Travel + Leisure Co. Opens Club Wyndham Maruike in Shiga Kogen This December

TL;DR: Travel + Leisure Co. will open Club Wyndham Maruike Shiga Kogen, a renovated 16-room ski-in/ski-out resort, in December 2026.

On 27 October 2026, Travel + Leisure Co. announced through PR TIMES that it will open "Club Wyndham Maruike Shiga Kogen" in December 2026. The company, which has a Japanese entity in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, says it acquired the 16-room property in early 2026 and has renovated every guest room. The lobby was refreshed rather than rebuilt, and the resort has added a ski rental room and ski lockers. Its existing ski-in/ski-out restaurant keeps operating.

This is the company's second Club Wyndham resort in Shiga Kogen. It sits near the existing Club Wyndham Shirakabaso Shiga Kogen. I should be upfront about the sourcing: the second source on my list was a Google News aggregator link with no readable text, so everything here rests on the single PR TIMES release. It's a company announcement, and I haven't independently verified the claims.

Key Facts

• Opening: December 2026, in Shiga Kogen, Nagano (PR TIMES, 2026-10-27).
• Size: 16 rooms, acquired in early 2026. All rooms were renovated, and the lobby was refreshed.
• Facilities: ski rental room, ski lockers, and the long-running ski-in/ski-out restaurant.
• Neighbour: Club Wyndham Shirakabaso Shiga Kogen, which the release says has an onsen, whisky bar, New York-style pizza restaurant and ski rental shop.
• Third property: Club Wyndham Chikumakan Nagano, described as a traditional onsen ryokan about an hour away by car.
• Company claim: it will be the only foreign-owned hospitality company operating a resort inside Joshin'etsu-Kogen National Park. That is the company's own wording, and I haven't checked it.

The release also quotes Japan representative director Eric DiNezio. He calls the acquisition a strategic step to strengthen the company's regional footprint, and says it aims to support local job creation and Nagano tourism. The release describes the ski area as the venue for skiing and snowboarding at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, with more than 400 hectares of terrain linked by lifts and gondolas.

What This Means for International Travellers / Buyers

For visitors, the practical news is small but real: another 16 beds right on the snow at Maruike, one of the Shiga Kogen areas I'd already point people to for easy lift access. The release doesn't give rates, booking channels or whether non-members can book, so check directly before planning around it. If you're weighing where to ski, our Yokoteyama ski area guide covers the neighbouring terrain.

For buyers, the useful detail is the location. The property is inside the National Park, where private ownership is tightly limited. The release says a company bought the whole resort, not individual units. Most individual real estate deals in Yamanouchi-machi happen outside the park boundary, around Yudanaka and Shibu. If you want an onsen-town base after skiing, read our Shibu Onsen etiquette guide first. Remember there's no shinkansen to Shiga Kogen: take the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Nagano, then a bus (around 70 minutes) to the ski area.

Background

Shiga Kogen is Japan's largest linked ski area, and Maruike is one of its base areas. The release frames this opening as part of a wider push into regional Japanese resorts, not a one-off.

Editorial Note: This article summarises and synthesises publicly available Japanese-language sources for English-speaking readers. It is not legal, financial or investment advice. Please consult the original sources and verify details directly with the operator.