WHAT is it?
Have you ever imagined a one-night stand leading to wanting to share your life after? This hotel gives you the opportunity to experience just that. With cats.
My Cat Yugawara hotel is located in the hot spring town of Yugawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. This ryokan offers what some people would say is the most luxurious amenity of all: a cat. The owner of My Cat Yugawara, Akihiro Ochi, saw an opportunity to help those seeking cat companions but wrestled with uncertainties because of various living conditions. He decided to offer “trial packages” which would be an opportunity to test if a cat would fit into your life.
First-time visitors of the cat hotel are required to spend time at the cat cafe first and interact with the animals. Once they’ve gotten to know them better, they can invite their preferred cats to their room by informing the staff of the ryokan. A cat will arrive at the guest’s room at 5:30 PM and will stay until 9:00 AM the following morning. Don’t mistakenly think the cat is on the clock and working to entertain you. Instead, you’ll be responsible for taking care of the animal, including managing its litter box.
The cat may keep you up at night with its meowing, leave behind a noticeable odour when it makes a deposit in the litter box, and infringe on your social life by keeping you stuck at home. But the payoff for all those inconveniences is getting to spend loads of time with the animal. Through its trial package, the cat hotel hopes to help cat lovers find where their level of commitment lies. If after this one-night-stand there is a match, the human can adopt the cat: a start of their new life together!
WHY is it COOL?
Guests are offered first-hand experience with cats. Through this experience, they get to know their boundaries and commitment towards possible life “partners”. This unique service is unforgettable in any case (may it be bad or good). Besides all this, it is a perfect way for -once homeless- cats to find a committed human to share a house with.
WHAT makes it have FUTURE GROWTH POTENTIAL?
Some travellers choose their own pets to experience their trips through pet rental services. At Charleroi Airport in Belgium for example, you can rent a goldfish companion. Likewise, in the resort Protea Hotel Ranch in Limpopo, South Africa, you can pet or walk a white lion. This relationship with animals is changing. Instead of impulsively starting a new life with another being, we can think it through more. This makes for better relationships between humans and pets. Will your next one-night stand be for life?