Pilgrimage On Shikoku Island

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Pilgrimage On Shikoku Island

Online forum for discussions related to the 88 temple pilgrimage on Shikoku, Japan.


    Henro House accommodation

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    Shikoku Henro Trail
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    Posts : 217
    Join date : 2018-04-12
    Location : Chicago, USA

    Henro House accommodation Empty Henro House accommodation

    Post by Shikoku Henro Trail Sat Apr 14, 2018 7:19 am

    Originally posted by several members between August and December 2017.
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    arjwilson

    « Thread started on: Aug 7th, 2017, 4:11pm »
    Hi - I just read today about "Henro House" - https://henrohouse.jp/en

    I assume they're still operating. Has anyone ever used one of their houses? (lately?) It's a cool idea.

    - Andrew

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    TenaciousAC

    « Reply #1 on: Aug 7th, 2017, 9:47pm »
    Hi Andrew.

    It looks like the Henro House initiative was launched last year (2016). The website handles reservations "Open from March to June and September to November : 7 months altogether in the year".

    It's also possible that some of the houses might run independently of the website outside of those 7 months of the year, so thus the website is handy to both henro and house-owner alike during the busy seasons.

    Many people have documented staying at Misono's Zenkonyado (as noted at https://henrohouse.jp/en/houses/10/), and had nothing but kind words for her hospitality.

    « Last Edit: Aug 7th, 2017, 9:48pm by TenaciousAC »

    Check out 'Ohenro San' group on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/30817087712/

    Order the 2017 Version of Henro Map Book at : http://henro88map.com/

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    arjwilson

    « Reply #2 on: Aug 7th, 2017, 11:46pm »
    Thanks Tenacious - it looks good. An excellent idea, I'll try to stay in a few of the places when I'm there. I created an account so I'm in business.

    Thanks - Andrew

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    FlyingDutch

    « Reply #3 on: Oct 28th, 2017, 02:44am »
    We have used them, and we highly recommend them.

    Just be aware that deleting the reservation may be tricky: one day we decided to go further on the path and reserved to another henro house than the one we had planned to stay.

    The reservation mail contained always the same telephone number for cancellation, and we called it. But the answering person first adviced to call directly the house (for which we didn't have the number), then agreed to do the cancellation, but ended up cancelling the wrong one.

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    TenaciousAC

    « Reply #4 on: Oct 29th, 2017, 05:31am »
    Over on the Ohenro San Facebook page, one member who's on the pilgrimage at the moment had a bad experience with Henro House today.

    I'll directly quote their experience :

    "Just a note on the Henro House booking system: the email that you receive confirming your booking is an automated service - it DOES NOT guarantee you a booking.
    I arrived at Omodo Ryokan today in the middle of the storm, only to be told that I was a male and no males allowed (the site says that foreign men are allowed), and that I had no booking. After ringing Henro House, they informed me that Omodo was fully booked. I know this has happened to other pilgrims, as well as bookings being cancelled the night before. So I’d suggest emailing Henro House after you get the confirmation email to actually confirm the booking."

    So although the initiative IS good, and a worthy one to develop, it appears to still have a problem or two; both the disconnect for a Japanese reservation system that historically values phone calls over direct internet booking, and inconsistent messages conveyed from the owner of these Houses and the greater Henro House team themselves. I really do hope they smooth out the issues over time.

    « Last Edit: Oct 29th, 2017, 05:34am by TenaciousAC »

    Check out 'Ohenro San' group on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/30817087712/

    Order the 2017 Version of Henro Map Book at : http://henro88map.com/

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    tneva82

    « Reply #5 on: Oct 29th, 2017, 10:16am »
    Can you call the house directly? If yes think I'll solve this by after reserving online simply calling them directly. Can you book by phone? If so I'll do that instead. Since Japan still prefers phone calls by large(I have often ran into "call for availability" in lodgings before on their web sites...) that seems safer anyway.

    Book by online and then email seems tad risky. How fast is reply time? I generally book night before. If I do this then if they don't reply before I go to sleep I don't know in advance do I have it after all...

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    RogerJack

    « Reply #6 on: Nov 7th, 2017, 06:02am »
    It gives all-around information.

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    FlyingDutch

    « Reply #7 on: Dec 27th, 2017, 9:44pm »
    on Oct 29th, 2017, 10:16am, tneva82 wrote:
    Can you call the house directly? If yes think I'll solve this by after reserving online simply calling them directly. Can you book by phone? If so I'll do that instead. Since Japan still prefers phone calls by large(I have often ran into "call for availability" in lodgings before on their web sites...) that seems safer anyway.

    Book by online and then email seems tad risky. How fast is reply time? I generally book night before. If I do this then if they don't reply before I go to sleep I don't know in advance do I have it after all...



    When I used the service, and for the houses I was interested in, the only available number was the one of the Henro House office. Usually booking the evening before it was fine, that's what we did.

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    tneva82

    « Reply #8 on: Dec 28th, 2017, 01:35am »
    on Dec 27th, 2017, 9:44pm, FlyingDutch wrote:
    When I used the service, and for the houses I was interested in, the only available number was the one of the Henro House office. Usually booking the evening before it was fine, that's what we did.



    Thing is if you really should be doing verification by email then unless they have response time like <1h it's getting dodgy. I arrive, book, send them email. They respond say 2h later it's booked up already. Getting awful late for looking new locations especially since if there's other quests I'm often talking with them and prefer that. So in that case seems better to use this only as absolute last resort backup plan and prioritize other lodgings I have direct phone number right away.

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