August 6, 2026, 2:46 p.m. (JST)
[Japan] Hiten Japan (Tokyo, Japan), Hotel Slow Village Yonezawa (Horie, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan),and Happigora (Chiba Prefecture, Japan) announced that they have launched a cashless lounge where guests can enjoy local sake and wine at their convenience, utilizing “Pay BOX,” a QR code-enabled cashless payment terminal provided by Hiten Japan.
Guests can enjoy local sake and wine whenever they like by paying via smartphone, without having to go through the front desk. For the hotel, this allows them to enhance the value of the guest experience and improve on-site services without increasing staff, while also providing an environment where guests can experience the region’s sake and food culture more intimately.
Through this collaboration among the three companies, they aim to create new lodging experiences while promoting an environment where guests can more easily enjoy local sake and wine, thereby enhancing the value of their stay and helping to promote the region’s drinking culture.
Hotel Slow Village Yonezawa, which opened in 2022, is Yonezawa City’s first contactless lifestyle hotel, featuring a total of 12 rooms. It offers a unique stay experience where guests can enjoy wines and local sake from Yamagata Prefecture in a sophisticated design space and a lounge reserved exclusively for guests.
Specifically, the hotel has adopted an unmanned check-in system to create an environment where guests can enjoy their stay in their own style.
Previously, the hotel sold special coins for coin-operated dispensers offering sake and wine through vending machines; however, aiming to create an environment where guests can enjoy local sake and wine more seamlessly, the hotel has transitioned from the coin system to cashless payments. With the recent introduction of “Pay BOX,” guests can now enjoy sake and wine whenever they like.
Furthermore, the adoption of cashless payments has made the hotel more accessible to inbound travelers.
Furthermore, while maintaining the convenience of a contactless hotel, guests can now enjoy wines and sake produced in Yamagata Prefecture—including those from Yonezawa—whenever they choose.
Pay BOX is a cashless payment terminal that supports QR code payments. It is highly compatible with contactless hotels, allowing guests to make smooth payments using only their smartphones—without going through the front desk—to enjoy local sake and wine.
