Finding a hotel room in Osaka
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson
for 2 weeks in Osaka at a reasonable price - probably business hotel,
or maybe even a weekly mansion.
However, looking at a few Japanese hotel aggregators, all of them only
allow booking 3 months in advance and/or stays of 7 or 8 days max.
Even going direct to hotels, they seem to have the same conditions.
Compared with us trying to book a holiday in June in Germany, Austria
and France, where we booked everything in one afternoon, with almost
all the hotels having online booking systems that work properly (and
in English), it's a real pain in the bum.
Am I going to have to resort to a real travel agent and hope they have
decent discounts for slightly longer stays?
Ken
Drew Hamilton
>However, looking at a few Japanese hotel aggregators, all of them only
>allow booking 3 months in advance and/or stays of 7 or 8 days max.
>Even going direct to hotels, they seem to have the same conditions.
Just looked briefly at mytrip.net -- picked a random 2-week span
in May for 2 adults.. There are a few hotels listed who can make
that reservation.. but I suppose it depends on your definition of
a reasonable price; \7500/night was the cheapest I could find.
--
- awh
http://www.awh.org/
tna...@no-more-virii-please.direct.ca
That's $70 US a night according to today's exchange rate. That's pretty
cheap compared to most hotels in a major North American city.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Travers Naran | Visit the SFTV Science Blunders
F/T Programmer,P/T Meddler In Time&Space | Hall of Infamy!
New Westminster, British Columbia, |
Canada, Earth, Milky Way, etc. | <www.geocities.com/naran500/>
"Stand Back! I'm a programmer!" |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haluk Skywalker
news:nhb500huorf7n83ri...@4ax.com...
Ken, I got quite a few friends in hotel industry in Osaka. If you can give
some details (location and rate range etc) I might come up with some names
who can offer deeply discounted rates.
I worked in Osaka hotels 4 years.
Haluk Skywalker
news:btumi2$bcp9i$1...@ID-201738.news.uni-berlin.de...
> ...
> Ken, I got quite a few friends in hotel industry in Osaka. If you can give
> some details (location and rate range etc) I might come up with some names
> who can offer deeply discounted rates.
>
> I worked in Osaka hotels 4 years.
>
>
Email address: tosun (at) halukaka (dot) com
another fool
You might also look into the local inns. A co-worker who came here
turned me onto them and if I don`t have to stay in a business hotel I
normally try to find one, they are cheaper then business hotels and
the service is much nicer if you don`t mind sleeping on a futon.
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson
I did look at mytrip.net before, but there's only a handful of hotels
listed there, and only one or two in the Umeda area, but I've never
heard of them before. Expedia, on the other hand, only has 4 and
5-star places (and prices to match), and more than half the places are
either sold out already (what's on in Osaka in May?) or cannot be
booked online. Oh, BTW, "reasonable" would be up to 10,000 yen per
person (one double and a single) per night, and hopefully a discount
for the long-ish booking.
I hate to sound like ifignow, but it was so easy the last three years
finding hotels in Europe in even small out-of-the-way towns over the
net, but trying to get a room 5 km away from where I am sitting right
now is very frustrating!
Ken
Ryan Ginstrom
"Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson" <ken_ni...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6afefaef.0401...@posting.google.com...
> I hate to sound like ifignow, but it was so easy the last three years
> finding hotels in Europe in even small out-of-the-way towns over the
> net, but trying to get a room 5 km away from where I am sitting right
> now is very frustrating!
The Japanese are definitely wary about doing business online. But it's not
entirely due to technical incompetence.
I have been talking with this Japanese company that wants to launch a
software product. Now, this is one of those "IT" companies advertising web
development, information solutions, all that crap.
How do you think they want to accept orders?
By credit card -- with a 3-day processing wait, during which time you are
called at home for verification, and after which a registration number is
emailed to you.
Or by bank transfer
I tried to explain to them that there was no way American customers would go
for this type of payment system, but somehow I don't think it sank in.
--
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom
John W.
likely it'll cost an arm and a leg, but I haven't priced anything in a
while.
John W.
Ryan Ginstrom
"John W." <worth...@yahoo.komm> wrote in message
news:4003634E...@yahoo.komm...
> Have you looked at any executive/corporate housing? Just a thought. Most
> likely it'll cost an arm and a leg, but I haven't priced anything in a
> while.
This is another area where Okinawa is nice.
You can find minshuku for 1,000 to 2,000-yen per night, usually a private
room (especially if there is more than one of you). Down the coast a couple
miles from us, there is a minshuku-type place with 500-yen/night tents for
the uber cheapskate kids.
We have rented entire apartments for around 5,000 yen/night. In one case it
was an empty apartment and the landlady lived upstairs; in another it was in
an apartment block, and the lady drove out to drop off the keys with us. The
apartments were furnished, with basic cooking stuff/fridge/etc.
--
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom
Drew Hamilton
>I did look at mytrip.net before, but there's only a handful of hotels
>listed there, and only one or two in the Umeda area, but I've never
>heard of them before.
They really seem to have lost a lot of clients in the past year.
I just did some searches for hotels in Tokyo and Kobe at the end
of March (just for comparison purposes -- that would roughly
correspond to what I searched for a year ago, and when I
searched). The hits were far, far fewer than before, and a larger
percentage were from capsules. In spring of 2002 and 2003 I
stayed in lovely Mom&Pop ryokans that I found on mytrip.net --
nice and cheap, not to mention comfortable and friendly. But none
of those seem to be listed anymore.
Bryce
"Haluk Skywalker" <yokoo...@spam.net> wrote in message
news:btumi2$bcp9i$1...@ID-201738.news.uni-berlin.de...
