Toyoko Inn

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The Toyoko Inn Shinagawa-eki Takanawa-guchi [1] in the Takanawa section of Minato, Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station

Toyoko Inn (東横イン, Tōyoko In^?) is a chain of no-frills business hotels in Japan, founded in 1986 and expanding rapidly from the 1990s.^[1]

The company is headquartered in the Kamata^[2] section of Ōta, Tokyo ^[3], about halfway between Chiyoda, Tokyo and Yokohama; its name is a portmanteau of the names of Tokyo and Yokohama. It aims for uniformity in its hotels, using as many prefabricated and bulk-purchased components as possible to reduce costs.^[4] The chain is also known for almost exclusively hiring women: as of 2001, 95% of the company's workforce was female, and nearly all of its hotel managers were married women.^[5]

The company has grown rapidly, more than doubling its number of hotels from 61 in December 2002 to 126 in May 2006, with typical rates (as of May 2006) between 4800 and 6800 yen per night for a single room.^[6] Nearly all its hotels are in Japan; the exceptions are one in Busan, South Korea ^[7] and one in Shenyang, People's Republic of China ^[8]; the company reportedly hopes to eventually run up to 200 hotels in China.^[9]

In early 2006, a scandal surfaced in which Toyoko Inn was found to have illegally altered 77 of its hotels after the buildings had been approved by building inspectors; of these, 60 were found to violate building codes, and 18 to violate regulations on access for disabled people.^[10]