[:ja][2015年6月号掲載記事]

温泉宿といえば通常1泊2食付きです。宿の食事は旅の楽しみでもありますが、食事が付くことで料金は高くなります。食事が付かない低価格の素泊まりの温泉宿はこれまでもありましたが、ほとんどが長期滞在して体を癒す湯治客向けの簡素なものでした。近年、その2つの宿の長所を取り込んだ新しい形の温泉宿が増えています。
大分県別府市の鉄輪温泉で2012年に開業した素泊まり専用宿「癒しの宿 彩葉」はすべての客室が温泉付きの離れというぜいたくな造りです。アメニティーも充実しており館内には無料のドリンクサーバーもあります。料金は2名1室利用の場合、平日1名8,640円（税込）から。温泉宿としては安めに設定されています。
彩葉を運営する株式会社ニューグロリアリゾートでは、大分県の別府温泉と湯布院温泉で11の温泉旅館を経営しています。そのうちの3軒が素泊まり専用です。「1泊2食にこだわっていては多種多様化するお客様のニーズにこたえることができないと考えました」と宿のチーフ、日野正剛さんは説明します。
近隣に飲食店が多かったことも素泊まり宿にした大きな要因です。また、食事のサービスがないことでお客が時間にしばられずに行動できるようになるのではないかとも考えました。開業後、利用客は予想通り20～30代のカップルや幼児連れの若い夫婦が多く、「部屋でのんびりするよりも街を散策される方のほうが多いようです」と日野さんは話します。

昨年7月、兵庫県城崎温泉の旅館「錦水」は別館をリニューアルし、素泊まり専用の宿「街のねどこkinsui」をオープンしました。錦水は1泊2食付きで平均18,000円ですが、街のねどこは1泊5,000円（税込）で泊まることができます。
錦水でも素泊まりプランは扱っていましたが、利用する設備やサービスの面から価格はどうしても8,000～9,000円になっていました。城崎には学生カップルの観光客が多く、オーナーの大将伸介さんは、彼らが利用しやすい価格にするためにはもっと思い切る必要があると考えました。
宿泊費を抑えるためにタオル類の貸し出しは有料、布団も自分で敷きます。本館の内湯を利用する場合は有料です。そのかわり湯めぐりパスの「ゆめぱ」を使って城崎温泉の7つの外湯に無料で入ることができます。「宿の外のお風呂や飲食店を利用することで、城崎の街全体を楽しんでもらえる機会をつくれればと思いました」。街のねどこという名前にも街歩きを満喫し寝るときだけ帰るという、その思いを込めたと大将さんは話します。
大将さんは、低価格でシンプルに旅館という文化を楽しみたい若いお客と外国人客が増えていると実感しています。宿泊費の安い街のねどこを旅の拠点にし、京都に日帰り旅行をする観光客もいます。新しいスタイルの温泉宿が生まれたことによって、利用方法も広がりつつあります。

• 癒しの宿 彩葉
• 街のねどこkinsui

文：市村雅代[:en][From June Issue 2015]

Inns at hot springs usually offer half-board accommodation – i.e., one night’s lodging with breakfast and dinner. Although meals are a part of the pleasure of traveling, they increase the expense. Up until now, low-cost lodging that doesn’t include meals has been on offer, but most of these are simple accommodations aimed at people staying long-term at a spa for health reasons. Recently more and more new-style hot spring hotels that offer the advantages of both types of lodging are appearing.
Opened in Kannawa Onsen (Hot Springs), Beppu City, Oita Prefecture in 2012, “Iyashinoyado Iroha,” an inn that offers lodging without meals, is lavishly constructed; all of its guest rooms are cottages set apart from the main building with their own hot springs. It’s well fitted out with amenities, including a free-of-charge drinks dispenser. When a room is occupied by two people, the fee for one person a night on a weekday starts from 8,640 yen, including sales tax. For a hot-spring inn, this price is rather low.
New Gloria Resort, Co., Ltd., which operates Iroha, has 11 hot-spring inns in Beppu Hot Springs and Yufuin Hot Springs – both in Oita Prefecture. Among these, three exclusively provide lodging without meals. “We thought we could not meet the diversifying needs of our guests if we stuck to offering half board only,” explains HINO Masatake, manager of the inns.
One of the main factors affecting the company’s decision to offer accommodation without meals was the large number of restaurants in the neighborhood. The reasoning is that without a meal service, guests would be free to act as they pleased without being tied to a schedule. After opening, many of the guests have been couples in their 20s and 30s, as well as young married couples with small children. “It seems that most guests prefer to walk around the town rather than to relax in their rooms,” says Hino.

Hot Spring Inn Kinsui in Kinosaki Hot Springs, Hyogo Prefecture, opened “Machi no nedoko kinsui” – a refurbished annex dedicated to providing lodging without meals – in July 2014. While Kinsui offers a one-night package including two meals for one person for around 18,000 yen, it costs 5,000 yen per night, including tax, to stay at Machi no nedoko.
Although Kinsui already had plans to offer lodging without meals, bearing in mind the facilities and services provided, the charge had to be at least 8,000 or 9,000 yen. Seeing as there were many student couples among the sightseeing guests in Kinosaki, owner TAISHO Shinsuke thought that a bold step was required in order to make accommodation available to these people.
To keep the accommodation charges low, towel rental is available for a fee, and guests themselves have to lay out their own futon. They are charged if they use the indoor bath in the main building. But, this includes a “Yumepa” pass that allows them to use seven other outdoor baths in Kinosaki Hot Springs without charge. “I thought that, by allowing our guests to use baths and restaurants outside our inn, we would give them the opportunity to enjoy the whole town of Kinosaki,” Taisho says. The name “Machi no nedoko” conveys Taisho’s idea that the inn is a place to sleep at after enjoying a walk around town.
Taisho feels that the number of young guests and international guests who want to enjoy the culture of a Japanese- style inn at a low-price without any hassle is increasing. Some sightseeing guests use the low-priced Machi no nedoko as a base to travel from when they take day trips to Kyoto. With the advent of new-style hot spring inns, the ways people use them are expanding, too.

• Iyashinoyado Iroha
• Machi no nedoko kinsui

Text: ICHIMURA Masayo[:]