I decided to go to Tokyo extremely last minute (I left the same day I made the decision). Because of that, there weren't many hotel options available, so I ultimately booked APA Hotel & Resort Ryogoku Ekimae Tower. I don't usually go for resorts, but it had good reviews and, honestly, I just needed somewhere to stay.
I went straight to the hotel from the airport and began the standard check in process. I had prepaid $1,400 AUD for nine nights through Booking.com, as I usually do.
However, during check-in, the reception staff asked me to pay again. I was confused because I had already paid in full. I showed them my Booking.com reservation and the payment confirmation from my banking app, but they still insisted that I needed to pay.
I wasn't about to pay $1,400 a second time, so I sat in the lounge area across from reception to contact Booking.com and figure out what had gone wrong. (I've used Booking.com many times before and have never had any issues.) About 15 minutes later, a security guard told me I had to leave because the lounge area was for guests only. I was understandably upset, but I complied because I didn't want to cause a scene or seem like a Karen.
I then spent the next hour and a half outside the hotel, in the middle of the night, trying to resolve the issue with Booking.com. Shortly after, I received a notification on the app saying the hotel had marked me as a no-show.
Because the booking was non-refundable, I didn't get the money back.
At that point, I was panicking (I was a solo female traveller with nowhere to stay). I managed to pull myself together and book a nearby capsule hotel for the night. The following day, I contacted the resort's customer service, but they essentially said there was nothing they could do 🙁
Edit: Refund received from Booking.com. Thanks to everyone who offered helpful advice. Lesson learned haha
by Anxious-Babe111
45 comments
Ok. But what did booking.com say?
Maybe stop going to Neo Nazi hotels.
For reference, the correct procedure here is to pester booking.com until they call the hotel and resolve the matter. It may take a few hours, good luck !
Sorry you had a bad experience here. I work in hospitality (not that brand) so I am admittedly biased, but my first recommendation to people is to not use OTAs if you can help it. We have a lot more leeway to help guests when they are direct bookings, because otherwise everything has to go through the intermediary service. The hotel customer service isn’t going to be able to do a whole lot for you at this point, but you may want to press booking on it more.
I am going to assume they weren’t just asking for a CC for incidentals, but they actually wanted to charge the full rate to you a second time? Unless the hotel made a massive oversight (which is entirely possible) the problem sounds a lot more like something on booking.com’s side. Normally in an OTA booking they will be making a virtual credit card for the amount charged to you that the hotel then charges.
That sounds awful.
Typically, you need to pay the taxes, which are not included in your booking costs. It won’t be $1400, but it might be around 10% of that. Are you sure that’s not what they were asking for?
Sorry that happened to you, that must’ve been very stressful.
Document everything and keep receipts for anything extra you pay for, accomodation, travel, food, then claim it off travel insurance if you have it. You may have it automatically if you paid on a credit card.
Personally, I would’ve just paid again then let the insurance deal with it. But it is a lot of money and I’m privileged to have a decent credit limit to absorb issues like this (I recently had a very expensive flight delay which I fortunately got everything back for a month later thanks to the credit card).
What did booking.com say? makes no sense. I’ve used 3rd party sites all over the world. Never had a problem.. did u pay with a credit card.. can have it taken off ?
Sorry, but I honestly don’t buy this story. I’ve stayed there before, and I’ve also been there without being a guest. There isn’t security hovering around or kicking people out. The lobby is always full of people sitting in the chairs, and with the Lawson upstairs, there are usually people hanging out there as well.
If I had one real complaint from my stay, it’s that the elevators are *painfully* slow but that’s about it.
What did booking.com say? I bet the hotel hadn’t received anything from them.
What time did u arrive at the hotel? U mentioned middle of the night. I’m wondering if there is a cut off time to check in to the hotel. If I’m going to arrive at the hotel during an odd hour, I would have informed them beforehand.
What exactly did they ask you to pay? For Tokyo hotels, there is a Tokyo city tax that you need to pay during check in. Check your booking confirmation from Booking.com. they would mention something about the tax that would be collected during check in.
