What holds every booking up.

Our promises

1. 1

   The whole price. Nothing at the door.

   Tax, cleaning and the town's accommodation tax are all in the price you see, and there is nothing to pay when you arrive.

   How you can tell: One quote feeds the card, the page and the checkout; each town's tax is its own line.

2. 2

   Every house is registered, and the number is in its facts.

   Each house shows its registration or licence, who issued it and the day we saw the papers, in its facts. Reviews come only from people who stayed.

   How you can tell: The House facts at the foot of every stay page.

3. 3

   No booking fee for travellers.

   The price you see is what you pay. Your messages go to the people who keep the house.

   How you can tell: A booking-fee line of ¥0 in every price.

4. 4

   The order of houses is never for sale.

   Houses are ordered by what fits your dates and party. A house's plan, its seal count or what it pays us never moves it.

   How you can tell: The published ordering rules, and an order that can't read plans or fees.

5. 5

   Getting there, door to door.

   Train times from Tokyo, the last train back, the host's free station pickup where there is one, and a filter for houses you can reach without a car.

   How you can tell: Each leg with its minutes and its source; the 'no car needed' filter.

6. 6

   We say onsen only when it is one.

   A hot spring is called an onsen only when its hot-spring analysis is on file. A tub filled from the tap is never called an onsen.

   How you can tell: The bath line with the analysis date; a copy check on every page.

7. 7

   Safe to book, easy to pay.

   Messages and payment stay on Minpaku X. We never ask for card details in chat, email or WhatsApp. Pay by card or Apple Pay, and get a proper receipt.

   How you can tell: Verified house domains and a link checker; receipts with the tax shown.

Every house is registered, and it says so in its facts

In Japan a house may take paying travellers only under one of these. We read the papers ourselves and print the type, the number, who issued it and the day we saw them in the House facts at the foot of each house's page.

• Registered home住宅宿泊事業A home registered under the 2018 home-sharing law. It may host travellers for up to 180 nights a year.
• Simple lodging旅館業（簡易宿所）Most minshuku and small guesthouses: licensed under the Inns and Hotels Act, open every night of the year.
• Inn or hotel旅館業（旅館・ホテル営業）Ryokan and hotels, licensed under the same act.
• Special-zone home国家戦略特区（特区民泊）A home approved in a national strategic special zone, with that zone's own rules on minimum nights.

Why some dates are closed

A registered home may host travellers for up to 180 nights a year, counted from April. When those nights are used, it closes until April.

We count a registered home's nights across every site it sells on, not only ours, so it never goes past the limit by accident. A closed night says only that it is closed.

Baths, said as they are

We call a bath an onsen only when its hot-spring analysis (温泉分析書) is on file, and we print that date beside it. A tub filled with heated tap water is a tub, however good the view.

Reviews come only from people who stayed

No reviews on Minpaku X yet. Reviews come only from people who stayed.

• Only someone who stayed, booked on Minpaku X, can review that house, once, after check-out.
• We never write, buy, sort or hide reviews, and a house can't pay to remove one. A host may reply, once, in public.
• Photos show the house and its surroundings. We never publish children or people who didn't agree to be shown.

Paying, and links that only look like ours

• You pay on Minpaku X's own checkout, or on a house's own Minpaku X site at a domain listed on Check a link. In this prototype the checkout is a test and no card is charged.
• Your card details go to the card processor, never to the house and never to us.
• A receipt shows the consumption tax and the town's accommodation tax on their own lines.
• We never ask for card details in chat, email or WhatsApp.

A house address we have checked: atamiumihoshi.com

Check a link

Who your stay is with

Your stay is with the house: it welcomes you and keeps the house rules. Minpaku X runs the booking and the payment for it, the same way for every house. The house pays Minpaku X for that; you pay no booking fee.

Read who your stay is with, in full

Your data

• We collect what a booking needs, and use it for that booking, your trips and your Pass.
• The guest register the law asks every house to keep (宿泊者名簿) is encrypted. Only the house can open it, every view is logged, and it is deleted after three years.
• We count visits ourselves. No advertising networks follow you, and we never sell what we know about you.
• You can ask to see, correct or delete what we hold (個人情報保護法).

Read the privacy policy

What we don't check

• We don't inspect fire equipment or the building ourselves: that is the house's duty and the authority's.
• We don't check a house's insurance.
• Travel times come from timetables and maps, with their source. Trains and boats can change.
• A registration shows a house may take travellers, not that every night will be perfect. If something goes wrong, tell the house first, then us.

Our own registration

住宅宿泊仲介業 / 旅行業

Selling stays at registered homes (住宅宿泊仲介業, Japan Tourism Agency), or at homes and inns alike (旅行業). We will hold one of the two. Planned. Selling on the marketplace begins once it is held; until then this site is a prototype with a test checkout.