Any 8000ish yen ryokans near Tokyo?

I am planning a 2-3 week stay in tokyo possibly alone or with one other family member after the pandemic is under control, hopefully early/mid 2022 (optimistic). Already going to be in Japan for a week for a family trip, but thinking of staying on longer after that on my own/with another interested family member.
We have managed to find lots of rather nice 3-4 star ryokans for around 8000yen/night outside of tokyo which we will be utilising. However I am struggling to find any in or near Tokyo itself. Obviously at that price point I am not expecting one inside the city centre, but would appreciate if anyone can point me to any suitable places in the suburbs with good rail access?
On the sites like agoda/hotels.com/booking.com etc I can find quite a number of lower end hotels around that price point but not ryokans. While our budget is limited to 8000 yen a night, we are willing to stay further from the city centre if it means a nicer room and meals.

Just for sleeping or with food?

If you stay further from the center you�fll need to pay more for transport every day. So might not be cheaper.

Any specific reason, why it must be a ryokan and can�ft be a hotel?

I mean, you are already staying all other nights in ryokans so you have that experience. You could go for a hotel in Tokyo.

Anyway you could try Jalan webpage. I remember they have an option to specifically search for ryokans.

To be honest - nice accommodation is not cheap in Tokyo. I've stayed in a large number of Ryokans of varying quality and price. 8000 yen is getting close to the normal cost of a business hotel close to a train station - let alone a nice ryokan (which are not that common in Tokyo).

If you are staying in Ryokans for a while in Japan and have not stayed in one before - I'd suggest staying in a business hotel while in Tokyo (specifically in the second half of the holiday) as you can't underestimate the annoyance of leaving your room to go to the toilet in the middle of the night or sharing a bathroom (specifically at your price point).

Some options include

(1) Have you thought of a Minshiku? It's basically a smaller and cheaper type of ryokan which others can talk more about.

(2) Book a business hotel which allows for cancellations 1 or 2 days before. This will allow you to have guaranteed accommodation but will allow you to change your mind when in Japan.

Never underestimate the annoyance of not having a private bathroom and sleeping on a thin futon in a poorly insulated room (often found in an odd location if cheap).

Ryokans I find are like a good wine or sake - choose the better ones and don't use them all the time.

Jalan, Rakutan, Japanican, Booking and Agoda are quite helpful for finding places. Also note that it's common for most ryokans to not allow bookings until 3 or 6 months prior.

When you say 8000 yens/night, do you mean per pax? With or without meals?

Dear Jackson78,

on two of my last trips to Tokyo, I like to stay at the "Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu" near the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa.
Very friendly staff, nice breakfast, a small onsen and near to Stations for Asakusa Line and Ginza Line.

You can find this Ryokan on the site from booking or others.

I hope this helps you for your planning!

Greetings,
VioB

A ryokan is generally a "resort". The good ones are way out in resort areas where the ryokan would be about the only convenience you could get. Therefore, guests would be more than happy to be locked in the building where they'd enjoy 2 meals a day while dipping in and out a huge bath. Meanwhile, in city centers, guests would rather dine out and roam around.

Like the other poster wrote, I wonder what you are seeking in a ryokan. Is it unique experience? How about a "guest house" then? In fact, if it's unique experience within a city, it's all out there in the many unique dining places and "sento" public baths. All you need to do is to go back to your inn and sleep.

Thanks for the replies everyone. In my experience ryokans offer larger rooms for a cheaper price than one would find at a hotel and include a hot spring and meals.
7-8000 yen for one, 14000 yen for two inclusive of breakfast and ideally dinner would be my target, and would need to have private bathroom.

I stayed in a ryokan in my last trip in Gifu, Nakao Kogen Hotel Kazaguruma. Was 12000 yen a night for two, private bathroom with private bath tub, buffet breakfast and dinner included. It was clean and spacious, meals were good for what we paid for. A family member had a private room for one for about 7000 yen which was great. Was hoping to find something similar near Tokyo. Obviously Tokyo itself would cost a lot more than that, but was thinking if there was similar in Chiba, Yokohama, Saitama or any of the outlying suburbs I would stay there and just take a train into the city.

Otherwise failing to find something similar I would probably stay at APA Hotels if I was travelling solo, or a 3 star hotel if for two. However APA Hotels would cost about 7000 yen without meals for a room that would be much smaller than the one I had in Gifu.

To be honest places in Chiba, Kanagawa, etc. that are within easy reach of major Tokyo stations tend not to be much cheaper than Tokyo proper.

