Good sites for searching hotels and hostels in Japan?

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Reply #1 - 2013 March 05, 7:56 pm
Zarxrax Member
From: North Carolina Registered: 2008-03-24 Posts: 949

Right now I have been using English sites for trying to find a place to stay for a trip in Japan. But are there any Japanese sites that might do a better job at it?
Would they have a larger list of places that aren't on the english sites? Or maybe let me narrow down the area to near a certain station or something like that?

Reply #2 - 2013 March 05, 8:11 pm
vix86 Member
From: Tokyo Registered: 2010-01-19 Posts: 1469

They have a larger list but its more expensive on Japanese sites I find.
Japanese hotels are charged by the night and per person instead of just for the room, but rooms can be purchased on English sites on a room based price I find.
My recommendation is to stick to english sites like Expedia.

If you are hell bent on it though, the one I use most often is Rakuten. Rakuten Travel

Reply #3 - 2013 March 05, 8:16 pm
Javizy Member
From: England Registered: 2007-02-16 Posts: 770

I've only used Japanese sites for finding a ryokan, and the way many sites restrict the search region as if you know all about obscure locations in the Gunma countryside is pretty annoying.

I agree with Vix's suggestion to stick to English sites. Booking.com and Agoda.com are another couple worth checking along with Expedia.

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Reply #4 - 2013 March 05, 8:43 pm
Zarxrax Member
From: North Carolina Registered: 2008-03-24 Posts: 949

Wow, never heard of Agoda.com. This looks great. I can narrow it down to a smaller area than just "tokyo", and its showing me some amazing rates that I didn't find on other sites!

Reply #5 - 2013 March 05, 8:49 pm
TheVinster Member
From: Illinois Registered: 2009-07-15 Posts: 985

Zarxrax wrote:

Wow, never heard of Agoda.com. This looks great. I can narrow it down to a smaller area than just "tokyo", and its showing me some amazing rates that I didn't find on other sites!

You should be in commercials and... stuff.

Reply #6 - 2013 March 05, 9:50 pm
haplochant Member
Registered: 2012-04-02 Posts: 21

It's not a typical hotel experience, but have you tried using airbnb.com? It lets you book apartments, roomshares, and houses by the night. I use it domestically all the time, but I've been looking for an upcoming trip to Japan and found a lot of sweet places with good pricing.

Reply #7 - 2013 March 06, 12:26 am
thurd Member
From: Poland Registered: 2009-04-07 Posts: 756

I've used http://www.hostels.com/ and can't say a bad word about them.

Reply #8 - 2013 March 06, 1:49 am
Forthem Member
From: Japan Registered: 2010-10-24 Posts: 27

If you can manage using only Japanese I definitely recommend https://www.jalan.net/

I always use them and there are usually a ton of deals on there too! (I've gotten hotels as low as 1000 yen a night in Tokyo, like real hotels, not capsule ones). You can search for a lot of obscure places too.

Reply #9 - 2013 March 06, 2:49 am
magamo Member
From: Pasadena, CA Registered: 2009-05-29 Posts: 1039

I've used Rakuten, Jalan, and Rurubu a couple times each. They were more or less the same, but the last time I used them was years ago. So things might have changed a lot since then. In any case, if there was a difference, Rakuten was the worst offender of spamming my mailbox.

But my usual way is to search for holes/motels on google map (go to the location I'm planing to stay at and do a search with terms like ビジネスホテル and 旅館) and go straight to their official websites or simply call them, or look for deals online if I have the time and it's worth it.

It never occurred to me I could use foreign websites.

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