Depending on the cost of the room, it would typically cost 200JPY per person per night of stay. Typically, they will punch in the amount you need to pay on their calculator and show it to you if they know you don’t speak Japanese.
For your case, a single traveller for 9 nights would likely cost 1800JPY. Did you misunderstood this and thought they asked you to pay $1800 AUD?
That sounds so frustrating. I think you should try to contact the daytime manager, who might be in a better position, and see if they can help with the situation. Show all the proof that you had a reservation and have paid for it already. This is likely a problem between Booking.com and the hotel not receiving the funds yet. Especially since if it is non-refundable, where did your money go? Did booking keep it or the hotel? One or the other must have it. Maybe the hotel can accommodate you for the remaining nights, if they can find your payment.
If that doesn’t work then perhaps you can initiate a charge back on your credit card. The business failed to provide the service paid for.
I would dispute further with Booking.com, even if it is non refundable. Clearly something went wrong on their end, and the hotel isn’t seeing the booking
I was scammed in a similar way in Greece, but for a small fraction of that amount. You need to keep contacting Booking and asking for a manager. It took me three calls to get my money back and they gave me a little extra for the trouble.
I will say that I’ve used Booking in 20+ other countries for hundreds of stays, including for probably 15+ hotels in Japan, and have never had a problem except in Greece, where I encountered multiple sophisticated scams.
Did they say how much you had to pay or did you ask? Did they say it was for the whole thing or for taxes
Something about this does not add up, iv’e stayed with APA a few times and have never seen security, they have a few staff members floating around, as their lobby’s are usually small ans overcrowded. I do know sometimes the staff do not speak the best English, were they maybe asking you to pay a tax that booking.com did not charge you.
I would be hassling them to get the money back and also onto my credit card company as well.
Call your bank. Hopefully you put it on a credit card and can get your money back.p
This story sounds sad but also highly unlikely.
Sounds fake. If true contest the charge with your bank.
Never book third party. So many people only see the cheaper prices and don’t realize what can happen when the booking gets messed up. Sorry to say but it was about time that one of your booking.com reservations would result in a bad experience. Hopefully a lesson well learned.
I don’t feel you did the right thing, whether or not the hotel was right/wrong. This is what I would of done:
1. Just allow the hotel to charge again (you will find out after the payment whether it was just for taxes or you are being made to pay twice). Sometimes they are simply taking a deposit in case of damages too. I do think you may have had some communication issues.
2. If you end up finding after the stay, and nothing has been refunded etc and it was indeed a double book. you can contact bookings and/or the hotel with clearly all the documentation that you have been double charged and sort it out that way. This way, you wouldn’t of got kicked out and you would of had somewhere to stay.
3. If point 2 does not work, you clearly have enough documentation to go to your credit card provider and dispute the charge.
In my experience, point 2 and the very least point 3 ALWAYS works.
In future, just pay it, even if you felt like you have been double charged. At least get into the hotel and sort it out later.
To all other travelers, enjoy your holiday, there is always time to sort things out after the fact. In particular, this is where credit cards come in handy.
P.S I agree with other posters, the security guard kicking you out sounds like you did something wrong. i have never EVER seen any hotel kick someone out of the lobby unless they were making a scene/rude etc. You may have left out a lot of detail here for your own purposes (maybe you thought you weren’t aggresive to hotel staff but you were, maybe you were being excessively loud, maybe you didn’t realise but you were disturbing others). There is almost no chance for hotel staff to kick people out waiting in the lobby unless you are doing somethign wrong. Like almost no chance. It almost feels like you are doing adding this part almost deliberatly to make the hotel look bad. Sorry OP, but this one is tough to swallow.
>Because the booking was non-refundable, I didn’t get the money back.
Is this a ‘Booking (dot) com’ policy? This sounds really strange and dodgy that you would lose $1400 (or payment for nine full days) just for being late one day!? I don’t know, but if this story is true, then to me it sounds like the booking agency you used or someone working for that agency is at fault and maybe stealing your money. I wonder if the Hotel ever got the money or knew of your reservation to begin with.
>Shortly after, I received a notification on the app saying the hotel had marked me as a no-show.
