Hotel booking Kyoto November

I am trying to book an hotel in Kyoto for the 3th week of november, but almost all the hotels are full, as sites like Booking.com, Agoda... it is because of the koyo peak or in part because the hotels start the reservation period 3 months before?

It is mainly because it is the peak of the koyo season and many hotels are booked out already by individual travelers and travel agencies. Just a relatively small number of hotels have not released their rooms for reservation yet.

Note also that Saturdays (and November 22, 2015) are the busiest days. If you exclude these days from your stay, you have a better chance of finding hotel rooms.

Thank you Uji! I am trying to include and to exclude weekends, but in weekdays is the same! I have chosen the 'best' week to go :)

Availability for November is pretty tight, especially if you are something towards the "reasonable" price end. Last time I was looking a lot of fairly average places are charging Y35,000+ for a room. I ended up finding somewhere as a compromise (19th to 21st) using Expedia (not my first choice of booking engine, but they had the rooms I needed).

i was already looking out since early this year. couldn't find anything even then, only for tokyo.

very bad for kyoto, found like just ONE reasonably priced option in late may. fortunately, reasonably priced enough for a triple room, not the weekend though. had slightly better luck with osaka, so i held on to that one before i found the kyoto hotel. doing that long weekend in osaka.

hope you managed to find something!

Have you seen this page yet? It has more info on booking Kyoto during the busy season.

http://www.japan-guide.com/news/0029_fall.html

Seeing this site, it is possible to reserve room for one or two days, but it looks difficult to reserve three days or more.

http://travel.rakuten.com/

So it is one way that you would reserve several hotels and change hotel day by day or every two days.

Othe way, I suggest, that you will reserve the hotels located in cities next to Kyoto, like Otsu Hikone, Hikone, Ogoto-onsen.

If you have the rail pass, try Nagoya - there might be some good options there and it is less than an hour from Kyoto.

(Meiji Mura is also a good place to view autumn leaves)

Try Osaka, or other cities/towns in the Kansai area. The train system is so good that you'll be able to daytrip in easily and relatively cheaply, particularly if you are planning on using a JR Pass.

I understand your frustration because I also had the same issue. Almost all booking sites do not have available rooms anymore.

I decided to contact the hotel/ryokan directly via their website or email to check availability and I received their response within a day, maybe you can try this method.
Finding one hotel that has more than 3 days availability is quite impossible unless you go for the more expensive ones, perhaps you should consider staying in different hotel that are nearby on different day based on their availability.

Hope you can find something that suits you.

I couldn't agree more.. I also found it difficult to find place to stay in Oct 2015.. I am also still looking for places to stay

you might want to try some business hotels they are not that expensive and they have a lot of brunch in every cities.. but they are good just for sleeping.. you might want to try toyoko inn, apa hotels.

if you are willing to spend more there will be more availability at a more high end hotels.. try mystays ,kyoto hana hotel is also an option

From what I've learn.. we should start booking 6 months in advance but for our case is too late but don't worry there are many places to stay the only thing is they might not suit your need and budget.

also agree with the others posters you should email the hotels/ ryokan. they will reply fast and also if they are not available they will give you other suggestions on where to stay..

btw, I haven't stay in any of the places I mentioned above.. what i have said is based on my research these couple of weeks.. as I am also in your shoes..

have fun looking