Travel accommodation is a major expenditure. So one wants to find a
Tokyo cheap hotel - also comfortable with competent staff able to consult in city trips and distant sights.
Choose a hotel near the city part you want to inspect or from where you can fast get off by subway or bus. In frequent travels out of town look for a hotel near a railroad or bus station. It'll save you road time greatly.
There're 4 basic methods:
1. Web booking services. Here're some:
* HostelWorld.com provides on-line confirmed bookings for hostels, budget accommodation centres and package tours.
* HostelBookers.com is the independent hostel booking site that has no booking fees. With youth hostels and cheap accommodation in over 2,500 destinations worldwide, our aim is to be the number one site for student travel, backpackers and for the general traveller.
* HotelsCombined.com is a search engine that you can use it to find hotel availability and rates, and to compare prices and offers from multiple merchants.
2. Hotel online catalogs. Reservation is at the given phone N. Here're some:
* AsiaRooms.com
* J-Hotel.or.jp
3. Guidebooks for hotel search.
* Lonely Planet (LP) is one of the largest travel guidebook publishers in the world. It was the first popular series of travel books aimed at backpackers and other low-cost travelers. As of 2008, it published about 500 titles in 8 languages, with annual sales of more than six million guidebooks.
* National Geographic brings over a century of incomparable travel expertise to today's sophisticated globe-trotters. Each National Geographic Traveler features: detailed background and site descriptions, mapped walking and driving tours, fascinating vignettes on history, culture, contemporary life, a 60-page directory of visitor information, including notable hotels and restaurants, entertainment, and shopping.
* Rough Guides is a guidebook which cover more than 200 destinations. Initially, the series was aimed at low-budget backpackers, but they are now marketed to travellers on all budgets. The initial focus on travel has broadened to a coverage of reference subjects, including music and a varied general reference list on topics such as film, literature, popular science, ethical living, etc.
4. Hotel booking at a tourist office.
Things to notice:
Pets
Very few Japanese hotels admit pets. To bring a pet into the country, you need its health certificate, 12-hour airport quarantine and a 2-week home quarantine.
Hotel safe
Keep your valuables in the room or hotel deposit. Although Japan is rather quiet, being on the safe side is always good.
Kids
Hostels don't admit kids under 4. Check their admittance to hotels.
Meals
Breakfast and dinner aren't usually covered by the room price, unlike ryokan (small private hotels) where they're often served to rooms.
Check in/check out
Their time usually differ by 1-3 hours. Besides, at night some hotels close.
Hotel choice
Read recent user comments thoroughly about service quality, latest hotel problems and so on to make a final decision afterwards.
Hotel reach
Carry the following info:
* voucher
* hotel address and detailed route from a subway or bus station
* Tokyo subway bilingual map.
Note that few Japanese know English. So always keep the hotel address and map in Japanese. When hard to find the hotel, take a taxi.
Have a nice stay in Tokyo!
