Single Room Surcharge
Our tour prices are per person based on double occupancy or twin sharing. If you don’t have someone to share a room with you, we would apply the the single room surcharge (single supplement) to cover the true cost of your single room. Because of the extra charge, you would qualify for rooms identical to what couples would receive. However, the situation for Japan is different because hotels there have small rooms truly intended for single guests. The room size is typically smaller than 200 square feet equipped with a double bed and a tiny private bathroom. Singles guests willing to compromise on room size will be offered a big discount on the single surcharge.
Triple Room
A triple room is a standard twin or king bed room with a rollaway bed added to it. The charge for the extra bed also comes with daily buffet breakfast for the third person unless noted otherwise. When there are three in your party, this arrangement may be desirable because it avoids the single room surcharge or single supplement as we call it, for the third person.
Why can’t the third person get a discount?
The contracted rates limit the number of guests to two per room. Our tour prices are per person based on double occupancy or twin sharing (2 guests per room). When there are three guests sharing one room, the cost of the extra bed with breakfast is exactly one half of the charge for a twin bed room according to the contracts. For example, let’s say hotel so-and-so offers us $200 per room per night with buffet breakfast for two. The contract would include a clause for extra bed with breakfast. The standard practice among the luxury hotels we deal with is to charge half the rate of a standard room, namely $100 in this example, resulting in no savings for us to pass on to the customer.