Park Hyatt Tokyo shuts down for very long-term renovation project right as Japan is in an inbound foreign tourism boom.

With Japan receiving record numbers of foreign tourists, there are more visitors than ever from overseas looking for a place to stay in the country. Those who were hoping to stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, though, will have to keep looking if they’re planning to travel to Japan anytime soon, as the entire hotel is currently closed.

Originally opened in 1994 and made Hollywood-famous through serving as the primary setting for the 2003 Sofia Coppola-directed movie Lost in Translation, the Park Hyatt Tokyo occupies the top 14 floors of the 52-story Shinjuku Park Tower, located west of Shinjuku Station in downtown Tokyo. As of May 7, though, the entire hotel, guestrooms, restaurants, bar, meeting and banquet rooms, and wedding and fitness facilities, is closed.

▼ A tweet from the hotel’s official Twitter account both symbolically and literally turning off the lights.

Originally announced in the spring of 2023, the closure is so that the Park Hyatt Tokyo can undergo a complete renovation, which will take roughly a year and a half to complete. The entire hotel is being upgraded with an eye on improving comfort, convenience, and technological integration, according to a statement on its official website, which promises “The unique timeless appeal of our hotel, its style and spirit, will live on, unchanged.”

From a business standpoint the timing is less than ideal for the Hyatt, as it puts the hotel out of commission during not only an unprecedented surge in inbound foreign tourism to Japan, but one coinciding with a weak yen that’s encouraging more lavish spending by inbound travelers. As a luxurious hotel with strong name recognition among the international travel community, the Park Hyatt Tokyo would seem to have been poised to rake in some very high profits in the current tourism climate, and it’s likely that, in hindsight, management is wishing the renovations had been carried out, at least partially, while bookings were down during the pandemic.

The Park Hyatt Tokyo is scheduled to reopen in October of 2025.

Source: Twitter/@ParkHyattTokyo
Top image: Wikipedia/Moore-moore (edited by SoraNews24)
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