Fee for swimming at Tokyo’s
New Sanno Hotel makes waves
By Fred Knapp, Stars and
Stripes
Rick Chernitzer / Stars and Stripes
Hotel guests enjoy an early-evening swim at the New Sanno's brand-new swimming pool
Sunday. A fitness center is above the pool in a glass-enclosed mezzanine. |
The new pool is cool, but some folks don’t like getting a charge
out of it.
Those are among reactions to changes at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo,
including a new indoor pool and a new fee for its use by people who are not staying at the
hotel.
“It’s great — definite improvement, I think,”
Tech. Sgt. Vance Allison, visiting from Kadena Air Base, said of the pool that opened July
20. “Any time you can glass it in and have year-round use of it, that’s a
definite improvement.”
The pool replaces an outdoor pool that used to be open between
Memorial Day to Labor Day. Other improvements at the hotel, which caters to American
military, diplomatic and other personnel, include new men’s and women’s saunas,
a Jacuzzi that seats 12, and a new health club with 23 pieces of exercise equipment.
Overall, reaction to the changes has been very positive, according to
Pamela Wehrling, the hotel’s recreation manager.
However, in the first few days after the pool opened, Wehrling said
one person questioned what others have grumbled about privately: a new charge — $5
for adults, $3 for those 16 and younger — for use of the facilities by people who
don’t have a room at the hotel.
Charles Cavill, director of the New Sanno, seemed surprised that
anyone would object to the charge, which he said was intended to help offset cleaning
expenses.
“I don’t think $5 is going to break anybody,” he said.
“It just barely covers the cost of supplying them with a towel.”
“The facility is here for the people who are staying at the
hotel,” Cavill said, adding that the charge for nonguests to use the pool and fitness
center compares favorably with that at the Hale Koa military hotel in Hawaii, which
charges $8.
Cavill also said the New Sanno is working on instituting a monthly
pass for nonguests, which will probably cost about $30.
The changes are part of nearly a $5 million renovation project at the
hotel. The New Sanno was built in 1983 with Japanese government footing the bill, as well
as paying the salaries of its Japanese employees. However, the renovation project has been
funded from hotel profits, Cavill said.
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