Plans for another Park Hyatt location have just been announced and I am very excited about it. However, we will have to be very patient…

Park Hyatt Sapporo to open in 2029

Hyatt has signed a management agreement with Heiwa Real Estate Co. Ltd. to open Park Hyatt Sapporo in 2029. The 157-room property will feature dining and wellness experiences, an indoor pool, and space for meetings and events.

The hotel will be housed in a mixed-use tower at the intersection of Odori Park and Sapporo Ekimae-dori, the city’s main shopping and commercial street. The hotel will be located on floors 27 to 35, so should offer great views of the park and the city (it’s so nice to see a development where the hotel is on the upper floors of the building rather than the lower ones).

Sapporo is the economic and cultural center of Hokkaido Prefecture in northern Japan. It is the fifth largest city in Japan and can be reached from Tokyo by a 90-minute flight.

This will be the fourth Park Hyatt hotel in Japan, following Park Hyatt Kyoto, Park Hyatt Niseko and Park Hyatt Tokyo. It is particularly noteworthy that this hotel is located not far from Park Hyatt Niseko, which is located in Hokkaido’s most exclusive ski resort.

I’m excited about this Park Hyatt, somehow!

I love Japan. It’s probably my favorite destination in the world, so I’m always excited when there are new luxury hotels to stay in. It’s especially nice to see the scale of international hotel growth we’ve seen in recent years, and not just in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.

This will set a new standard for hotels in Sapporo. Not only does the city lack luxury hotels, but there are also few international hotel chains, apart from a few limited-service Marriott properties.

Unfortunately, while I’m excited for this hotel to open, we still need to be very patient, as the best-case scenario is that this hotel will take another five years to welcome its first guests. When hotels are announced that far in advance, I think the odds are 50/50 that something like this will open, especially within a reasonable timeframe.

Projects are sometimes abandoned when economic conditions change (but right now, Japan’s economic situation is already pretty bad). In addition, we often see hotel owners change the branding of their hotels before a hotel actually opens.

So I hope this will be a Park Hyatt, as the brand has a strong presence in Japan. However, I think it’s quite likely that this property will actually open in 2030 or later, as projects like this rarely go according to plan… even in a place where punctuality is as important as Japan.

Conclusion

A 157-room Park Hyatt is opening in Sapporo, Japan’s fifth largest city. The hotel will be located on the top floor of a multi-purpose building, so should have great views. This is an exciting addition to Hyatt’s portfolio and I can’t wait to stay here if/when it opens.

What do you think of Park Hyatt Sapporo?