Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky and everyone,

I’m planning to visit Tokyo for the Olympics. I already purchased a few event tickets. Yesterday, I was casually searching for hotels in Tokyo. I was quite surprised there is essentially no availability at any major hotels. The hotel groups (Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, Hilton, etc) combined have 0 rooms available!! Not just points rooms, I’m talking about all rooms.

I went to the World Cup in Russia last year. The hotel situation wasn’t as bad at all.

Based on your experience, what is happening here? Are the rooms really sold out (to teams/athelete families/organazations) or are the hotels blacking out these dates so that they can sell later?

If anyone is going to the games, have you planned out accommodations?

A lot of times those rooms are booked by media and tour groups years in advance. If you’re in the US I think CoSport, the official ticket provider, also has hotel packages.

I ran into something similar in Vancouver and ended up staying in Bellingham, WA and driving an hour each way. That’s before I got into points & miles so was paying cash and even that room was over priced as compared to what it would have been during a normal week.

I’d also check Airbnb

With the train system in Japan, I wouldn’t hesitate to get a pass and stay a little outside the city. And just keep checking on the hotels. You might get more availability closer to the events.