APA Opens First U.S. Hotel in Seattle

APA Opens First U.S. Hotel in Seattle

Interview by Yuka Foley
Translated by Bruce Rutledge

From left to right: Jin Sasaki, president and CEO, Coast Hotels USA; Sam Cho, director of Strategic Initiatives, Mayor’s Office of Seattle; Makoto Iyori, Consul General of Japan in Seattle; Seattle City Council Member Tanya Woo; Isshi Motoya, president and CEO, APA Group; Seattle City Council President Sarah Nelson; Michael Woody, SVP and CCO of Visit Seattle; and Takamasa Machiura, president and CEO, Coast Hotels at the ribbon-cutting event at Coast Seattle Downtown Hotel by APA.

The APA Group Hospitality Company has been expanding rapidly in North America since 2016, but Coast Seattle Downtown Hotel by APA is the chain’s first directly-managed hotel in the U.S. Just before the hotel held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 28, APA Group Chief Executive Officer Isshi Motoya talked about his company’s plans for expansion overseas. The APA Group has posted continuous profits for half a century and is now aggressively expanding overseas. It currently operates 46 hotels in North America and has six directly managed properties in Canada.

APA Group CEO Isshi Motoya delivers a speech

So why did the company choose Seattle, Washington? Most of the company’s hotels in Canada are in British Columbia, and Seattle’s proximity to the Canadian border was a big selling point. It was a strategic choice especially when compared with the three-hour time difference with the East Coast.

The next challenge for the steadily expanding APA Group is branding in the U.S. market. “I believe launching your brand in the American market represents a big step in global expansion,” Motoya says. “We’ve expanded in Japan and Canada, and now we want to forge deep roots in the American market. We want Coast Hotels to become a beloved hotel brand and we aim to make it so people will want to work here. We also want to become a bridge for Japanese businesses to offer their products and services in the U.S.”

He emphasized that while stable facilities and services are important to attract customers, the hotel needs something more to make an impact to keep them coming back. “The first time someone experiences our service, it makes a deep impression, but that impression lessens on subsequent stays. He says, “I want to deliver services that can provide new discoveries while gradually making improvements and refinements.”
“I believe that maintaining the status quo is a sign of decline,” he says. “If you close your eyes to the rapid progress around you, before you know it, you’ll be out of date. If the hotel doesn’t evolve by using the latest technology, customers will grow complacent,” Motoya argues. “We need to proceed through trial and error.”