Flying Off, Into the SunsetAs many people know, Reiko and I tied the knot last month at a small gathering with our closest friends and family here in Nagoya, Japan.  Because a few of the guests had come from Canada, and another from Norway, we wanted to help them out by finding a place where they could stay with minimal costs, decent accommodations, and reasonable convenience.  After quite a bit of searching and much deliberation, Reiko and I settled on a pair of apartments operated by At-Inn, a national rental chain offering furnished rooms for guests in Japan.  It’s said that hindsight is 20/20 and, had we known about HotelsCombined earlier, we would have probably jumped ship at the first sign of trouble with the Nagoya office of At-Inn.

HotelsCombined is an Australian-based company that facilitates rentals with hotels almost anywhere in the world.  They have listings all over the globe, and their site is insanely easy to use and navigate.  On top of this, they’re a green company, and partnered with the CarbonFund.  This is certainly a big plus, as I’ve been working hard to reduce my own carbon consumption.

Back to the initial hassle, though.  When it comes to At-Inn, we should have been ready for trouble the first time they gave us a hard time with a price quote for seven people to stay in five rooms.  There were several miscommunications right from the start and, even after my guests had returned to Canada and Norway, At-Inn would waste our time with poorly worded emails and incomplete phone conversations claiming we still owed for imaginary damages.  The fact that a company this poorly organized can exist is a testament to the firm’s ability to lie and cheat their way into unfair service charges and hidden fees.

The HotelsCombined Advantage

HotelsUnlimited SearchReiko and I had spent an incredible amount of time back in January and February looking at hotels and furnished weekly apartments in the Nagoya area.  The sites we had used were difficult to understand, poorly organized and took forever to load.  To add insult to injury, everything was in Japanese and laid out just like a DoCoMo cell phone.  Why does a customer have to click 7 menu items to do (what is probably) the most common functions?

HotelsCombined, however, tends to operate much more like a Google-based site.   Enter the dates, number of guests and rooms, then the city.  Finally, hit the search button and you’ll have results in less than 5 seconds.  Reiko and I have flown between Canada and Japan on several occasions, and we’ve planned out several vacations that never came to fruition … never has a hotel search site been so quick and snappy.

Planning a Vacation

The last year has been pretty hard on Reiko, so we’ve been planning to take a vacation somewhere.  I’ve suggested places like Kyoto, Hokkaido, Fukuoka and Guam.  Reiko has thought about places like Hawaii, Toronto and Banff.  Though our destination has not yet been chosen (nor have we scrounged up the cash for such a trek), we know exactly how to find our perfect hotel.

Now the hard part ….

Reiko and I have yet to have our honeymoon, and we’d like to go somewhere that’s both warm and exciting.  With all the festivals and whatnot that occur in Japan, we have considered staying in the country and seeing some of the historic cities.  But with all the great places the world has to offer, why not escape to some place foreign to both of us for a week or two?  We know that it’ll probably run us about half-a-million Yen to fly off to another country for six or seven days, but it would be nice to see some other parts of the world before we have children and see everyone as a threat to their security.  So where should we go?