About APA Hotels Katsuragi (Wakayama)
APA Hotels, which stands for 'Always pleasant Amenities' is among the largest Japanese hotel chains owned by APA Group. As it strives to become the 'Made in Japan' of the hospitality industry, APA Hotels features what is called a 'new urban style' hotel concept that combines high-quality, high functionality and environment-friendly elements in its standard design. It bills itself as offering three-and four-star hotels with amenities that are typically found in five-star properties. Each room has LED lighting and showers with less water pressure.
The hotel chain with 380 locations representing 58,621 rooms across Japan started expanding into the U.S. in 2015 with the opening of Iselin, NJ based APA Hotel Woodbridge (a previously Hilton-owned property). The 200-room hotel is both targeted at leisure and business travelers. In 2016, APA Hotel bought Coast Hotels in Vancouver, Canada. The largest hotel chain in Japan now has 40 locations in the U.S. and Canada and aims to open more in the future.
APA Hotels' guests are mostly local comprising three-fourths of its customer base, but the hotel chain is aiming to raise foreign visitor profiles with its offerings including BBC broadcasts in and free WiFi in every room. It also has money exchange machines in some of its properties.
