Ryokan guide
How to book a ryokan
Rates are quoted per person, dinner is cooked for the guests booked, and cancellation terms follow from that. Most of the confusion starts with the first of those.
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How rates are quoted
Japanese inns price per person, per night, not per room. A rate shown for a room of two usually means that figure for each of you. Booking sites built for hotels sometimes display the total instead, which is why the same inn can appear to cost wildly different amounts on two sites.
Rates also move with occupancy. Two people sharing pay less each than one person alone, and some inns will not take a single guest at all on busy nights. Children are charged by age band, often as a share of the adult rate depending on whether they need a meal and bedding.
When you compare two listings, check three things before the number means anything: per person or per room, how many meals are included, and whether tax and any bathing levy are in or out.
Meal plans
Most countryside inns sell one night with dinner and breakfast as the standard plan. Breakfast-only and room-only plans exist, and are the norm at city inns, particularly in Kyoto.
| Plan | Written | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Two meals | 1泊2食 | One night, dinner and breakfast |
| Breakfast only | 朝食付き | One night and breakfast |
| Room only | 素泊まり | The room, no meals |
Dinner is served at a set hour, usually early, and the kitchen shops for the number of guests booked. That is why meals can rarely be added or dropped after the fact.
How far ahead to book
Small inns have very few rooms, so the good ones sell out long before the town does. As a rough guide: the autumn foliage weeks and the cherry blossom period need several months, Japanese public holidays and New Year need as much notice as you can manage, and an ordinary midweek night outside those periods is often available a few weeks ahead.
If your dates are fixed and the inn matters more than the region, book the inn first and plan the route around it.
Where to book
Three routes exist. International booking sites are the easiest if you do not read Japanese, take card payment and confirm instantly. Japanese reservation sites list more small inns, especially ones with no English page. Booking directly with the inn by email or phone works well and sometimes unlocks plans the sites do not carry, but small properties may reply slowly or in Japanese only.
Our listings link to booking partners so you can compare availability, and we may earn a commission when you book through those links, at no extra cost to you. It costs nothing to check the inn's own site before you confirm, and we would rather you did.
What to tell the inn
Japanese inns plan around the guests they are expecting, so the booking form asks more than a hotel would. Answer it properly and the evening runs smoothly.
- Your expected arrival time, and a message if you will be late
- Allergies and dietary needs, at the time of booking rather than at the table
- The ages of any children travelling with you
- Whether you need a room with a private bath, or want to reserve one
- Whether anyone in the party has difficulty with stairs or floor seating
Cancellation
Cancellation terms are stricter than at a city hotel, because the food is bought for your booking. Charges commonly begin a few days before arrival and rise steeply on the day, though the exact schedule varies by inn and by season.
Read the specific terms on the page you book through, and treat a peak-season booking as close to final once made.
Before you travel
Check the last bus or shuttle to the inn, since rural services stop early and a missed connection is expensive. If you are moving between cities, luggage forwarding from a hotel or convenience store to your next stop is cheap and widely used, which saves carrying a large case up a mountain railway.
Confirm whether the inn takes cards. Most do now, but small family-run places sometimes remain cash only, and rural cash machines keep short hours.
Common questions
- Can I book for one person?
- Often, at a higher per-person rate. Some inns hold back single bookings on weekends and holidays, so search midweek dates if a solo stay is what you want.
- Do I need to speak Japanese?
- Not to book through an international site. For a direct booking at a small inn, a short, plainly written email usually works, and translation tools handle the reply.
- What if my train is delayed?
- Call the inn, or ask station staff to. Arriving late without word is the one thing that genuinely causes problems, because dinner is prepared for a fixed hour.
- Are the prices on this site live?
- No. We show what we checked and when we checked it. The booking partner's page is the authority on the rate you will actually pay.
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