Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
With summer vacation season coming up, there are a lot of people looking forward to taking a trip to Japan in the coming weeks. And while some of them are going to be splurging on luxury accommodations or a night in a traditional ryokan inn, a lot of them will be looking to allocate more of their budget for sightseeing, dining, and shopping, and so have booked rooms in no-frills hotels with reasonable rates and great locations.
Unfortunately, it looks like some people who think they've booked those low-priced, conveniently located hotel rooms actually haven't. Toyoko Inn, one of Japan's largest budget hotel chains, with roughly 350 properties and 77,000 rooms across Japan, has put out an announcement warning travelers that the company may not have received their reservation if they made it through an overseas booking site. The problem isn't limited to shady, fly-by-night organizations, either, as Toyoko Inn's press release regarding the matter makes specific mention of Agoda, the Singapore-based subsidiary of the American-headquartered Booking Holdings, which is also the parent company of Booking.com.
According to Toyoko Inn, problems have arisen where overseas booking sites are taking reservations for rooms that were originally allocated to official Toyoko Inn partners, but are now being resold by third-party agents. This has resulted in reservation information not being properly passed along to Toyoko Inn, or the provided reservation information not accurately reflecting the traveler's requested stay dates and room types. In other words, if you've made a Toyoko Inn reservation through an overseas booking site, there's a chance Toyoko Inn doesn't know about it, so when you roll up to the front desk, they might not be able to do anything other than regretfully inform you that you've got no place to stay.
Toyoko Inn's press release also mentions that reservations made through overseas booking sites have encountered problems with 'overcharged rates' and 'offering non-refundable options.'
Knowing this, your first instinct might be to contact the Toyoko Inn branch where you're planning to stay and confirm the details of your reservation. However, the company's statement instead instructs travelers to get in touch with the booking service they made their reservation with, saying in its statement:
If you reserved through third party websites, we kindly ask you to contact those parties directly as Toyoko Inn is unable to confirm, modify, or cancel your reservation (including pre-paid credit card bookings) due to procedural constraints.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.
Again, though Agoda is the only booking service mentioned by name, Toyoko Inn says such issues have been cropping up with 'some overseas booking sites,' implying that reservations made through Agoda aren't the only ones at risk, so unless you booked with Toyoko Inn directly, double-checking with the service you used before you get on the plane is the smart move.
Source: Toyoko Inn (1, 2)
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