Since the Hotel staff knew nothing of you or your reservation, I am highly suspicious of your app’s notification and of ‘booking (dot) com’.
>However, during check-in, the reception staff asked me to pay again. I was confused because I had already paid in full. I showed them my [Booking.com](http://Booking.com) reservation and the payment confirmation from my banking app, but they still insisted that I needed to pay.
Probably because the Hotel never reserved the payment from [Booking.com](http://Booking.com) and thought what you were showing them was fake.
I hope you find a way to get your money back from Booking.com!
I could be wrong, but I’m thinking the most likely scenario is that because you made the payment through booking.com with a very very last minute booking (literally the same day), the money wasn’t able to move from booking.com to the hotel on time. Since you’re not paying the hotel directly, and they’ve not received the money from booking.com yet, they’ve marked the booking as unpaid and asked you for payment a second time.
I understand the frustration, but my opinion is never count on money moving through multiple places fast enough if you’re doing last minute bookings like this, you never know what sort of shenanigans are happening behind the scenes. Either book a couple days in advance at the very least, book directly with the hotel, or find a hotel with a pay on site option if you do need to use booking.com
What was the reason that they insisted you needed to pay in full again? There surely would have been a clear reason for it as why would you accept such a demand without an explanation?
There’s not many hotel options? Theres supposedly a smaller crowd right now so I find this a little unbelievable
Do you think the hotel hadn’t yet received the reservation from booking.com if you only reserved it that day?
I also try and always book direct where possible or use a reputable agent.
Contact booking dot com again they might be able to help sort out a refund. Your credit card company might be able to help too. Next time, don’t stay at APA and try to book direct whenever you can.
That sucks, I’m sorry for you. This has happened to me twice (once booking throw Expedia at an APA hotel in Osaka last year) and once at one near Yokohama (this spring) through booking.com. Both times I booked last minute (same day/ less than 24 hours in advance) and it didn’t seem like their systems registered the reservation. Luckily both time were only for 1-2 nights and l just paid the $150-200 at the front and was refunded a few days later. The hotel staff got/found the reservation the next day.
I’ve had the same with booking dot com at the last minute. Booking dot com had taken my money, but the hotel hadn’t recieved it, or the booking. I paid again and got refunded by booking later.
OMG this is actually “funny” to me because I also had the worst experience at that exact location. It was in 2023. They accidentally gave my room away and the only rooms left was smoking. I can’t deal with that. The staff even showed me the room and the smell was horrendous. They were so unhelpful and said we’ll youre on your own
You were probably paying the tax and didn’t realize it.
Its probably due to the short window between your booking and your arrival. Sometimes it takes time for one system to talk to another so it might not show up as booked/paid. It’s happened to people in this sub before. Turns out “on a whim” type of trips threw a wrench into slower systems.
Just contact Booking.com for a refund or contact your credit card company.
To the company/hotel unless Booking forwards all of the details and funds it doesn’t count as a booking and/or “paid”. Could’ve been something simple as your bank didn’t transfer the money to Booking yet so Booking didn’t transfer the fund to APA’s account. To them no money has moved yet so they don’t want to get scammed.
What are you going to do for your lodging for the rest of your trip? If Booking gives you a refund ask for a credit on top of it because you as a customer did nothing wrong and it ate up one day of your trip.
[booking.com](http://booking.com), agoda and any 3rd parties overseas sites had so many issues with Japanese hotel, even Toyoko inn have announcement in their official website regarding this matter.
As you are booking in the last minutes, it seems there’s a delay between reservation time and the receipt of payment/booking.
APA’s policy for no shows is equivalent to one night’s stay, NOT the whole reservation.
Booking.com has had a recent spate of these incidents where their systems just seems like it didn’t sync with the hotel’s.
Unless you have really high membership and/or a middleman site has such an amazing deal it’s worth the risk, I recommend booking using the hotel’s own website wherever possible. With Japan, it’s usually even cheaper this way. The four hotels I booked this way in my current trip were all cheaper with the hotel than with any middleman company, even when a promo was involved.
might want to spend some time on /r/Bookingcom and read about all of the massive problems people have with that site before using it again.
