Staying in Tokyo with family for, what I would consider, a reasonable price, can be challenging. Personally, we are finding, for our next trip (March 2018), that it is challenging to find places for four of us to stay that won’t break the bank. However, we have less flexibility on where we want to stay which makes it slightly more challenging. If you don’t care so much which station you are staying at, you probably have more options. Our kids are also a bit older now, so squeezing two people into a twin bed doesn’t work as well any more.

Doing a quick Google search for “family friendly hotels in tokyo japan" will give you a list of sites which, at least for the five I looked at, provide a list of hotels with very brief descriptions. When the Four Seasons and the Shangri-la start showing up on the lists, I know those lists probably won’t work for me. If you’re willing to spend the money, by all means, go ahead. It’ll be comfortable, and you will be taken care of¹. Some day I would like to try it, but for now, I will take a different approach.

Below I will describe out a few option to consider, focussing on ones that I have personal experience with. If you have other experiences, please feel free to leave comments!

For this discussion, I have assumed that you don’t mind sharing a double bed.

General Comments

Most of the hotel rooms that I have stayed in Japan have been with Japanese business hotel chains so they are small. Like claustrophobic small. But they didn’t cost more than ¥10,000 per night.

I would divide hotels in Japan in to several groups:

1. International hotel chains (Shangri-La, Four Seasons, Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, etc.)
2. Japanese hotel chains (Washington, Prince, Tokyu, Nikko, etc.)
3. Ryokan - traditional style inn
4. Japanese business hotels (Toyoko Inn, APA Hotel, Route Inn, Daiwa Roynet Hotel, etc.)
5. Specialty Hotels (Capsule hotels, love hotels)

On top of hotels, there are AirBnB options and, of course, friends and family.

International Hotel Chains

If you have the funds, by all means, stay in one of these. Rooms and beds are generally “normal"-sized by North American standards. However, just a warning that you might not be able to find a room with two double beds (i.e., able to sleep four in a room). If you’ve got a couple of young kids, you might be able to make do, but if your kids are in the same age bracket as mine (9-12), it’ll be a little tight in one room with two semi-double beds.

Japanese Hotel Chains

If you’re traveling on a tour, you’ll likely end up in one of these hotels. The Shinjuku Prince Hotel and the Akasaka Excel Hotel Tokyu seems to be a popular ones. Sometimes you might get a good deal, but you’ll probably run into the same problems as with the international hotel chains with only twin rooms (two single beds) or, at max, triple (three single beds) room.

Ryokan

Ryokan is a whole separate experience (and blog post), which everyone must try at least once in their life. Fitting a family into a ryokan room is quite easy, given that the room often sleeps up to six futons. However, you probably don’t want to stay in one your entire trip due to the cost, which often includes two delicious meals (dinner and breakfast). Google “ryokan Tokyo" will turn up a bunch of listings. I would recommend that you save your ryokan experience for onsen areas, like Hakone or Nikko. Again, a separate post.

Japanese business hotels

These are our go-tos for staying in Japan for a reasonable cost. The rooms are small and you will need to get several to accommodate everyone, but if you can get a couple of double rooms, it’s often still cheaper than staying at one of the higher end hotels. Below are a couple of ones to take a look at. There are others, such as Route Inn and Daiwa Roynet Hotels that you could also take a look at.

Toyoko Inn

This chain of over 250 no-frills business hotels is our go-to place to stay. This great post on business hotels aptly describes them as the “McDonald’s" of hotels. They all look pretty similar but that’s a good thing. You can use the space under the bed to store your suitcase, although you may need to do some special maneuvering to get your larger suitcases underneath. The “unit bath" is functional, if a bit tight, with a shower/bath, sink and toilet crammed into the space about 2 telephone booths. A very simple breakfast is provided. Wi-fi and coin laundry machines are usually available.

The locations may be a little farther from the station, i.e., they won’t be across the street, but some, like the ones around Ueno, Akihabara and Tokyo stations, have a shuttle bus service.

Sunroute Hotel

While I have never stayed at a Sunroute Hotel, a family friend always stayed at the Hotel Sunroute Ariake with her two daughters when they came to visit us. It’s in Ariake, near the Odaiba shopping and entertainment district, Tokyo Big Sight, Fuji TV, the Rainbow Bridge and Oedo Onsen Monogatari (which is another blog post in itself)! It’s also quite easily accessible to Tokyo Disneyland, requiring only about 20 minutes and one transfer to get to Maihama station.

Specialty Hotels

Specialty Hotels like capsule hotels and love hotels might be fun to stay at if you’re traveling by yourself, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea to take your family there. I don’t think they will let young kids stay alone in a capsule, nor will they let two squeeze into the same capsule. Love hotels and families have obvious issues, although I’ve heard that the rooms and beds can be quite large.

AirBnB

There are AirBnB options and I have had friends use them. AirBnB is a legally and socially gray area in Japan, especially in the more densely populated regions. I don’t have experience with AirBnB, but I just recommend that you be considerate of your neighbours, especially if the unit is in an apartment block.

Above are a few options to consider. Perhaps more to come in the comments or another post.