Bulgari Hotel Tokyo
 

I just heard about Bulgari Hotel Tokyo scheduled to open this year. Looks like the location will be right at the front of Yaesu side (shinkansen side) of Tokyo station. The location makes it looks like this hotel may be closer to Tokyo station than Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi. It will be way above my budget regardless. I will wait for the stay report from somebody. :)

P.S. Is it "Bulgari" or "Bvlgari"? I have seen it both.

Bul-something, for sure.

[Joking aside, I think the brand is Bulgari, but the logo "BVLGARI" is a nod to a Roman inscription. The Classical Latin alphabet had only 23 letters, not the 26 that we have today].

The Bulgogi, oops sorry, the Bulgari Hotel was originally scheduled to open at the end of 2022 but that has been changed to Spring 2023. It will be located right across the street from the Yaesu entrance/exit of Tokyo Station. I'm not certain what kind of ambiance the Italian fashion house will impart to this hotel but as a fan of Italian style, it might be worth a stay to check out, and it even has a pool. I don't care for the location, which seems ideal for short-term tourists or business travelers, and I'm not inclined to pay the high price to find out, but I think I can scrounge up enough Amex points for a free stay as a risk-hedging measure.

I'm intrigued to see how this hotel is too. Location looks excellent

The opening of the Bvlgari Hotel Tokyo is set for April 4, 2023. Reservations can now be made on the Bvlgari website. I tried a dummy booking in late April and the price for their basic Superior Room (56sqm/603 sqft) is 354,600 yen/night (US$2,664/night). This is far above the pricing at most other Bvlgari Hotels and makes Aman Tokyo's pricing seem like a tremendous bargain. The pricing for an entry-level room at Bvlgari in Beijing or Shanghai can be as low as $500-600/night, while Bvlgari London starts at around $900, such a room at Bvlgari Milano will set you back $2,400/night. Apparently, Bvlgari thinks that Tokyo is teeming with well-heeled clients willing to pay such a price. At only 98 rooms, that may be possible, but I will not be surprised if they wind up substantially lowering their price after a time.
https://www.bulgarihotels.com/en_US/tokyo

That is pretty high up there. Obviously, I am not in that demographic. My understanding is that one of the ways such business work is that Bvlgari Tokyo is not expecting to fill rooms through website booking or travel agent booking, but Bvlgari already has clientele from their high-end retail businesses and marketing and sales of Bvlgari Tokyo will work directly with clientele. Bvlgari is in the high-end retail business for long enough that Bvlgari has to have business connections to reach out to prospective hotel guests who are not regular Bvlgari clientele.

I think it is possible that guests at Bvlgari Tokyo will be a mix of international guests and Japanese guests will be just a portion of the entire hotel guests. I wonder if Bvlgari Tokyo will try to approach the same way as high-end Japanese businesses. Traditional high-end businesses (ryokan or ryoutei) in Japan usually do not do any public marketing. Phone numbers are unlisted, no websites, no printed brochures, no business signs outside of the building, etc. High-end Japanese business often has regular frequent clientele (usually people in high-end Japanese society) that business trust and that is the way they conduct the business. There is a phrase in Japanese, Ichigen-san-okotowari (一見さんお断り), that the business does not take non-regular customers. The only way to access such business is by recommendation by the current regular trusted customer of that business. Ichigen-san-okotowari (一見さんお断り) also means that the business does not welcome a person who will only take on the service once, just for curiosity reason. When a new client is recommended by the current regular trusted customer, then the new client is expected to become a regular customer for the business. If a new recommended client turned out to be not a worthy person for that business, then often the business will ask the current trusted customer that he/she is no longer welcome at their business.

I am not a part of that high-end Japanese demographic, but I do know that such business practices in high-end society still exist in Japan. I wonder if Bvlgari Tokyo will try to tap into that high-end Japanese demographic using a corporate Bvlgari connection. At the bottom line, Bvlgari Tokyo has to convince high-end clientele that Bvlgari Tokyo provides a product worth US$2,664/night. Can Bvlgari Tokyo do that?

Good question, Nagasaki Joe I guess the hypebeast chinpira demographic has its own desires and aspirations, and the Bvlargi Tokyo may be just the ticket.

Bulgari is now owned by LVMH , the Bulgari Family is probably now the 2nd or 3rd largest shareholder of LVMH. As such, it is not just the customers of Bulgari proper, but the entire LVMH group which can be marketed to. Think of it as LVMH Hotel and Resorts dba. Bulgari Hotel Tokyo.

This Osakan trio gave me my own introduction to LV as an aspirational brand. Might not have made them much money but it was the best marketing they ever had.