Anything offering what you are after is likely to be more expensive than you are willing to pay merely by virtue of being in the city. Like you said, a business hotel will charge you 7000 (I've been charged 9000 by Toyoko Inn before) for a cramped room with a tiny shower and a toilet. You are not likely to get a spacious, comfortable room in a place that will feed you two meals a day for less.

Pre-covid, it would be impossible to find a ryokan with hot springs, private bathroom, breakfast/dinner included for 8,000 yen. As it's Tokyo - I think you'll need to readjust your price point expectations. I can't tell you the exact amount as prices will probably change due to covid.

I'd also do a lot more research on the APA hotel chain. I almost never talk politics on this forum - but I will not stay in an APA hotel due to it's politics. A quick youtube search of "Rare Earth APA Hotels" is an interesting watch....

"I stayed in a ryokan in my last trip in Gifu, Nakao Kogen Hotel Kazaguruma."
OP stayed at HOTEL, but he/she says it is ryokan.
what is the word definition of ryokan by him/her ?

My apologies, was a typo I meant I stayed in a ryokan in Gifu*
This was a couple years ago, pre covid.

So basically even in outlying areas it is not much cheaper than tokyo centre itself?
I guess I will just have to settle for 3 star hotel if it is for two and business hotel if it is for one then.

I think partially the problem is you are comparing apples to oranges. When you traveled to Nakao Kogen Hotel Kazaguruma, you weren't trying to go to Nagoya every day. Unless you stay at Nakao Kogen Hotel Kazaguruma was very short, I doubt you were even going to Takayama or Matsumoto every single day.

There are places under 8000 yen that are ryokan in Kanto, they're just going to be a very long and expensive trip into Tokyo making any savings negligible.

I've found here: http://mongakusou.com/05page.php in Kanagawa-ken without too much difficulty. However you will have a very long commute. I am sure there are also places in Chiba or Ibaraki or Saitama, but they will all have long commutes whose prices add up.

There are some hotels in Tokyo with baths. I believe the Mitsui in Gotanda has one and it's right around your budget and the even without the bad reputation of the APA chain, the Mitsui rooms are considerably nicer. (I use to stay at APAs pre-2010 before I knew about their reputation, now I do not.)

Good luck!

I will look into Mitsui, thanks for the suggestions. The other reason I am asking for advice from people who have been there done that is because just searching on hooking.com or agoda is likely inaccurate, prices are artificially low right now and everywhere is cheap. As such advice from people who have done something similar pre-covid is more helpful.

If I were to expand my criteria, to say any 3 star and up in Tokyo area within 30 minutes to tokyo station, no meals included, no need for hot spring/tub, just needs a private toilet and shower in the room, what can 15000yen get me for one, and 20000 for two, in pre-covid terms? On the booking websites, everywhere seems to fit that price point right now, but I am pretty sure when we can actually travel again it will likely be a lot more expensive.

In regards to APA, I have friends who stayed there and supposedly the room was tiny and beds were of rather low quality. Wonder if anyone can attest to this. They are certainly cheap, but there must be a catch.
Even as an ethnic Chinese (not from China) I can ignore the ramblings of a nearly 80 year old man who is stuck in the past. Of course does not mean I have to like him, but one man is not the whole company and I am sure many of the people who work there do not agree with his views. Of more concern is that APA seems to have faked their earthquake safety in some locations.

Long story short, any ryokan (in OP's definition) would be listed in all or most of the booking websites that have been named on this thread.

Basically, the idea is that the higher the cost of the land the higher the price of a room (whether it's for visiting or residing). And the higher the daytime population density the higher the cost of the land. Meanwhile, the suburbs are where people live instead of tour, so it's usually not suited for building a ryokan. Hence, the large and cheaper ryokan rooms are typically located (as I mentioned earlier) in remote resorts where there is less convenience.

The "Nakaokogen Hotel Kazaguruma" is not what I would consider as a ryokan. As other people already mentioned, it is going to cost you more in transportation if you book a hotel far from Tokyo. Eg, Chiba-Tokyo = 650 yens, single trip. If you travel with a companion, that's 2600 yens just for going into Tokyo.

Compared to my cancelled 2020 trip (not in Tokyo, but in Shikoku/Chûgoku), the prices today are around 10-20% lower. That can give you an idea what the prices are going to be when things go back to normal.

For an hotel with a onsen-like bath, you can have a look at the Dormy Inn chain. That will be too expensive if you stay alone, but for two people, depending on the dates, it might fit your budget.

