Originally Posted by
mapleg
It is not uncommon in Japan for hotels to have cancellation penalties, yet not ask for a credit card or deposit at time of reservation. It still operates partially on the honour system. Not all older Japanese have credit cards etc.
If someone in Japan were to book that , and cancel at last minute, they would expect to be paid the penalty and send them the bill.
It's a privilege you don't want to abuse, booking without giving money or ccard in advance.
Agree with all of this. In fact, all hotels in Jpn have cancellation policies yet vast majority does not ask for credit card info or reservation deposit (although more and more hotels are offering packages with lower rates in exchange for refundable reservation deposit or sometimes non-refundable credit card payment upfront).
Through last year, I was able to book Hilton in Jpn without credit card. I noticed that Hilton Jpn has now consolidated their booking engine with Hilton Worldwide so that you now have to do the credit card at the time of booking.