I love the Toyoko Inn hotel chain in Japan. Their prices are fair, they are located right next to bigger train and subway stations, they offer free breakfast from 7 till 9.30 and free WiFi / internet 24/7, their staff usually speaks at least a little bit of English, they have a discount and point system for members – and you can make online reservations via their English homepage.
One reason I was hesitating to go on a trip *as mention in the previous blog post* was the fact that I was in-between credit cards for a couple of weeks. (In my experience it’s close to impossible for foreigners to get a credit card in Japan – but I am looking forward to the comments of every expat who got one… I know people who were rejected more than half a dozen times, I tried it once or twice and then got one in Germany…) But you need a credit card to make an online reservation at a Toyoko Inn – or so I thought.
When it was clear that I would spend the first night of my trip in Nagoya I stopped worrying. Last weekend wasn’t a typical time to travel in Japan (unlike *Golden Week*) and Toyoko Inn has six hotels in Nagoya, eight if you count the ones close to the airport – I was sure I would get a room somewhere. So the plan was to show up at one of them and ask the staff to make a reservation for me for the second night, which I planned to spend in Matsusaka – a town famous for its high quality beef, which turned out to be more dead then the cows it is famous for.
Luckily my plan was a good one, so I checked in at the hotel of my choice in Nagoya and asked the staff to call their sister hotel in Matsusaka to get me a reservation for the following night since I didn’t have a credit card. The friendly lady at the counter pointed to the opposite wall across the lobby and asked me to use the internet to make the reservation myself. I repeated that I didn’t have a credit card and therefore couldn’t make the online reservation. The answer was “You don’t need a credit card to make an online reservation.” – so I told her that I needed one when I tried to make one the night before. Since the hotel receptionist insisted that I wouldn’t need a card and was eager to show me that she was right we started the procedure on their English homepage – as usual. Another guest arrived so I filled out the form, scrolled down and… there it was, the section for the credit card information. I left it blank, tried to continue and of course it didn’t work and I got an error message. When the receptionist showed up again she seemed to be very surprised, switched the language settings of the homepage to Japanese and… finished the reservation without having to enter credit card information! She didn’t even have to log out / start the procedure from the beginning, she just switched the language settings and pressed a button to finalize the reservation.
I totally understand that hotels need some kind of security when people make online reservations and that’s the reason I never had a problem entering my credit card information when making an online reservation at a Toyoko Inn, 15 times for trips in 2012 alone. In fact they don’t charge your credit card and you can pay cash upon arrival, it’s just a security measure for no-shows, which I completely understand. Nevertheless I am kind of irritated by the fact that you have to put in your credit card information when you make the reservation in English, but not when you make it in Japanese – to me it implies that Toyoko Inn considers people who prefer to make reservations in Japanese more reliable than people who make reservations in English; which could be considered borderline racist. Again, I understand that (most) online hotel reservations require credit card information. But either it’s a general requirement for Toyoko Inn or not – doing it on the basis of the language chosen on the homepage feels wrong to me, as it means that not all customers are treated equally.
What do you think? „WTF?“ or “WTF!”?
(To end this posting on a lighter note I’ll add some non-urbex photos and videos I took during my three day trip. Inuyama Castle, Tagata Shrine Festival, Mount Gozaisho, Yunoyama Onsen, Toba, Iruka Island, Ise Shrine, … If anybody is familiar with dolphins please have a look at the video and let me know what you think – to me it looks like the poor creature was desperate to get away as it repeated the same motion at the “prison gates” to the ocean over and over again; I didn’t watch any shows on the island and didn’t spend any money there – Iruka Island (iruka = dolphin) was an optional stop on a harbor cruise I took in Toba.)
Abandoned Kansai 
First! I didn’t apply for a Japanese credit card until I had lived here for fourteen years. I got one with no problem.
I love Toyoko Inns and often use them, but I had no idea the Japanese-language page doesn’t require credit cards to make reservations. You are right that it seems borderline racist. I will say something to them!
Wow, yeah, after 14 years it would be really bad if you wouldn’t have gotten one. I can understand that banks a cautious with foreigners since they have a reputation of leaving the country without paying outstanding taxes or fulfilling their mobile phone contracts, but if you live here for several years and have a steady income from the same company then it shouldn’t be a problem to get a CC. But Japanese banks are a special topic anyway. The other day it took me almost 45 minutes to make a money transfer to an overseas account!
I am sorry about your stress but eventually it worked and your trip looks just fabulous. I would love to go here.
Well, it was definitely a first world problem, so nobody should feel sorry for me – but I am glad that I went, as almost always when I go on a trip. Japan is such a lovely country to travel within.
If you check the same hotel in Rakuten in English and Japanese you’ll usually find cheaper rates in the Japanese version as well. Although I assume it’s usually because the hotels don’t bother with entering every special in English as well and only have their regular rates translated. Still, doesn’t surprise me.
I try to stay away from captive dolphin facilities. If you’ve seen them in the wild, it’s quite clear that they aren’t creatures that are happy in captivity.
