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I have made a reservation on a Hotel in Tokyo for 2 rooms (one for girlfriend/me, the latter for another couple).

Since we are not traveling together I expect the other couple to arrive at the Hotel earlier than us. In your opinion the hotel would accept their checkin if they say that the reservation is in my name and they have all the confirmation material (Booking.com) ?

I am skeptical about calling the hotel since most of japanese people I met were not fluent in english and I fear that explaining this via phone could be a mess.

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  • In my experience, you need to hold the passport and/or credit card used to pay for the room to check in, unless you've specified their details somewhere. I am unsure about specifics in Japan though.
    – Belle
    Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 0:43
  • Could be; could be not. There is certainly the risk they don't. I know that travelocity for example allows to enter a second person's name on the booking, for exactly this case.
    – Aganju
    Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 1:53
  • If the room is already paid for in full (as is often the case from sites like booking.com), it's increasingly common they'll want whoever made the reservation to be there and require them to present ID. This is to prevent fraud where someone claims they never stayed at the hotel and demands a refund through their credit card company (this can either be straight up fraud, where a credit card is stolen and used to book a room, or "friendly fraud" where a legitimate customer stays at the hotel and then claims fraud to avoid paying).
    – Zach Lipton
    Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 21:23

2 Answers 2

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Most hotels will NOT let you check in without one of the people named on the booking being present. There are multiple reasons for this, which range from legal requirements (in some countries) through to fraud prevention (not just for the booking, but even things like frequent stayer programs).

However all is not lost. You can generally list more than one name on the room, and in particular where you've got a booking for 2 rooms you can normally provide additional names for the second room.

If booking.com does not let you provide these additional names, then you should contact the hotel directly and let them know the names of at least one of the people in the second room. Once their name is on the booking, they will be able to check-in without you being present.

English language in Japan will depend on the hotel. In any western-brand hotels you can guarantee that basically every public-facing staff member will have good to excellent English. If you are staying in a smaller local hotel then things may be different. In this case you may be better emailing so that they can direct your email to a staff member who can speak/read English.

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This is something you could potentially find on the terms and conditions of booking.com or the hotel website.

If unsure, rather than calling, send a mail with your confirmation number to explain the situation. With the mail coming from you, it should be enough to make check-in going smoothly for your friends.

Still, I don't think it will be an issue. The hotel might ask them for a credit card for the deposit but I don't see the hotel denying the check-in.

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  • You can/should send this e-mail through the Booking site system, which will attach your details in such a way the hotel knows it is the same people who made the booking.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented May 25, 2019 at 8:35

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