[Question] TDL - No hotels available in November?

[parcoast]

I'm going to be in Tokyo for business and since I am an avid DL fan, thought I would take next weekend and visit TDL. The problem: I can't seem to find a hotel in the area. I checked the other posts in this section and the hilton/sheraton/universe hotels don't have any vacancies. The closest thing I could find is a 30 min. train ride away, and I was hoping to be a little closer for the weekend (my job is 90 minutes away-no good).

Any suggestions? Did I pick a holiday weekend or something? On the TDL website they aren't even selling any more tickets to TDL on Sunday. I guess it is sold out? I'd also like to find a rate less than 140 a night, if possible (Im on my own so small rooms aren't a problem.)

Thanks!

[DuffyGuardian]

Re: TDL - No hotels available in November?

Im not sure if you are on a holiday weekend or not.

One hotel we stayed at during our visit to Tokyo was
Hotel Monterey Ginza
2 10 2 Ginza Chuo
KuTokyo
phone: 03-3544-7111

It cost us $164.64 a night last November. The staff was very nice, helpful, it seemed there was always at least one english speaking person working all the time. The rooms are small but great for one to two people. Places to grab a bit to eat close by, a liquor store and Mc Donalds also close. Not to long of a walk to a train station. We did take a cab, when we had luggage.

From what I can remember it was about 20-30 min from the hotel to TDR. Pretty easy. Went quicker then we thought it would.

I know the hotel chain has other locations so you may check on line, there could be a closer one.

[JoeInJpn]

Re: TDL - No hotels available in November?

Hello parcoast, unfortunately you're trying to get a hotel near TDR during a time which:

1. happens to be a weekend (Sat night).
2. a major special event has recently begun (Christmas).
3. includes a national holiday (following Monday is Labor Day).

So it makes the pickings even more slim. By the way, what's the hotel that you found which is 30-min away?

[parcoast]

Re: TDL - No hotels available in November?

Thanks for both posts. I will update this with a review of where ever I stay, if I actually get to go. Not excited about the crowds, but you can't love DL and not come to terms with crowds.

I was looking at Dormy Inn Soga. There seems to be a number of places close to the train station in Soga that might work for a single person. I have used Japanican.com a number of times, which is where I saw this one. Japanican often offers rooms at locations that report as fully booked when you check their own websites, and it also has pretty good deals, although sometimes a limited selection.

[lonegungirl]

Re: TDL - No hotels available in November?

Sometimes the websites don't reflect the actual room availability. I know I was stuck with no room for last Friday, and ended up just walking over to the Hilton and asking to book one on points and they gave it to me. If you can call the hotel directly, you might have better luck.

[TDLFAN]

Re: TDL - No hotels available in November?

Hmmm.. I am surprised you could not get a room at hotel universe because I have never had any problems booking there during holidays. but there is another hotel a block away called hotel sardonix which is new and also looks nice.
As for soga.. hmmm.. long train ride from there to TDR. If you must stay there, try to catch the Keiyo rapid train, which skips several stops and makes the trip to maihama faster.

[parcoast]

Re: TDL - No hotels available in November?

Well, this is "slightly" delayed, but here is the result as promised.

It turns out that lonegungirl was right. The website doesn't have accurate info. On their website there is a calendar view that shows availability and rates. At first the night I was looking for didn't show anything available, so I didn't go any further. But after posting here I went back to the site, and I revisited the calendar, which still showed no vacancy, but I clicked on it anyway, and it worked!

So I spent a night at Hotel Universe. It was manageable, although the room smelled distinctly of smoke, and I must have made some cultural mistake when checking in because the woman at the desk started laughing, and COULD NOT stop through the whole process. That was the funniest I have ever been in my whole life, and I don't even know what I did. Dang.

The price was reasonable and the location was pretty good--I just walked the two blocks from the Hacchobori station. The google map for the area has great landmarks (all 3 Lawson stores you have to walk by). The train ride was quick. Note for anyone else who stays there: make your life a little simpler by re-entering the subway at the same place you exited. I passed two other Hacchobori exits on the way to the hotel, so thought I would try out a different one in the morning and ended up on the wrong platform. A problem easily solved by five minutes of hand gestures and one-word sentences with the gentleman at the turnstiles, but I will aim to avoid that problem in the future.

I would stay there again, but not without checking my other options first.

Thanks to all for your replies.

[Fukai]

Re: TDL - No hotels available in November?

Yes, once in a while you will get the smell of smoke in your room. It can be MUCH worse at other small hotels.