On our recent family trip to Japan, our family of 5 spent two nights in Osaka. Our family focuses on utilizing points and miles to cut down on travel costs, and we rarely (if ever!) have a trip that is 100% on points. It can be especially tricky and costly in points when, due to maximum occupancy rates overseas, you have to book two rooms to fit your entire family. We often pay cash for our hotels, so that we can book a family room instead of splitting up into separate rooms. In the destinations where I will be using cash for our hotels, I’m always looking for the best deal. I was lucky to find a lot of recommendations for the Mimaru brand hotels for our trip to Japan and turns out, they were the perfect Japan hotel for families of 5 or more. 

 

Ways to Save on Cash Hotel Bookings

One of the most popular ways to save on cash hotel bookings is to use the Capital One Purchase Eraser. The Purchase Eraser option allows you to erase travel-related purchases on your Capital One credit cards like the Venture and Venture X by using your Venture Miles. It’s super easy to do and while some may not consider it a “worthy” way to use your points, sometimes you want to save everywhere you can with your points and miles. 

Another way to save on out-of-pocket travel expenses is to get a card like the Chase Ink Business Premier. This is strictly a cash-back credit card that will give you $1,000 cash after you meet the minimum spend. 

Other ways to cover the costs of booking hotels with cash are to use the travel portal of the banks like Chase Ultimate Rewards, using a travel credit like the $300 one that comes with the Capital One Venture X card, or signing up for bank bonuses then using that extra cash to cover your hotels. 

 

All About Mimaru Hotels

The Mimaru Hotels are a Japanese brand of hotel and are available all over the Japanese cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. They are not a member of any hotel brand loyalty program, so you can’t use points to book them. For our recent family trip to Japan, I booked the Mimaru hotel through Booking.com and Rakuten had 6% cash back, too!

Their hotels have rooms that sleep 4 people up to 8, so that makes them the perfect hotel for larger families visiting Japan. I’d highly recommend the Mimaru hotels if you want to save your points for your flights or fancier hotels on another trip. 

 

Osaka, Japan Hotels for Families

In Osaka, we stayed at the Mimaru Osaka Shinsaibashi West and had a wonderful experience. The location was close to many metro stations. It was clean, and comfortable, and had a lot of amenities for a small hotel.

There were umbrellas available to borrow at the front door, many games and puzzles to borrow in the lobby, and a laundry room with four washers and dryers.  The laundry detergent was automatically added to each load too. This is an especially nice touch for a family that travels carry-on only and has to do a few loads of laundry throughout a trip.  

 

 

Each room has a small kitchenette with a cooktop, refrigerator, and dining table. This is a nice feature if you want to buy groceries and save money on your meals. There was a fully stocked grocery store right around the corner from our hotel and a Family Mart convenience store next door. Having several local options to buy food to bring back to our room was great to enjoy an easy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

 

 

Our room had a maximum occupancy of 5 people. This room had two single beds and three tatami mats. The girls thought the tatami mats were so fun! Our room also had a single toilet room, with a large shower and bathtub in the bathroom. 

 

 

If this location in Osaka doesn’t work for your travel plans, there are five total Mimaru locations in Osaka, Japan. 

 

Kyoto, Japan Hotels for Families

When I first planned our few days in Kyoto, I had booked us at Mimaru Kyoto Station in a Pokemon-themed room. I eventually earned enough points to book the Hyatt Place Kyoto, so I switched our stay to that hotel.  We had to book two rooms at Hyatt Place Kyoto but would have fit comfortably into one room at this Mimaru hotel. 

 

 

The Pokemon-themed rooms are a little more expensive than the standard rooms, but they are so fun! If we didn’t get the points in time to book the Hyatt Place Kyoto, I think our girls would have been very happy to sleep in this room with bunkbeds and a giant Snorlax. 

 

 

There is a total of seven Mimaru hotels in Kyoto, all with wonderful reviews, giving you many options to find one in a location that works for your family. You can see all of the options for Mimaru hotels in Kyoto, Japan here. 

 

Tokyo, Japan Hotels for Families

As with Kyoto, I initially booked our family of 5 into one room at Mimaru Tokyo Akasaka for our three nights in Tokyo. However, as I previously shared in this post, I changed our reservation to two rooms at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo to use points and save the out-of-pocket expense. After spending a few days in Tokyo, I realized that the location of this Mimaru hotel would have been just as great as the Hyatt Regency as a base to visit all the major tourist sites.

Another great option in Tokyo is the Mimaru Tokyo Shinjuku West. While walking from the Hyatt Regency Tokyo to the Meiji Jingu Shrine, we walked right past this hotel. It was about a 10-minute walk from the Hyatt Regency Tokyo. This family hotel would also be a great location for visiting the tourist sites in Tokyo. 

 

 

There are 13 total Mimaru hotel locations in Tokyo and you can see the full list of Tokyo family hotel options here. 

 

Bottom Line

Traveling internationally as a family of 5 can make it difficult to find accommodations that fit your entire family. While most hotels in Japan have a maximum occupancy of 3 people, the Mimaru brand hotels offer several options for larger families in cities like Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. We enjoyed our stay at Mimaru Osaka Shinsaibashi West in Osaka and would 100% return to other Mimaru brand hotels on a future trip to Japan with our family. 

 

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