I suspect that “one-and-done” customers (一見の客) looking to see and be seen while earning bragging rights but never to return (and there is no shortage of this customer type in Tokyo) will likely form a good chunk of the hotel’s initial customer base during its early buzz and hype phase. Culturally, an exclusive Japanese ryokan may be able to avoid this customer, but I don’t see how a Western hotel can. As for using the corporate Bvlgari connection, I don’t see how LVMH Group employees and shareholders (as mentioned by Q Shoe Guy), a very small demographic segment, can have much impact as customers on total occupancy, but with only 98 rooms, I could be wrong.
A nice colorful name for a demographic that is probably comprised of “one-and-done” customers, but I doubt that many of them are チンピラ unless you know otherwise.

I was referring to customers of LVMH businesses around the world, not employees and shareholders. :)

The price of the room plus revenue from hotel restaurants, hotel restaurants is at the top of things to do on special occasions for local Japanese, I will not be surprised if Bvlgari Tokyo will break even with 50-60% occupancy rate, which could be below that. Pre-COVID 2018 hotels in Tokyo averaged 81.9% occupancy rate, this is the average for the entire Tokyo prefecture, so I assume a higher occupancy rate within Tokyo's 23 wards. With the name of Bvlgari and the location of Tokyo, it is possible that Bvlgari Tokyo will do fine with US$2,400/night.

There is a story about high-end ryotei (restaurants) in Tokyo and Michelin Guide. This has been reported in the media in Japan and sounds like the information came from Michelin in Europe. Employees involved in Michelin Tokyo Guide talked about their experience. When Michelin published its first Tokyo Guide in 2007, it used the connection of corporate Michelin in France to gain access to high-end ryotei in Tokyo. After the initial visit, they revealed to ryotei that there were from Michelin and they would like to work toward listing their restaurants in the new Tokyo Guide. Most ryotei told Michelin that they were not interested in listing on the Michelin Guide, and told Michelin not to publish their name, location, contact information, and anything associated with their restaurant. Them most ryotei told Michelin that Michelin is no longer welcome at their place.

I disagree, actually. This particular demographic prizes loyalty above all else, and there is an expectation of reciprocity. Have you ever been to (or passed by) the Ranzu coffeeshop in Ginza? A very loyal clientele, indeed. I used to live down the street from Takeshi Kitano, who would regularly stay at a place down the street with all kinds of interesting clientele (and clearly loyal, as it was always the same characters in their Bentleys and black Vellfire and Alphard vans). It is now the boutique luxury hotel "Allamanda Aoyama", and I can well see the Bvgarish hotel in this model.

Sorry, but I misread this part of your post. Yes, I can see global LVMH customers as being high-potential targets, but to what extent they will show up as customers, I don’t know.
I agree with you that Bulgari restaurants and the Bulgari Hotel as high-prestige venues for weddings and events will be an easy sell in Tokyo, I think they will outperform Aman Tokyo in the restaurant and event space, as high-end European prestige is an easier sell in Tokyo than the austere Aman vibe. Actually, I noticed that a base room at Aman Tokyo was going for $2,400/night just a few days ago but is now down to $1,500/night. I even remember as recently as several months ago seeing Aman offer a room rate in the $700/night range, so once Bulgari goes through an initial phase of feeling out the market, I suspect that they too will lower their room rates from time to time as the market and season dictate.

An interesting story that underscores a unique cultural aspect of the market and how some Japanese businesses, especially traditional ones, approach exclusivity. Though it is definitely not a behavior that you can expect to see from Western hotels or restaurants in Japan.
I see your point, as I can see ビート君as having チンピラtendencies and perhaps some of his inner circle too. I’m not familiar with Allamanda Aoyama, but it appears we spent time in the same area, though the hotel post-dates my time there. I often stayed very close to Gaiemmae Station (on the opposite residential side of the street from said hotel but used to jog in the morning in Meiji Jingu Gaien) on short trips to Tokyo back in the 70s. The whole Aoyama area was one of my stomping grounds and I also sometimes stayed at the President’s Hotel (which I think no longer exists) in Aoyama Itchome near what is now the Honda Welcome Plaza at the intersection. That said, I never had the pleasure of running into ビート君 in the area, although he wouldn’t have been that famous yet when I was there. So, he is representative of the “hypebeast chinpira” demographic? Interesting.

I wouldn't say Kitano-san is a representative of the hypebeast chinpira demographic, more like their patron saint. He no longer lives there, but his house was a nice size, and the only indication of who lived there was a light-colored airbrushed "北野" next to the mailbox. And of course, the souped-up tuned Bentley sometimes parked in the driveway...

Speaking of which, I just began watching Michael Mann's "Tokyo Vice" HBO Max series. I know Jake Adelstein is a fabulist, but the show is very well made and quite entertaining. And features all kinds of loyalty oaths and ceremonies, of course. And Ken Watanabe and Rinko Kikuchi. Some of the characters in the show are definitely potential customers for the new Bvlgar hotel.

All 芸能人 in Japan are high-potential Bvlgari Hotel customers. On any given night, you'll probably find several staying there. I'm sure lots of everyday Japanese will stay there one night or just eat in the restaurant hoping to gawk at the glitterati, which is probably part of the hotel's income-generation plan.