Hi all.

I am heading off on a trip to Japan late Feb - Early Mar (14 nights) with 6 of my friends (7 males). We are flying into Tokyo and plan to spend most of the time there checking out they city as well as undertaking some skiing.

We have however encountered a problem, none of the traditional Japanese hotels want our business. Either claiming they are not catering to westeners, don't cater to big groups, or want customers from a mix of countries and that our group would mean that someone from another country would not have room to stay.

We are just looking for something basic, planning to spend as little time as possible in the hotel. The only condition is for it to be as cheap as possible (especially as everything has gone up 35% due to exchange rate).


We were thinking of maybe seeing if we could stay at university dorm's during the holidays there but we have also not been able to locate any.

Does anyone here have any ideas on what we could try?

Thank you,

David

http://www.sakura-hostel.co.jp/

This Budget Forum thread might have some suggestions.

My favorite Tokyo hotel is the Juyoh, 3200Yen/night. Because of it's curfew, it wouldn't be well suited if heavy partying is planned.




http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=831525

Try the places marked with a yen in Tokyo on this Tokyo Hotel Map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&h...,0.213032&z=13

Seven young men traveling together quite likely frightens many small "traditional" lodgings. Something about drinking, partying and disturbing/scaring other guests and staff. You are suffering from the sins of those who have gone before you.

It sounds like you are probably going to have to look at hostels for accommodations. Large, dorm-style rooms and low cost.

In addition to what others have suggested above, you might try looking for "hostel," "budget" or "backpacker" listings at: http://www.japanhotel.net/ . The Ueno/Asakusa area shows several.

Seven young men traveling together frightens me! In this instance, I would define "young" as pre-65YO.

I think some of the accommodations may have had bad experiences with football hooligans during the World Cup, so they are wary of lodging seven foreign young men, especially if none of you speak the language.

I actually sympathize with the hotels here. I once took a group of students on a tour of Japan, and it took a lot of energy to prevent the young guys from being offensive in various ways.

You may all be perfect gentlemen, but the hotels don't know that. Perhaps you could split up into smaller groups and make your reservations separately. For example, most business hotels have a preponderance of single rooms. You could each make your reservations separately, with some of you going to another nearby business hotel if the first one runs out of room.

Oh, and for heaven's sake, if you're going to do any partying or carousing, do it outside the hotel.

Well! It has been a loooong time since anyone referred to me as young. Kind of boosts the morale. Thanks.

I have been sending emails out from my work address (well respected company) however these have also offered no success.

We do have 1 member who can speak and understand a great deal of Japanese.

Use automated booking engines like Rakuten or Jalan. You'll probably get better prices than by booking directly, and they don't give a fig who you are (although you might have to fudge a Jp address for Jalan). And yes, split your bookings into smaller groups (3+2+2 etc), it'll make virtually no price difference and, unless you're traveling in peak season, it shouldn't be a problem to stay together.

I've organised a few trips to japan for a group which were predominantly male (in our case a car club) and generally we book hotels in smaller groups. This isn't so much due to trying to dodge a rule, more a case of cases of "I can go, no I can't, actually I can". We're not always in the same hotel but we tend to book in a similar area like shinjuku or nihombashi so there's only a 5 minute walk between them

I've had friends that used the previously mentioned sakura in jimbocho and they thought it was pretty good for what you pay.