Hotel chain offers free rooms for students from quake-hit region

Nationwide business hotel chain Super Hotel is doing its bit to ensure students from quake-hit Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures can perform their best at entrance examinations for schools and universities.

The company, headquartered in Osaka Prefecture, is offering free accommodation to students affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake if they present their examination voucher when they check in.

The idea is to allow the students to rest their bodies and minds ahead of the grueling tests.

Rooms are available for students and accompanying parents whose registered address is in either Ishikawa or Toyama Prefecture. The special offer applies at all 172 Super Hotel locations nationwide and runs until March 31.

"We are accepting disaster victims as a secondary evacuation center, and we thought this service would be a way to provide additional support," said the hotel chain.

"We hope that students will use this service so that they can concentrate on their studies without worrying about the cost, and take the exam with a little extra time on their hands."

In further support for students in the disaster-affected region, some private universities are waiving fees for entrance exams and offering reduced or free tuition.