By Sherry Moeller
Photos and renderings courtesy of Tomu
With a shift in consumers’ travel preferences, especially away from heavily populated locations and more toward unique experiences, Tomu, www.tomuhaus.com, has developed sustainably-focused villas using a proprietary modular building system that expands and enhances the hotel industry.
Tomu’s Villa Collection is comprised of three modular floor plan options – studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom villas – each providing luxury accommodations within freestanding units. The company’s Japanese and Scandinavian designs use commercial-grade building materials and offer more square footage than the average hotel guest room. These private turnkey travel solutions allow travelers to experience untapped areas, as the villas function as their own luxury resort.
“Our modular villas offer travelers a more private and meaningful experience,” says Chris Osaka, Tomu CEO. “We’re creating larger luxury lodging accommodations at a comfortable price point.”
Osaka shares more insight about what to expect from Tomu today and in the future.
How did you come up with the concept of Tomu?
It really came out of personal need and seeing how the hotel and lodging landscape was changing as travelers emerged from the pandemic. I originally wanted to create a boutique hotel property of my own in this new lifestyle/experiential segment that is emerging, but the cost of traditional construction became prohibitive. Even when researching other modular options in the market, we found most were tailored to residential use and that’s when we felt like we found an opportunity focused around our hospitality backgrounds.
What is your background and why does this cutting-edge concept resonate with you?
My background is in hospitality, marketing, and retail development and had been struck by how rigid and slow to change the hospitality industry is compared to some of the previous industries I’ve been in. The idea of having every property site-built felt cumbersome when the brands themselves can be so standardized and have a business interest in reaching scale quickly. Yet with so much change happening in the industry in terms of traveler preferences and lodging shortages, nothing seems to truly address this. The challenge really resonated with my past experiences in retail development in how we approached the standardization and value engineering of retail concepts that needed to be rolled out across dozens of new locations.
Where is the ideal location for Tomu villas?
Part of our original design brief was around the assumption that many of our clients would want to place Tomu units in more remote locations that can often be cost prohibitive to build onsite. Our units need to be able to be delivered in remote places with minimal work required to set the units once onsite. Whether it be in the mountains or on a beach, as a single unit or within a cluster, the possibilities could be endless.
Do you see Tomu as a short or longer stay experience?
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a gradual increase in the average hotel length of stay in the industry. What may be doable from a guest’s perspective for 1 or 2 nights, just doesn’t work when we start talking about 3 or 4 nights. With that, traveler lodging preferences have also shifted in parallel with things like remote work. We incorporate elements to ensure comfort and productivity regardless of the length of stay. Things like more specious bathrooms and living spaces for comfort and working spaces for productivity. Regardless of the length of stay, we approach our designs with leisure as the priority in a way that is distinctly different than how most residential homes are typically laid out.
What makes Tomu sustainable? And how does it impact the construction industry?
Hospitality as an industry represents a huge opportunity for reducing waste. If you think of the typical hotel stay, it can be highly wasteful from the amount of water used from guests taking showers to the amount of electricity used in constantly running things like air conditioning. Tomu is sustainable in several ways. First, our modular building system reduces the upfront construction waste normally associated with onsite construction since our material usage can be more efficiently planned. Second, we use high-efficiency materials from windows and insulation to fixtures and finishes to reduce not just the upfront impact, but also the long-term cost of operating the units over time. By driving more education around what is possible with modular building, we hope to drive a shift towards greater sustainability in the hospitality development industry.
What are the reactions of hotel brands when they hear about Tomu?
The reaction from developers have been overwhelmingly positive. They recognize the potential of Tomu to offer a more sustainable and cost-effective solution for adapting to the new types of accommodations that travelers are looking for. Many are excited about the possibilities that our modular building system presents, from the speed of deployment to the flexibility it offers in terms of design and amenities. We’re currently in discussions with several developers about their upcoming projects, and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead.
To learn more, visit www.tomuhaus.com.