Constantly updating several language versions of a homepage can be a pain, but they do it to attract more customers – it’s part of their business plan. The CC thing is even weirder as it doesn’t require updates. And the Japanese version proves that it’s unnecessary in the first place…
I am not a fan of animals in captivity in general – that’s why I didn’t visit the rather famous aquarium in Toba and didn’t see any show at Iruka Island. The stop there was optional on a harbor cruise, which I really enjoyed.
I experienced the same with our weekly mansion in Osaka. However, in their case I doubt that it has to do with updating their english pages, as they are very active. In their case they honestly feel it’s a good idea to charge about 10 euros per night more to foreigners. Luckily the native pages are pretty navigable.
The Yen lost quite a bit of value over the past 6 months, maybe the price difference was related to that? But I agree, if they update the page on a regular basis they should update their prices, too – especially if they accept foreign currencies. (Different Yen prices on the other hand would be a completely different thing – no excuses for that!)
Really good blog! Clearly a lot of effort was put into this 🙂
Thanks a lot!
I didn’t struggle getting a credit card. Well, it’s a VISA debit card, but it’s like a credit card. The only difference is that you can only use the amount of money that you actually have on the card / account.
Try “Suruga Bank”. You should have no problems with them, but you need to know Japanese as they offer no service in English!
I love the Toyoko Inn hotel chain and never had any issues.
I was a bit annoyed when they recently started to request your credit card number, although I understand why they do it. I was only annoyed because it takes more time to make a reservation now.
I am just as surprised as you that you can make a reservation w/out your credit card info on the Japanese site, though.
Next time, I’ll use the Japanese site instead.
I never thought of debit cards – I’ve heard of them, but I never knew anybody who has one. Seems it would have been a viable option, especially since I don’t need the credit aspect of a credit card – to me it’s just a convenient way to pay things. I haven’t been in debt with anybody since I borrowed money from my sister to buy an Amiga 500 as a young teenager. 🙂
After being rejected 7 times for credit cards in Japan, I also got a visa debit card from Suruga Bank. It works great for all the online stuff, and I can add money to it via a convenience store ATM. something to consider.
Debit card from Suruga Bank… I should have mentioned my CC problem half a year ago – I really didn’t know that debit cards are such a great alternative.
It is much easier to open a credit card with the same bank that you are using, especially if you are using that bank for several years already and there are activities on it. I am still using the same credit card that I have from my country, works like a charm here in Japan.
For online reservations, I always use Japanese page cause I found out that there are more payment options than the English site. Even the tour company that I usually join, the English website only accepts credit card but the Japanese one , you can by bank, convenience store or credit card. A lot of times, most of the English page are not even updated, just some really basic information. Sometimes it’s really annoying, they should just remove the English page if they can’t maintain it.
Me and some of my colleagues tried exactly that – we were always rejected, although we worked for the same company with regular raises. But well, I have a CC from Germany again, so everything’s fine.
Since my English is way better than my Japanese I prefer to do money related thing on English (or German) websites, just to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings. But since it’s enough to switch languages at the Toyoko Inn homepage I might give it a try in the future…
I just got a credit card first try. But I’ve lived here for around 9 years.
English versions of company web pages are usually rubbish. Check out the softbank English home page, it’s well out of date. It’s probably not racist, just that being a Japanese company in Japan, they do most of their business in Japanese with Japanese people.
I actually don’t mind if non-native homepages are not 100% up to date. It shows a certain sloppiness of the respective company, but I can understand that; especially when updates are made on a regular basis and in case of minor updates. The Toyoko Inn thing rubbed me the wrong way a bit when I found out, because it treats customers who are able to read Japanese fluently differently from people who don’t. That’s all. Not a biggie, especially since I find it totally understandable that they require CC information when booking a room – but either it’s a requirement or not, don’t make it mandatory for one language and not the other. I would have had the same feeling if the languages in question would have been English and Spanish, German and English or any other combination.
Great post. I also get irritated at racist comments or segregation here, but then it’s pretty much the same the world over. When I was in Thailand I could read just enough to see that our prices and their prices were often quite different, but then our income and their income is also quite different! I don’t mind using my Japanese skill to take someone to task for being offensive or demanding something–like a passport at a hotel–that they don’t actually have the right to demand. But as for the reservation system, yeah, just put your Japanese skill to work and enjoy the benefits!
Thanks Todd!
I guess it really is the same all over the world, but I grew up in quite a liberal family in Germany – without racism or nationalism. The whole “Proud to be…” thing feels strange to me. How can you be proud to be part of a nation? It’s nothing you accomplished, it’s pure chance. (Unless you change your nationality, but how often does that happen? And even then you didn’t accomplish anything but changing your nationality.) But well, I guess in the end that’s my problem since the majority of mankind still thinks that their respective country is the best in the world – and that their religion is the only true one…
Japanese are more reliable than foreigners. Period.
Forget the politically correct nonsense from your Western education and accept that it is a reasonable business concept, not racist at all.
That’s just, like, your opinion… man.