Editorial Policy

What each verification label means

• Property confirmed — the property answered us directly, or its own policy page states the point clearly. Current at the time of listing.
• Official source — taken from the property's own website or FAQ. It covers what that page covers, and nothing beyond it.
• Third-party source or Needs confirmation — the information comes from booking platforms or guest reports, or the wording is unclear or depends on room type or staff judgement. Ask the property before you plan around it.
• Not enough information — there is a signal, such as a bath or kitchen, but no reliable detail behind it yet. Treat the profile as a starting point for your own check.
• A label describes how the information was obtained, not how good the property is. A well-run hotel can sit at "not enough information" simply because we have not reached it.

How a stay profile is researched

• We start from the property's own pages, in Japanese as well as English. The English version is usually shorter and less specific, and it is often the one that omits the condition that matters.
• Each stay profile shows the date it was last updated. A source date is shown where we have one, so you can see how old the information is.
• We contact a property directly only for a small number of points that its own website leaves out or states unclearly. Most profiles rest on the property's published pages. Property replies cannot be predicted, so a profile keeps its current label until an answer arrives.
• We separate what an official source states from what is inferred or reported by guests, and label which is which.
• Conditions that depend on staff judgement, such as tattoo policy, are never reduced to a yes or a no. The conditions are published with the answer.
• Where a detail cannot be established, we say so rather than filling the gap with a reasonable-sounding guess.

When sources disagree

Booking platforms, the property's Japanese site, and the property's English site frequently state different things — most often about fees, bath access, and pet rules.

We publish both figures rather than picking one. A pet fee listed as ¥11,000 by the property and ¥14,300 by booking platforms is shown as a discrepancy to confirm, because the discrepancy itself is the useful information: it tells you this is a question to ask at the point of booking.

Sources

Each stay profile carries a sources section listing what the information was drawn from, and each guide carries the same. Where a Japanese booking site is referenced for availability, it is listed as a reference, not as an affiliate link.

We do not republish other sites' descriptions as our own. We use AI tools to help gather sources and draft text. Facts come from the sources listed on each profile, and a person reviews the text before it is published. AI is not treated as a source.

How properties are selected

• We choose properties by whether the conditions we cover — bath, tattoo, pet, dietary, luggage, family, long-stay, English support — are relevant and researchable.
• No property pays to be listed, and no property pays for favourable wording. We do not accept payment for inclusion.
• Whether a property can be booked through an affiliate partner does not affect whether it is listed or where it appears.
• A property can ask us to correct its profile. It cannot ask us to remove an accurate, sourced condition.

Corrections

If something here is wrong or out of date, email hello@bespokestayjapan.com. Corrections from readers and from properties are the most useful thing we receive, and a message that says "this is wrong" with the source is enough — you do not need to write it up.

When we correct a page, we change the page and update the last-updated date on it in the same edit. We do not silently revise a date to make research look newer than it is.

Independence and funding

Some outbound links to travel services earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That is the only way the site is funded. It does not affect which properties are listed or what we publish about them, and the affiliate disclosure page names the partners involved.

The limit of this site

We do not take bookings, hold reservations, or handle payments, and we cannot guarantee that a policy will still apply on your travel date. Japanese accommodation rules change, and bath and pet policies change more than most.

If a detail would change your trip, confirm it directly with the property before booking. That is not a disclaimer we are hiding behind: it is how the site is designed to be used.