So my girlfriend and I have a trip coming up ~August 1 – 4 for a festival. We made a mistake and booked our flights first before checking on accommodation.. and every single hotel in the city is fully booked.
We’ve checked booking.com, rakuten, agoda, google travel, etc. etc. even airbnb
So, does anybody have any suggestions or advice on where to look for accommodation if all of the stuff on the big online sites is full? We’ll be traveling with some expensive equipment so would need a private room
thank you
Edit: thanks for the suggestions everybody. I’ll update you guys with what we end up figuring out 👍
22 comments
Store your stuff in a locker and go to a manga cafe for the night. Usually the flat mat rooms have options for 2 or more people.
ETA: I’m surprised you couldn’t find _anything_ though. Maybe because youre going for a few nights but I’ve been getting away fine with my weekly trips with booking places the night before I leave lol.
Have you tried splitting the stay? Maybe if you check each night separately you’ll be able to find something.
I’m doubting these places are booked. Of anything these places have turned off online booking. Maybe try calling instaed
I found 2700 available hotels in Tokyo… But, I guess you are not going to Tokyo. Where are you headed? Are you searching for the 1st TO the 4th? You might have to check the availability of hotels per day — in this case, you’d be moving to a new hotel once or twice.
Love hotels. Usually they might be off a highway or towards the outer city limits and not near a station so you may need a taxi.
Can always rent a car and sleep in it. Just drive out of town a bit. Bring a hammock in case the weather’s nice. Done it loads of times.
Rent a camper https://rental-camper.jp/en/
Wait, are you talking about Rebirth / Neutral? lol
Love hotel. Some of them even allow you to book a room in advance.
I made the same mistake once…. ended up booking a hotel in the next town along the rail line. And turns out there was frequent “local” train service between them so it wasn’t a big deal.
Which town/city? Hard to think of anywhere fully booked at the moment, even with a festival.
Depending on the transport, it might make sense to stay in a neighboring place and commute.
Book hotel as closer as you can find but connected by train. Then travel to the event early. I did that few times during Tokyo game show . I book business hotel 30 minutes away by train. It’s also cheaper. Always book your hotel at least two months before your trip next time.
Keep checking, people will cancel and something could pop up.
If you drive then you could hire a camper van or even just a normal van / Kei car and put a mattress in the back. There are michi no eki where people sleep in vehicles all over japan. There are vending machines and toilets 24/7 and shops open during the day. Onsens for showers.
Also you or your girlfriend (whoever speaks best Japanese) can call hotels and ask for rooms as there could be rooms available that they haven’t put online, or at least you can get a call back if someone cancels.
Good luck.
The time it happened to me, it was the night of the firework in Onomichi in the summer. The first night I had a room in a business hotel next to the train station, but there was nothing available on the night of the firework. So I just booked a hotel in Fukuyama, that is 20 minutes away. So just need to know the train schedule and make sure to not miss it and ideally, not plan to take the last train in case it is full.
A wise man recommended me once to look for 24-hour sento and go there to sleep as a last resort.
Air BnB ? They are often listed on hotel websites but might be worth checking out.
Like Air BnB, it might be very limited because it only has a real presence in Tokyo, but Craigslist has a lot of variety in accommodation. If a landlord / company has rooms free in a guest house you could quiet easily negotiate a short stay.
Which festival in Niigata ?
Nagaoka fireworks ? (because the Niigata festival is later than that)
In decreasing order of confort and price:
– airbnb
– love hotel
– hotel in surrouding cities
– couchsurfing ( [https://www.couchsurfing.com/](https://www.couchsurfing.com/) )
– manga cafe
– rental car
– Karaoke
-24/24h open diners/cafe
-Hotel Lobbies sofa
-Major train and bus stations benches
-Cardboard
One of the biggest fireworks festivals in Japan: https://sp.jorudan.co.jp/hanabi/spot_87273.html
It would be more helpful if you mentioned the name of the city in question.
I generally use Google Maps for hotels. I just go to the area I want and type in “ホテル” in the search bar.
If you really can’t find anything there, then just find something along a train line that heads to the festival area. You might actually find a nice place in the countryside, which just requires a bit of a train ride.
Use google maps, some hotels have their own booking site. Try booking directly.
Get a tent and camp near an onsen