The "love" hotels are the best deal if you are staying all night. You might
feel lonely though by yourself!
Gerry
Skywalker <yokoo...@spam.net> wrote:
> Ken, I got quite a few friends in hotel industry in Osaka. If you can give
> some details (location and rate range etc) I might come up with some names
> who can offer deeply discounted rates.
>
> I worked in Osaka hotels 4 years.
Though not Ken, I'd appreciate a recommendation: I usually stay in
Dontonbori, but the one we liked best, the DH, turned love-hotel only,
so I can't book ahead or for multiple nights. Then we went to the
Dotonbori Hotel, IIRC, the one with the 4 big heads outside. A business
hotel . First time I've encounterd bed bugs since the 70's. A nice
business hotel is fine with us as, as we usually spend 2 nights in
Osaka turning our clocks around before traveling elsewhere. In some
ryokans they really want your ass out during the day, and it's
sometimes not as quiet as you'd like.
Possibly in Shinsaibashi, as we've never stayed there and at least part
of it looks hip, while the other parts seems a little Mall-intense.
Medium to low in cost (internationally speaking) in Dotonbori or south
Shinsaibashi, if possible. Any ideas?
--
First they gerrymander us into one-party fiefs. Then they tell us they only
care about the swing districts. Then they complain about voter apathy.
-- Gail Collins
CL
> Though not Ken, I'd appreciate a recommendation: I usually stay in
> Dontonbori, but the one we liked best, the DH, turned love-hotel only,
> so I can't book ahead or for multiple nights. Then we went to the
> Dotonbori Hotel, IIRC, the one with the 4 big heads outside. A business
> hotel . First time I've encounterd bed bugs since the 70's. A nice
> business hotel is fine with us as, as we usually spend 2 nights in
> Osaka turning our clocks around before traveling elsewhere. In some
> ryokans they really want your ass out during the day, and it's
> sometimes not as quiet as you'd like.
>
> Possibly in Shinsaibashi, as we've never stayed there and at least part
> of it looks hip, while the other parts seems a little Mall-intense.
>
> Medium to low in cost (internationally speaking) in Dotonbori or south
> Shinsaibashi, if possible. Any ideas?
</unlurk> If a long term lurker could jump in here for just a minute
... I do a lot of work for really cheap clients who don't want to spend
anything on travel expenses that they don't have to. I used to stay at
the Oriental Hotel in Namba where they had a "double room, single
occupant" special for Yen 9,800 but Namba isn't convenient for the
places I have to go during the day as it is for restaurants and bars
(you can walk to Shinsaibashi / Dotonbori or take the Midosuji-sen one
stop if you like walking around inside Namba-eki to get on board the
train).
One of the best investments I have made is a Yen 1,000 Tokyu Comfort
Members card which gets you 40%-60% discounts at all Tokyu-run hotels
and resorts. You can order one on line and pay for it when you check in
for the first time. They give discounts and points. I don't know what
the points get you as I've never tried to use them -- probably a
one-meter high plush Pokemon after five years of using the card, or
something.
I routinely pay Yen 5,100-5,800 per night for a single at the Tokyu Inn
Osaka in Osaka / Umeda, which works out to around Yen 7,000 after tax,
optional ADSL connection, and optional typical "baikingu" breakfast
(but, you can buy a bottomless cup of coffee and a couple of decent
rolls at Kobeya inside Osaka Station for less than Yen 500 and not get
sick afterward, instead). They also have doubles for around ichi man a
night. Doyama-cho isn't as upscale as Shisaibashi, but most of the
chain restaurants are the same. If you look at a map, it's the big
shopping area behind HEP 5 and HEP Navio -- maybe ten blocks wide and a
km long, crossing Midosuji and Shin Midosuji.
You can reserve rooms on the Internet at:
http://www.tokyuhotels.co.jp/en/index.html
The site has a seven day reservation limit, but you can usually call the
front desk and they'll accommodate your needs. I haven't tried that
without a Comfort Member's card, so YMMV. You can do the on line in
English, but have to go local when you speak to the desk folks. I heard
one guy trying to Engrish at the front desk and it wasn't pretty.
One thing to remember when shooting for dates in March / April is that a
lot of the juku buy up large blocks of cheap rooms to house students
while they cram for exams. They bring the students to central meeting
rooms for cramming sessions, then bus them back to the rooms to study.
This seems to be more prevalent in Kansai and Chubu than in Kanto ... at
least in my experience. <./unlurk>
CL
Gerry
> </unlurk> If a long term lurker could jump in here for just a minute
Hell yes, unlurk more often. Stay unlurked!
Good info, duly stashed...
Marc
about a month. Small but decent and not too expensive.
http://www.sunnystonehotel.co.jp/index.htm
-Marc
"Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson" <ken_ni...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:nhb500huorf7n83ri...@4ax.com...
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson
<yokoo...@spam.net> wrote:
>"Haluk Skywalker" <yokoo...@spam.net>, iletide ?unu yazd?
>news:btumi2$bcp9i$1...@ID-201738.news.uni-berlin.de...
>> ...
>> Ken, I got quite a few friends in hotel industry in Osaka. If you can give
>> some details (location and rate range etc) I might come up with some names
>> who can offer deeply discounted rates.
>>
>> I worked in Osaka hotels 4 years.
>>
>>
>
>Email address: tosun (at) halukaka (dot) com
Thanks! Sorry I've been a bit slow, but I'll send you an email before
the week's out (I hope...) regarding what I'm after and we'll see what
we can do!
Ken