I had the same experience but when I travelled to America instead of Japan! It was probably easier to navigate because of the lack of language barrier but I have seen it happen (although through Expedia and not Booking.com, and I did get a refund).
I paid through Expedia for a hotel at the time of booking, but when I arrived they essentially said they had received the booking but not the money from Expedia so I had to pay again to stay there. I spoke to a rep from Expedia on the phone who eventually sorted it out and I got a refund from them a few weeks later, but it was very stressful and especially unpleasant if you are jetlagged and tired from travel!
I have used third party booking sites without problems since then but generally it’s better if possible to book direct. Flights in particular I wouldn’t mess around with and always book them with the airline because it feels like that would be even worse if there was a problem!
Weird they asked you to pay again. When we went to the hotel we only had to pay the tourist tax and that was like 100 yen if o remember correctly.
I hope this didn’t dampen your vacation too much OP
I stay at this hotel 4 times a year and always through booking.com
I have paid in advance before too. Once I was asked about payment and I showed my receipt. It was fixed up immediately by staff.
I have never seen security at that APA, and I have been in the lobby and 2nd floor mezzanine at all hours.
I daresay you had a language and communication issue. How is your Japanese?
1. Don’t book through a third party.
2. Don’t get a reservation at a cultists hotel chain
This happened to me once in Bournemouth (in my native language), the night porter who did the check in couldn’t access the check in information and wanted me to pay again, I managed to karen my way to tell him to give me the key to the room and would discuss with the manager in the morning. And in the morning the issue was solved.
I stayed at APA in Shinjuku and it was the absolute worst experience. I advise everyone to avoid this chain. The owner denies Japanese war crimes.
I used [booking.com](http://booking.com) before without any issue as you mention OP and never asked to ‘pay again’ until this summer during a trip. I was able to get in touch with [booking.com](http://booking.com) and they said my credit card on file was only used as a guarantee to hold the room, but I did indeed need to go ahead and pay the property directly.
I was confused, but it did not take me very long to realize that yes, I needed to pay the property. I was never double charged. I do agree [booking.com](http://booking.com) needs to improve on clarifying this type of policy, because all my previous experiences were different where [booking.com](http://booking.com) charged me the fee and all I needed to do was arrive at the property and check in, without having to pay ‘again’.
That is why I never book thru 3rd party sites anymore. Straight to the hotel website. And usually is cheaper or the same price than the 3rd party sites anyways.
APA group belongs to the japanese right-wing equivalent to Donale Trump. While popular for their low prices, but they have been know for shady reactions.
Do you by chance look “progressive” ir are black?
I’ve heard equvalent stories from solo-traveling women with obviously dyed hair, short skirt and visible tatoo on her arm getting rejected in much the same way.
It’s basically hidden discrimination. That they blame on the system.
The fact you were there and they called “no show” indicates that.
But then Japan has been known to be very xenophobic to progressive/left culture.
Funnily I somehow always backed out of an APA stay because I found something slightly more spacious without a (huge) price difference. I did have an incident once with not being able to make it to the Hiroshima APA next to the station (rare train issue), but I called them up and they cancelled the Booking.com booking without charging me. Tbf this was *before* tourists broke Japan so I don’t think that will happen again.
OP, this comes after the fact, but you could try selecting the “Pay at property” option if you have a credit / debit card that is good for travel and if that option is available. I do that when possible to avoid situations like this. Of course, you run the risk of the hotel cancelling your reservation but I feel a bad faith actor would do that even if you paid up front. The advice on booking direct is always an excellent one. I do that if there is a flexible option that isn’t significantly more expensive than Booking.com, or if the hotel / chain have a price matching policy.
Also: didn’t know about APA’s owner, so that’s a good heads up. Off the list then.
I know everyone’s financial situation is different but two things could have happened. They didn’t get the payment yet for the room form Booking. This could have been why they charged you. They also could have been asking for an additional tax.
You probably should have paid it again and then when the double charge showed up, you should have disputed it.
Sorry this happened though.
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