How to Book Accommodation in Japan!

There are people with a variety of strange hobbies. Actually, I love comparing hotel reservation sites. When I book a hotel, I check it with many booking sites and book it with the site I was most convinced about. For me with such a hobby, I feel that there are tourists using reservation sites that I can not recommend much. Therefore, I will introduce about the hotel reservation sites recommended for everyone by making a site different from “JAPANICLE” from now on. On this page, I will introduce some of the hotel reservation sites I recommend.

For details about accommodation in Japan such as hotel, Ryokan, Minshuku please see the following article.

Click on each image, the booking site will be displayed on a separate page.

2 Best Comparison Sites for Booking Accommodation in Japan

There are really many sites that you can book a hotel or Ryokan in Japan. It is almost impossible to see all of it. So, the first thing I would like to recommend is ‘comparison sites’ where you can compare accommodation plans of many hotel reservation sites.

TripAdvisor

If you want to find accommodation that is right for you in some city such as Tokyo or Kyoto, I recommend that you first check in TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor is a very famous comparison site. This site has two advantages.

First, by using TripAdvisor, you can gather information about the most rated hotels etc in the city you are going to go.

Secondly, you can find the cheapest accommodation plan among all the hotel reservation sites covered by TripAdvisor.

I appreciate the first advantage in particular. I recommend that you find the best hotel with reference to the reviews sent to TripAdvisor.

Travelko

Travelko is operated by a company in Tokyo. It covers most of the hotel reservation sites in Japan. So, if you find a hotel you want to stay by using the TripAdvisor, then use Travelko to find the cheapest accommodation plan for that hotel.

Recently, the English version was born. The number of sites covered by English version is less than Japanese version. Still, this Travelko is the strongest when you look up Japanese accommodation plans in English. Please visit this site by all means.

3 Best Booking Sites in Japan

Find vacancies at individual reservation sites

If you get the lowest price accommodation plan by using Travelko it is the best. However, hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto etc. are often full. Especially the accommodation plan of the popular room of the popular hotel will be sold out immediately. If you can not book your desired accommodation quickly, then you may want to continue searching at individual hotel reservation site.

Comparison sites such as TripAdvisor and Travelko have one big weakness. It is a time lag.

Comparison sites periodically visit and collect data on accommodation plans of individual hotel reservation sites. They will show you the lowest plans based on those data. However, that data may have been collected one day ago. When you visit the reservation site the plan may already be sold out. In addition, someone may have canceled a wonderful plan after the data was gathered. Great canceled accommodation plans will not be displayed on the comparison site. Then you can not find that wonderful plan. You have a risk of missing your opportunity.

Such opportunity loss will occur if you use only comparison sites. So, if you find a good hotel and a good accommodation plan using comparison sites, I recommend that you visit the booking site and other major sites directly.

I think that you can find a plan that comparison sites tend to overlook mainly if you check the following three sites.

Rakuten Travel

Rakuten is a company that manages huge EC sites comparable to Amazon in Japan. Rakuten has a hotel reservation site called Rakuten Travel. If you click on the image above, you can see the English version of Rakuten Travel.

Rakuten Travel is the reservation site that covers the most accommodation facilities in Japan. By using Rakuten Travel you can find both new hotels in Tokyo and small hotels in rural areas. Besides, Rakuten Travel’s accommodation plan is generally cheap.

Jalan.net

jalan.net is a hotel reservation site operated by Recruit, a leading Japanese company. As with Rakuten Travel, jalan.net covers nearly all accommodation facilities in Japan. It also starts reservation of the new hotel quite early.

I think that the strongest hotel reservation sites in Japan are Rakuten Travel and jalan.net. The accommodation plan of jalan.net is also reasonable, so please check it out.

JAPANiCAN

The most famous Japanese hotel reservation site among overseas tourists is probably JAPANiCAN. It is operated by JTB, Japan’s largest travel company. JAPANiCAN covers major hotels and Ryokan. The price of the accommodation plan is also relatively cheap.

JTB was very powerful at hotel reservation before the Internet was born. Since the birth of the Internet, JTB was pressed by new forces such as Rakuten Travel and jalan.net, but now it is not defeated by the new force even in terms of price.

Others

Besides these, there are also big hotel reservation sites in Japan such as Kinki Nippon Tourist, Nippon Travel Agency, Ikkyu.com. In addition, the tour reservation site of JR East is very good. I think that English versions will be born on those sites as well. When such a new recommended site is born, I would like to introduce from time to time.

 

Thank you for reading to the end.

 

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