[Joan Pahisa]

Hi Leony,

I stayed at an Airbnb in Japan for 6 months (January-June). It was in Osaka. The experience was really good. In the regular housing market I had lots of issues to find accessible accommodation (for me it’s mainly no steps) and some reluctance about my wheelchair, but fortunately my Airbnb landlord had no issues with it.

The only problem was that during my stay, they changed the law regarding Airbnb apartments in Japan (they changed it so that apartments needed to have a special license and could only be rented for 6 months during the year). So, when I came back from summer vacation I had to change apartments. At the time, I couldn’t find any other Airbnb (the amount available had reduced dramatically), so I ended up at an aparthotel (as renting for just a few months is very difficult; I was staying only till the end of the year).

So, even though the experience at the Airbnb was nice, I don’t know if at the moment there are many available. Probably apartment owners have already adapted to the new law, so there may be more than when they changed it mid-2018.

As for prices, renting a regular apartment would have been cheaper than the Airbnb, but as I stayed 6 months I got a nice discount so the difference was not that big for a relatively new apartment. Later, I also got a nice discount for the long-stay at the aparthotel, so I ended up paying more or less the same on both places. For short term stays, at the time, Airbnb prices were mostly cheaper than hotel prices, but all depends on your needs and type of apartment that you manage to find.

Anyway, I hope that you have a nice stay in Japan!