Inbound travel is back and “hotels in Japan are too expensive to stay”… “Unexpected secret measures” for summer vacations and business trips.
As soon as you can travel with impunity…
Prices for lodging facilities such as “hotels” and “ryokans” in Japan are now skyrocketing across the board. The main reason is the resumption of inbound travel to Japan, in addition to the fact that the new type of coronavirus infection has been moved to “category 5” since May 8 this year, and travel restrictions have been removed.
Since about the same time, we have often heard people say that hotels in Japan are too expensive to stay in. During this year’s summer vacation period, businesspeople who are forced to stay in hotels for business trips are also voicing their concerns. The “National Travel Assistance” program, which offered travel at a discount, is scheduled to end at the end of June in 39 prefectures. In the future, Chinese tourists are expected to flood back into Japan, which will make hotels in Japan even more expensive.
In this article, we will introduce the latest situation of domestic travel, including the current situation of hotel prices going up across the board, the movements during and after this year’s summer vacation, and the opinions of travel industry experts who say that there are still “secret ways” to save money on lodging.
COVID-19 crisis “1.5 to 2 times” more expensive than usual…
First, let us introduce some examples of hotel prices during the summer vacation period this year (2011).
(Example) Sapporo, July 29-30 (1 night), 2 persons per room *”Google Hotels” as of June 10
- JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo 46,018 yen
- Dormy Inn PREMIUM Sapporo 27,000 yen
- Tokyu Stay Sapporo 26,200 yen
- Hotel JAL City Sapporo Nakajima Koen 25,760 yen
- Sapporo Grand Hotel 25,560 yen
- Comfort Hotel Sapporo Susukino 24,038 yen
- JR East Hotel Mets Sapporo: 21,395 yen
- Sapporo Washington Hotel Plaza 16,715 yen
In Sapporo, there is demand for business as well as sightseeing. Single rooms for one person are sometimes half of the above prices, but still cost around 10,000 yen per night or even more.
Incidentally, the author (Shikama Aki) stayed at the Sapporo Washington Hotel Plaza on a weekend in late July last year. The difference in price is not so big if the difference is only a few thousand yen per night, but the difference is huge if you stay several nights in a row.
