Found out the hard way that hostels in Tokyo book up 3 months in advance

I was planning a trip to Japan last week and figured I could just grab a hostel bed a few weeks out like I do in Europe. Nope. Everything under $50 a night was completely sold out from March through May. I dug into some hostel booking stats and apparently Tokyo only has like 200 hostel beds total for millions of visitors. Ended up paying double for a capsule hotel near Shinjuku. Has anyone else hit this wall with popular Asian cities?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan_lewis185d ago

Tokyo hostels booking up that fast is wild. It's like a whole different beast compared to Europe. @elliotw37 is right about smaller guesthouses though, I found a great one in Kyoto that way. Capsule hotels are fine but you're paying for the novelty, not the space. Next time I'm locking in my bed at least 4 months out.

elliotw375d ago

Did you check any of the smaller guesthouses or minshuku? Some of those don't pop up on the big booking sites you're probably looking at.