Originally Posted by dvs7310

Nothing special going on that I can think of other than perhaps Obon. It's not Sapporo specific, a lot of people though take a 1 week summer holiday in either August or September, so could be that. Also could be just not having the inventory fully loaded yet.

For Sapporo, and a lot of Japan if you're staying several days, I'd actually highly recommend AirBNB. That's what I did in Sapporo last year as anything near Susukino was quite high (with nothing special going on in winter). Kyoto has an even worse problem, there aren't enough rooms for the tourism boom and even tiny Japanese business hotels are outrageous. AirBNB becomes a real bargain there too. Fortunately that's where my wife is from so we get a free place to stay there, lol.