kamadzu4

Will have a 12-night trip to Japan in September 2018, arriving in HND, departing out of NGO. Was planning three 4-night blocks to take advantage of the Citi Prestige 4th night free, however I've noticed the following quirks in the pricing:

- Most headline rates on TripAdvisor / hotels.com are "sales" and nonrefundable, with typically a substantial price increase for the refundable rate
- There is a surprisingly large price premium to include breakfast - much more than I've seen anywhere else I have traveled
- Citi's pricing follows the retail rates (although often is nonrefundable as well), making the 4th night free benefit almost negligible

General price-range I'm looking for is around $200/night

evergrn

I'm not that familiar with Citi 4th Night Free, although I thought you could request to book any rates including refundable discount rates such as AAA and Government.

Is your question specific to 4th Night Free, or is this a more general question about what options there are available for $200/night, or are you just posting comments/statements?

I never book room in Jpn via TA/Hotels.com. I book Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Richmond via their respective sites, and usually everywhere else through Rakuten Travel (Japanese website). 90% of my bookings are either paid-refundable or points (in the case of Rakuten, usually not only refundable but not even advance deposit / cc info to secure booking required).

Of course you get savings on nonrefundable rates. I don't find the price disparity in that regard any greater in Jpn than elsewhere.

Rates depend on where in Jpn you're talking about, what caliber of hotel, single vs double-occupancy, your specific dates. Crowne Plaza in Okayama will be like half or less the price of that in Kyoto. You can still stay at a decent hotel in Tokyo for $200 or less per night double-occupancy, generally speaking.

RichardInSF

As to breakfast, every coffee shop offers a reasonable "breakfast set" (drink, egg, toast, etc) for Y600 or so and there are a LOT of coffee shops in every urban area. Forget the hotel breakfast

paperwastage

I've often found better (refundable,even paylater ) rates via agoda, and they often have an additional 10% coupon laying somewhere (which may or may not work for larger chains). Nonchains have better pricing via agoda, chains are usually not that great on 3rd party sites

Agree with Richard - skip hotel breakfast. You'll find decent stuff, even at 7/11, malls and train stations