This sort of falls into the "just for fun" category, but I have always enjoyed browsing the listings on Jalan.net's "room and two meals for 9800 yen" feature. Given the current state of the travel industry in Japan, you really can't use it as a basis for planning future trips, of course, and I am absolutely NOT a proponent of trying to book rooms in Japanese if you don't have reasonable reading proficiency in Japanese. But it's kind of fun to click around. (Note that not all of the plans listed will include an en suite bathroom.)
https://www.jalan.net/theme/price/price_9800.html?ctm=N11

I don't see any point in arguing about the meaning of the word ryokan, as it can be taken broadly or narrowly. To many people, it implies Japanese-style accommodations and meals in sort of a resort-like atmosphere, and some purists even sneer at the notion of including reinforced-concrete high-rise buildings in that definition. But many lodging facilities that are more "basic" can and do call themselves ryokans. Typically they would have tatami-mat style rooms and not beds. At any rate, it doesn't look like the OP is particularly seeking out Japanese-style accommodations for the experience of sleeping on a floor with futons. He just wants more space in the room, and this is more easily obtained when the floor isn't taken up with western-style beds.

I have many years of experience seeking out decent-sized (at least 24 square meters, sometimes as large as 40 or more square meters) western-style hotel rooms for two at a price under 15,000 in the Tokyo metro area. Many of these include a simple breakfast (but not dinner). If you're willing to go up to 20,000 per night, you can often get really nice 4-star hotel rooms on sale (generally without any meals). Spacious rooms in this price range have gotten somewhat harder to find over time, but plenty of them still exist, especially if you don't include a Saturday in the stay. (Years ago, Saturdays used to be a bargain night at business hotels and you could get their largest rooms for a song! Not anymore...) But I really can't see any point in seriously searching at the present time, as room rates are going to change drastically once Japan opens up to foreign tourists. As for staying outside of Tokyo to save money and then commuting, the time and cost issues more or less rule this out. I've stayed at the four-star properties on Odaiba a few times (for around 15,000 yen for two) and also in Yokohama at Minato Mirai, for terrific prices. But my favorite Tokyo hotels are closer in.

I personally prefer hotels with a daiyokujo (aka "public bath" or sometimes called a "spa"), but these are harder to find in Tokyo and I usually get my bathing fix in other regions. Besides Dormy Inn there are a fair number of chains that feature them in all their properties, as well as some individual (non-chain) properties that happen to have one. I have stayed at quite a few Dormy Inn hotels and thought some were excellent but some were so-so. (Dormy Inn is very opportunistic in its pricing and I have ruled it out many times because they were way too expensive, especially when I included a Saturday in the stay. One plus for the chain is that their breakfast is generally quite good and worth the price they charge for it if you don't book a stay plan that includes breakfast.)

I have stayed at a number of really wonderful Japanese ryokans and family-run non-chain hotels that had hot spring baths and two excellent meals for 10,000 per person (in some cases as low as 8000 or less, although that was generally some years in the past), but none of them were in the Tokyo metro area. I think it's best to experience these in the hinterlands, and focus your efforts on hunting for bargains on western-style hotels when you are in Tokyo, is my advice. There are always bargains to be had...

I will just add that there are a number of the "basic" type of ryokans (tatami style rooms) in Tokyo that I have seen over the years, and some of them seem to be decent and affordably priced. The reason I have never stayed in any of them is that I worry about noise from other guests at night. I am not a sound sleeper, and just hate the annoyance factor of being disturbed by other people in the middle of the night. As a general rule (there are plenty of exceptions), western-style properties (especially newer ones) tend to have somewhat fewer issues with noise from adjoining rooms. Anyway, there do appear to be some modest ryokans in Tokyo. But on the whole I don't think they are necessarily cheaper than business hotels, just a different experience.

Before moving to Japan I would often spend a week or sometimes two in one place in/around Tokyo. For 15,000/night it was not hard to get a good/spacious hotel 3* or 4* and if I needed to today, I could still easily get a decent 4* hotel in the middle of the city (15 minutes from Tokyo/Shibuya/Shinjuku.) One of the best deals I got was two weeks in Yokohama in a huge room at a MyStays for around 120,000 yen (less than 10k/day) and that was not particularly special pricing at the time.
One of the key points when looking for somewhere is to know that just because you are not in the middle of Tokyo does not mean it suddenly gets cheaper - there are lots of factors at play. Even in my local neighbourhood hotels are not cheap, but if I went closer to the 23 wards I could easily find some good options (Mitaka for example). Within the 23-wards, you might be suprised at differences between spots around the Yamanote line. I liked my cheap stays at Osaki and I would often book places in Mejiro for my staff when they were working in Shinjuku.
Can you find somewhere, yes, of course, but it takes work.

Kazaguruma group seems to be a sort of regenerated accommodations (something like after bankrupted). so, they should be cheaper than other ordinary ones.
it should not be placed as a standard.