codex57

How do you look for "Japanese-style" hotel rooms?

As for triples, we'd be fine with just a triple, but there aren't a lot of those in Tokyo either. However, I know there was another thread about this, but does front desk even check how many people you have? We're ok with just the 3 beds. We're roughly the same size as Japanese people. At home, we can all squeeze into our king. I checked with the little one and we can comfortably share her twin together. I don't know what you guys think about just squeezing into a regular room with either a king or two twin beds (is that what they have?) and just not mentioning the kids.

evergrn

If your kids are only 8 and 10, then you should have plenty of options in Kyoto. Are you willing to have a setup where the 4 of you share 3 twin-size beds stuck together in parallel? With my family, we often stay in hollywood-twin hotel rooms with two x 110cm-wide beds stuck together... that is spacious enough for our family of 4 to share. I know Vessel Camapana can squeeze in up to 4 beds into their larger room.

Anyways, I don't think you'll have any issues finding a hotel room in Kyoto that your family can fit into. Rather, I think the biggest potential problem with that type of setup might be booking it correctly using English-language booking engine. I use Rakuten Travel (japanese) and I'm able to specify all my requirements in terms of how many kid will have her own bed and how many will share, etc. If you run into difficulties, you can also contact the hotel and book directly with them.

codex57

Yes, they can even be separated. I think we could get away with two twin beds, although that wouldn't be ideal. I'll have to look into what a hollywood-twin is.

Tokyo sounds like AirBnB is our best bet though, right? Or are there 3 bed options if I can just figure out the search engines?

evergrn

First of all, if you're looking for next March, there're many hotels that will not even have their room inventory opened up yet. If you could get away with hollywood-twin room, then Richmond Hotels are your best friend. They're a clean mid-tier hotel chain with lots of hollywood-twin room types and free to kids 6th grade and under. Their rooms are decent size and breakfast very good. But the four of you will be essentially be sharing a 220cm wide bed. And they probably will not be taking reservations until ~6 months out.

You can certainly look into airbnb. But if you prefer hotels with 3 beds, you will still have many options even in Tokyo. Plugging in a random day this October via Rakuten (Jpn site), I see many hotels for <30,000yen per night. Examples include Mitsui Garden Shiodome (26m2, 120cm x3 for 29,500y), Villa Fontaine Shiodome (30m2, 120cm x2 + sofabed for 28,900y), Hotel Monterey Hanzomon (20m2, 110cm x2 + 97cm x1 for 28,300y). I'm not sure what the English-language booking engines look like. In Jpn, I only book through Japanese sites for non-award bookings. But if you don't get the search results you want, then perhaps the simplest thing is to inquire with one of the above hotels directly. Tell them you have 2adults and 2kids, but you want a twin room with an extra bed (or room with 3 beds) and 1 child sharing bed.

ksandness

Two ways:

1) Traditional-style Japanese hotels are called "ryokan" (usually high-end) or "minshuku" (like a B&B, only they serve dinner as well as breakfast).

However, a long-term stay might be problematic for families with children, especially active children who are easily bored.

2) Some hotels that are basically Western-style, especially lower-priced hotels, although not the chains, have a few Japanese-style rooms.

codex57

So, you guys would recommend basing my Kansai area portion of the trip out of Kyoto rather than Osaka, with possibly a night at a airport hotel since I'm arriving kind of late?

jphripjah

This comment is not particular to Japan, but I never stay at airport hotels unless I'm in transit and leaving the next day.

Here, I would just take the train for 90 minutes from the airport to Kyoto and then not have to worry about packing up and checking out/in the next day and going to a train station and basically losing a half day changing hotels.

I don't have kids though.

nnn

We are going to Japan with two kids (9 and 5) in about a month. I found that many of the hotel websites did not let us book four into a room, though there were some that did (e.g., Hyatt). However, when we sent an e-mail to the hotel (or our TA did so), most of the hotels responded that four to a room would be fine, even if the website did not allow it.

Agreed that finding bedding for four is difficult. Many hotels offer either one king or two "twin" beds (which seem to be bigger than a U.S. twin, but still not particularly large). If you have two small children, you may be able to stuff one adult and one child in each twin. If you want a rollaway, the hotels generally charge, and the price is steep by U.S. standards -- in the range of $100-$130 per night. Some hotels (e.g., FS) have rooms with two queens.

codex57

Oh, I'm totally fine stuffing an adult with a kid in a twin. I hadn't thought about e-mailing the hotels directly. There was that other thread about kids in hotel rooms and a couple people made it sound dangerous to sneak in more kids than are officially booked.

evergrn

Yes... unless there's outrageous price difference between Osaka and Kyoto. If you have to stay in Osaka, I'd highly recommend you either book near Umeda/Osaka station or near Shin Osaka station. That will make it easier to do daytrips out of Osaka to various places including Kyoto.

Again (as I stated in post #47 ), you may very well have to contact the hotel directly if your English-language search engine does not serve your needs well as to the # of people staying. But, using Japanese Rakuten booking engine (which is what I use the most), I have no trouble finding rooms in Kyoto for 2 adults + 2 kids, 3 adults + 1 kid, etc. I cannot advise trying to sneak more people into your room than what your booking shows, at least not in Jpn.