Reply To: How Far In Advance to Plan for 2025 World Expo in Osaka
Hello Carlos,
I’m going to assume you know the dates of the event. How far out you want to rent will first depend on the website or booking agency, many sites I’ve seen go only about 6-months in advance. However, you can find up to a year away (and occasionally longer), usually if you’re booking directly through a hotel or some of the major travel companies. The typical advice is book between 3-6 months for the best deal, however I haven’t seen a huge difference in price, and usually just the very-very-last minute deals can be cheap but limited in selection (like no accessible rooms). Nevertheless if everyone is also following this typically advice, that means 3-6 months out may fill up that much quicker due to the event. So, you may want to rent as far out as you can if you find something reasonable that meets your needs.
Secondly the type of stay, if you need an accessible room, then booking as far out as you can is probably best. Because it will be a huge event this will probably be even more necessary to ensure you get what you need before it’s filled up. As it is, you may find it difficult to find an accessible room open in the next couple months in general, so waiting until 2-months out from the event may be impossible to find anything at all.
Lastly is the length of stay, if you’re looking for an extended stay and can’t afford to eat out every day, then you may be looking for an apartment rental like a Weekly Mansion. A week or two shouldn’t be difficult to find if you’re willing to pay hotel prices. If you’re thinking longer, well for foreigners some of these can be hard to find at prices below hotel costs. I think this too would benefit from renting as far out as you can.
In any case, if you are worried about a price change or finding something better later, you may want to book with a place that has a full-refund policy for canceling early. Some of them do have charges when you approach the date, I’d just set myself a reminder before any full-refund expires to check around if you do change your mind. In my opinion, booking a refundable place super-early will give you the most flexibility in planning other parts of your trip.
I hope that helps.
-Justin
