Salon Zukan vs. Hot Pepper Beauty: roles, costs and how to use both
A big booking marketplace and your own website and booking page do different jobs. Rather than which one is better, what matters is how you combine them.
In short
- Hot Pepper Beauty is a booking marketplace in Japan where large numbers of people come to look for a salon. It is very good at getting new customers to find you, but it charges a monthly listing fee and a cost for every online booking.
- Salon Zukan is a salon directory built from registration lists that local governments publish, plus a way to make your salon's website and online booking for free. There is no fee per booking, but it does not bring in customers on the scale of the big booking sites.
- New customers through the booking site, and from the second visit on, your own booking page. This combination is an easy way to keep costs down.
At a glance
Both columns are based on public information. Hot Pepper Beauty does not publish its listing fees, so they are quoted salon by salon.
| Hot Pepper Beauty | Salon Zukan | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Recruit's marketplace for finding and booking hair and beauty salons | A salon directory built from public registration and license data, plus your salon's website and online booking |
| How you get listed | Apply, choose a plan, and get listed | Salons in areas whose registration lists are public are listed from the start (free). Once the owner verifies, they can add photos, a menu and a Book button |
| Monthly cost | A monthly listing fee. The price "depends on the area and plan" and is quoted individually*1 | ¥0 (website, online booking and the Book button in the directory). Add-ons such as punch cards or gift cards are monthly, only for the ones you use (¥2,980 each) |
| Per online booking | Shared online booking fee (1%) plus the cost of points given to the customer*2 | ¥0 |
| Cancelling | For auto-renewing plans, notice in writing by the 1st of a month ends the contract at the end of that month*3 | Add-ons can be cancelled later. The free parts keep working |
| Managing bookings | SALON BOARD (bookings, register, customer records) | CLT Members salon booking (open times from each stylist's hours and service lengths). You can also keep your current booking site, LINE or phone |
| Reach | Over 67,000 hair salons listed and over 120 million online hair bookings a year (published by Recruit)*4 | Not on the scale of the big booking sites. Best as the place to take bookings from Google Maps, Instagram and regulars |
| Best for | Bringing in new customers | Repeat bookings, your own website, keeping fees down |
What Hot Pepper Beauty does well
Its biggest strength is the sheer number of people looking for a salon. According to Recruit, it lists over 67,000 hair salons and over 108,000 relaxation, esthetic and similar salons (as of April 2026); online bookings for hair salons exceed 120 million a year (April 2025 to April 2026); and hair salons have over 10.97 million reviews.
It shows your salon to people searching for things like "station name + hair salon", together with coupons and reviews, so it is a big help for salons that have just opened and are not yet known, or that want more new customers. Salons can also use SALON BOARD for bookings, the register and customer records.
Costs to keep an eye on
Listing fees are quoted individually
The official listing guide says prices "vary depending on the area and plan you choose", so you ask for a quote. Articles by booking-system companies and others give rough figures starting from the ¥20,000s–¥30,000s a month for the cheapest plans up to several hundred thousand yen a month for higher plans (these are not official figures).
Online booking costs apply to regulars too
The terms of use say that, separately from the listing fee, the salon pays a shared online booking fee (1% of the booking amount) for each online booking, and also covers the cost of the points given to the customer. The basic points are 1% of the amount before tax, so together the cost is roughly 2% of the booking amount.
This applies not only to first-time customers but every time a customer books through Hot Pepper Beauty, including their second and third visits. We worked through the numbers in "How much does Hot Pepper Beauty charge per booking?".
Rules for cancelling
Auto-renewing plans can be cancelled at the end of a month by giving written notice by the 1st of that month (or by the last business day of the previous month if the 1st is not a Recruit business day). If a listing ends partway through, fees already paid are not refunded. It is worth confirming the contract period and how to cancel in writing before you sign.
What you can do with Salon Zukan
- Listed from the start: beauty and barber salons registered with a public health center are listed automatically from local governments that publish their registration lists (salons that need no registration, such as nail or esthetic salons, are listed when the owner signs up). There are currently 175,064 salons in Japan on Salon Zukan.
- A free website for your salon: just enter your salon's name and a page with your menu, photos, map and hours is ready right away.
- Free online booking: take bookings with open times based on each stylist's hours and service lengths, with no fee per booking. You can put the booking link on Google Maps and Instagram.
- Keep your current booking site if you like: you can also show a link to the booking site you already use, such as Hot Pepper Beauty.
Examples of using both
| Your salon | Example |
|---|---|
| Just opened | Get new customers through the booking site. Put your Salon Zukan page on Google Maps and Instagram so people who search for your salon's name can book too |
| Lots of regulars | Book the next visit at checkout and take repeat bookings on your own booking page to cut online booking fees |
| Reviewing your listing plan | Set up your own booking page first and tell your regulars about it, then move to a cheaper plan or stop the listing |
For step-by-step ways to move your regulars' bookings, see "5 ways to move repeat customers to your own booking page".
- *1 Recruit, "Hot Pepper Beauty and SALON BOARD: listing, prices and applications" (official listing guide, in Japanese). Rough figures are from columns by Four Design and Reservia (not official figures).
- *2 Recruit, "HOT PEPPER Beauty Hair / HOT PEPPER Beauty Kirei Terms of Use", Article 4 (as revised and effective September 14, 2026), and "Point earning and use conditions" (both in Japanese).
- *3 The same terms of use, Article 24 and Article 4, paragraph 3.
- *4 Recruit's official listing guide (salon counts as of April 2026; online bookings from April 1, 2025 to April 1, 2026).
- Prices and terms were checked in October 2026. They may change, so please check each company's latest information before you apply. "Hot Pepper Beauty" and "HOT PEPPER Beauty" are trademarks of Recruit Co., Ltd. This article was compiled by Salon Zukan (CLT NY INC.) from public information and is not affiliated with Recruit.