates. Interior works run from 15 January to 15 May 2027 (planned), and the hotel is closed entirely from 27 February to 18 March. Breakfast plans are not taken during the works. A homecoming within the year is not affected, but if you are pushing the trip into the new year, check the dates in the hotel’s own notice first.

Source: Hoshino Resorts press release (29 June 2026) / the OMO “hotel homecoming” special page / official pages of OMO3 Asakusa, OMO7 Yokohama, OMO5 Kyoto Sanjo and OMO5 Tokyo Otsuka / OMO brand page listing all 18 properties / checked 2026-10-12 / Photo: Holidayinnklg, CC BY-SA 3.0, and KQuhen, CC BY-SA 4.0 (both Wikimedia Commons)