Most travel loyalty programs these days make you jump through hoops to register and only reward you if you are a very, very frequent traveler shelling out big bucks. However, there is a charming hotel brand in Japan which will give you cold hard cash when you stay there. The Super Hotel chain, including my favorite location, Super Hotel Premier Ginza, will give you 500 yen during your stay for every night you spend at any of their locations in Japan.
What is the Super Hotel in Japan?
The Super Hotel is a hotel chain in Japan with 172 locations throughout the country and a couple dozen in Tokyo. They focus on single travelers and fall into a category in Japan known as a business hotel. However, do not confuse them with capsule hotels.
The first time I went to Japan, I was in college and didn’t have as lucrative a job as I do now. I searched for a cheap business hotel, as I knew I didn’t need much in the way of space and couldn’t have been happier with what I found. I stayed at the Superhotel Premium Tokyo Station for almost a week and it was love at first sight. To begin with, it was absolutely spotless. There was powdered matcha in every room. There was a public bath in the basement with natural hot spring water trucked in from an onsen outside the city. If you spilled some soy sauce on your pants, no problem because there was a coin-operated laundry machine. There was a yukata and pair of slippers to change into. There was an air purifier in the room and a beer vending machine on the third floor!
I’ve since been back to Japan about a half dozen times since my first trip. Although I could afford to stay in nicer hotels and sometimes could use more space (especially during the days I had to work in Japan during my seven-month honeymoon) I have always visited the Super Hotel when I’ve visited Tokyo.
How does cash back at the Super Hotel Premier Ginza work?
For every night you stay, you are granted 500 points, and you can accumulate them in your account until cashing them out. When you do cash them in at the front desk, they transfer to Yen at a 1:1 ratio. This means that when I cashed in my first 3,000 points, I received 3,000 yen ($21.95) and when I cashed out the remainder a few days later, I received 2,000 yen. This may not sound like a ton, and it’s not going to pay for a fancy sushi dinner, but it’s not bad as an automatic reward for a hotel where the cost of the room is almost always under $100 per night. You can always check your balance on your account, and the points do expire within about a year.
I was astounded at how easy the process was. To become a member all you have to do is sign up on their website when confirming your booking. All I had to do was go down to the front desk and ask to turn my points into cash. The one catch is that they don’t let you know about this system automatically, you have to know it exists and request the cashout.
The Bottom Line
Even if it weren’t for the cashback program that they offer as a loyalty bonus to members, the Super Hotel is still a fantastic place to spend your nights in Tokyo. It’s clean, comfortable, and cheap – even more so when you wind up getting a little cash back! Have you ever been to the Super Hotel Premier Ginza? What was your experience?