After solidifying award flights for 6 people to and from Japan for our trip next summer (see this post), it was time for me to figure out lodging. Booking international hotels for large families is always a challenge since so many of them have low occupancy rules (many only fit 2 people). And, my kids hate sleeping in the same room as me and my husband because we supposedly snore.
So, using hotel points isn’t usually the answer when we travel internationally. I decided to look at both home rentals and hotels for this trip.
Tokyo Lodging
We will be in Tokyo for 5 nights. In addition to visiting the city sites, we will be going to Tokyo Disney Sea theme park.
My first preference was to find a home rental that would fit all 6 of us that would be convenient for the entire duration in Tokyo. However, I couldn’t find a rental that didn’t have at least one of these deal breakers:
- inconvenient location
- sleeping in one big room
- only one bathroom
My second preference was to use World of Hyatt points to stay at Hyatt House Tokyo Shibuya. This is a new hotel connected to Shibuya Station, right in the middle of the action. A standard room costs 15,000 World of Hyatt points, and we could use our credit card free night certificates to stay there.
Unfortunately, this hotel is really popular in the miles and points community right now. There was only one room available using miles and points because the rest were sold out (including suites) for our dates. And this was at 11 months prior to our trip. The standard room on points only has one king bed and no sofa bed, which isn’t ideal for most in our group. I emailed the hotel to ask if I could pay extra to upgrade to a room with two twin beds, and the hotel responded with a no. While we could keep the one room on points and book two other rooms with cash, the price is over $300+ per night for each room. I predict this hotel will go up a category or two next year.
Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay is only 9000 points per night during our dates. The hotel has a free shuttle to Tokyo Disney Sea, but it’s not convenient to the rest of Tokyo. So, I decided we would split our stay in Tokyo. I booked 3 rooms here for 2 nights.
For our other nights in Tokyo, I booked 3 rooms at Dormy Inn Premium Shibuya Jingumae Hot Spring. It’s a budget hotel that was 40% off on hotels.com with a rate that included breakfast. The hotel is a short walk from Takeshita Street in Harajuku and Shibuya Scramble Crossing. The hotel has free ramen and popsicles, which is a selling point for the teens and young adults in our group.
Kyoto Lodging
My first choice for Kyoto lodging was to use points to stay at Hyatt Place Kyoto. Standard rooms for our dates are running 9500 points per night, and the cash price isn’t too bad, either. Rooms with twin beds are available.
However, Leana talked me into renting a machiya (traditional Japanese townhome made of wood). I found one in the historic district that has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. One bedroom has traditional beds, and the other two have traditional Japanese futons. I actually booked this place before we added the 6th person to our travel group, but it still works perfectly.
Final Thoughts
Even though I used miles and points to book award flights to and from Japan, this trip is still not “free” by any stretch of the definition. However, using miles and points helps me offset the expenses. All of the lodging I booked is refundable, so if better deal comes along for Tokyo, I can still make a switch.
I am following your Japan trip closely since I also have a trip in May. It’s just myself and my husband so we luckily have been able to book the Hyatt house shibuya, park Hyatt Kyoto, Hilton Tokyo bay and Conrad Osaka for our 14 day trip.
@Nat Sounds like you have a solid plan!
I had the same issue when planning our Japan trip. Most apartments I’ve looked at had one bathroom, and that’s just not ideal with five people. One place I’ve wanted to mention to you is Comfort Suites Tokyo Bay. The rooms fit three, and the price is 20k Choice points per night. https://www.choicehotels.com/japan/urayasu-city/comfort-suites-hotels/jp085?checkInDate=2024-09-24&checkOutDate=2024-09-26&ratePlanCode=SR
Of course, you can only book it 100 days in advance, but something to keep in mind and could be worth applying for Choice credit card. I’ll take 54k Hyatt points over 80k Choice points any day.
Seems like you found some nice accommodations.
For Kyoto I can also recommend ANA Crowne Plaza that right across the Nijo-Castle and it’s a nice hotel with larger rooms and great breakfast. Machiya must be nice for your larger group to have to yourself.
We were also looking at love hotel options in Tokyo for our last trip and there a few options, but ended up not staying in Tokyo and instead flew to Okinawa, and stayed 3 nights at ANA InterContinental Manza Beach Resort – very nice property on the National Park reef.
Left Tokyo for our next Japan trip 😉
Happy travels!
We stayed at Hotel Tobu Asakusa. Probably not the best for Disney but central to much of the rest of Tokyo! About a two min walk to the metro.
Mimaru hotels
I did a Japan trip for a family of six (although 3/4 kids were adults) In Tokyo they did 100 stay, two triple rooms and then in Osaka, the cross hotel, also two triple rooms
@Harmony Thanks for the recommendations.
I am at Hyatt House in Shibuya right now and it is awesome. Got a GOH with free breakfast and water. Everything here is incredible. Going to Hyatt Place next week. But very hot and humid and this is September!
@Nicky Glad Hyatt House is awesome! Have a great trip.