In August, I booked a stay at a really nice hotel/resort in Hokkaido for myself, my husband, and our 2 year old. I booked it through their website and the reservation email confirms that I payed x amount for myself and my husband per night and the child was no charge. Now I’ve been corresponding with the hotel about details of our stay, dietary restrictions, how to get there and such and they inform me there is an admission fee for my kid.
Their email says-
“Next, for children, the reservation details are ¥ 0, but the admission fee for children will be charged locally for each night.
The amount is ¥ 1650.”
Is this a common thing for hotels to have or is it total bs?
Edit: they backtracked the fee when I asked them about it.
9 comments
It is common for Japanese hotels to have an extra charge per child. Japanese hotels tend not to go for “room charge” but a “by person charge,” with children being a lower or nominal charge.
That seems really weird that they are adding on a charge later. If they’re charging for kids, why wouldn’t that be on their reservation page? I would push them on why it wasn’t included in the original receipt.
“Where on my receipt or the website does it say children are charged locally?”
Ask them, people on internet can only speculate on the reason. If you have an initial confirmation of the price and they later added the 1650 yen feel, could it be that there is something that changed in your booking ? Did you ask for anything that might not be usually included in the no-charge for kids, like did you ask them to provide meal that would otherwise not have been included ?
If what happen is just “by the way, we forgot the admission fee for child in the first invoice”, then that is quite deceptive.
There could be something lost in translation. 1650 yen is about $15 USD, so that could be a facilities fee, charged per night. It should be clear on the reservation page but I would expect that kind of thing to be in the fine print. We have definitely been charged BS charges when arriving at hotels even though we paid in full through Expedia. In Barcelona for example there was a local tax everybody had to pay which amounted to about $150 for the week. I hate surprises like that.
Could the charge be for an extra bed for the child? Could be a double room with space for a third fold out bed that they set up when children stay with parents.
Could also be tax related.
Is there an Onsen or other resort amenities? It’s probably admission to the resort and not a charge for the room.
I work in an Ryokan and children under six usually pay 2200¥ with no meal an no beddings. People who reserve via travel agent or other websites usually pay the child fee separately at checkout. We usually charge right away if they use our website but it doesn’t seem so strange if some hotel charge at the arrival.
It is normal for additional fee for children under 12 and it is not publish on website (usually they use external web/system)
It is depend on the hotel , but as you wrote, it is a really nice resort/hotel, so i would expect you need to pay extra (not much) for your child.
I had traveled with child to Japan a few times to various type of hotels, some free some had to pay extra.
They have no intention to scam you , it it just they way it is in Japan , at least they inform you before you check in at the hotel and give you surprise.
So, I will not complain or ask the hotel about ¥ 1650.