Japan luggage forwarding hotel to hotel: timing, prices and receiving rules

Hotel-to-hotel conditions: the sending desk must partner with Yamato, the destination must be able to receive the bag at a front desk, and the bag should arrive at least one day before the stay (for a stay from 1 February, it should arrive by 31 January). You can also send it further ahead: Yamato lets you specify a delivery date within 7 days of the day it accepts the bag, so a suitcase can skip a stop on your route, as long as the hotel you send it to confirms it will receive and hold it on that date.

How to send: apply at the facility's TA-Q-BIN counter. There are no advance reservations; fill in a waybill at the counter, or use the Easy Waybill tool on your phone where it is offered.

From an Airbnb: take the bag to a convenience store (7-Eleven or FamilyMart) or a Yamato sales office.

Yamato between Kanto and Kansai: size 160 (160 cm, 25 kg) ¥3,160 and size 180 (180 cm, 30 kg) ¥4,480, in cash; ¥100 less if you drop the bag at an office or store yourself.

Sagawa between Kanto and Kansai: size 160 (up to 30 kg) ¥2,570 and size 180 ¥3,660; ¥100 less at an office. Sagawa's online tracking and web pickup requests are suspended after unauthorised access to its parcel-enquiry service (checked 20 October 2026).

Delivery time: next day for most of Japan; about 2 days to Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Nagasaki, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa and the Izu and Ogasawara islands.

Yamato Kyoto same-day: delivery to staffed hotels in Shimogyo, Nakagyo, Minami and Higashiyama wards, size 160 ¥2,860. At the eight sales offices listed on Yamato's Kyoto page, complete the shipping procedure by 10:00 and check the service's operating days. This is an office-acceptance deadline, not a universal hotel-pickup cutoff. Kyoto City's before-14:00 guidance is for Kyoto Station-to-accommodation delivery; its hotel-to-hotel paragraph gives no cutoff or ward list. Confirm your provider, direction and receiving hotel.

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending luggage from one hotel to another · Yamato Transport FAQ: delivery date within 7 days · Yamato: sending baggage from a hotel, airport or tourist facility · Yamato: TA-Q-BIN rates · Sagawa Express: rate table (Japanese) · Yamato: Kyoto hands-free baggage service · Kyoto City: hands-free sightseeing

Both hotels have staffed front desks and you have two or more nights before you move: confirm the receiving date and Yamato's delivery time. If next-day delivery and the hotel's receipt the day before are confirmed, hand it over two days before check-in and before the sending desk's collection cutoff.

You move tomorrow and need the bag tomorrow night: carry it, and book an oversized-baggage seat on the Shinkansen if it is 161–250 cm.

Moving within Kyoto: confirm the provider, direction, receiving hotel and operating day. If you use one of the eight sales offices on Yamato's Kyoto page for same-day delivery to an eligible staffed hotel, complete the shipping procedure by 10:00. Kyoto City's before-14:00 guidance applies to Kyoto Station-to-accommodation delivery, not a stated hotel-to-hotel cutoff.

Sending from an Airbnb: take the bag to a 7-Eleven, FamilyMart or Yamato office.

Your next stay is an Airbnb or has no staffed desk: send the bag to a Yamato office near the stay and collect it, or carry it.

The bag is heavy (25–30 kg) at size 160: compare Sagawa, whose size 160 allows 30 kg. As of 20 October 2026 Sagawa's online parcel tracking is suspended, so keep the paper receipt and ask the office how to confirm delivery; if you want to follow the bag online, use Yamato.

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending luggage from one hotel to another · Yamato: Kyoto hands-free baggage service · Sagawa Express: rate table (Japanese)

1. Trip: a Tokyo hotel until the morning of Friday 12 March 2027, then a Kyoto hotel near Gion with a staffed desk. One suitcase, 76 × 50 × 32 cm = 158 cm and 21 kg, so size 160.

2. Yamato's guidance asks for the bag to arrive by Thursday 11 March 2027. If Yamato or the sending counter confirms next-day delivery for this route and the Kyoto hotel confirms it can receive and hold the bag on Thursday, hand it to the Tokyo desk on Wednesday 10 March 2027, before its collection cutoff.

3. Cost: ¥3,160 at the hotel desk, or ¥3,060 if you drop it at a Yamato office or convenience store yourself.

4. What it means: two nights in Tokyo without the suitcase. Pack a day bag for Wednesday and Thursday nights.

5. Shorter gap: for dispatch on Thursday 11 March 2027 and a Friday check-in, confirm the exact arrangement with both hotels and Yamato or the sending counter. The receiving hotel's permission for Friday delivery alone does not change Yamato's "at least one day before" guidance or confirm the carrier's schedule. If you cannot confirm an arrangement that meets both sets of conditions, carry the case or use another confirmed receiving point.

6. Carrying it instead: a 158 cm case needs no special seat on the Shinkansen (the oversized-baggage rule starts at 161 cm), so the ¥3,160 buys convenience, not permission.

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending luggage from one hotel to another · Yamato: TA-Q-BIN rates · Yamato: Kyoto hands-free baggage service

A hotel desk that partners with Yamato can handle the sending side, but that doesn't prove the next hotel can receive the bag. Yamato's hotel-to-hotel service applies only when the destination can receive luggage at the front desk.

If the receiving hotel cannot accept the bag, don't send it there: switch to another confirmed receiving point, such as a Yamato office near your stay, or keep the bag with you.

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending luggage from one hotel to another

Yamato's hotel-to-hotel FAQ asks you to send the luggage so that it arrives at the destination at least one day before the stay; its own example is a stay from 1 February, with the bag arriving by 31 January.

Yamato quotes next-day delivery for most routes, and about two days to Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Nagasaki, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa and the Izu and Ogasawara islands.

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending luggage from one hotel to another · Yamato: Kyoto hands-free baggage service

Advance reservations can't be made. Apply at the facility's TA-Q-BIN counter on the day and fill in a waybill, or use the Easy Waybill tool on your phone where the facility has it. Keep the customer copy until the bag is back with you.

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending baggage from a hotel, airport or tourist facility

Yamato notes that you may not be able to ship from an Airbnb, and that accommodation without a receiving front desk may not accept the delivery. To send, take the bag to a 7-Eleven, FamilyMart or Yamato office; to receive, send it to a Yamato office near your stay and collect it there.

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending luggage from one hotel to another

1. Email the next hotel: "Can your front desk receive and hold a suitcase for booking [number], arriving on [date]?"

2. Confirm the receiving date with the hotel and the route's delivery time and collection cutoff with Yamato or the sending counter. If next-day delivery and receipt the day before check-in are confirmed, send two days before check-in, before that cutoff; work back from the actual route's confirmed transit time rather than a fixed countdown.

3. Measure the bag. Up to 160 cm and 25 kg is size 160 (¥3,160 between Tokyo and Kyoto or Osaka).

Sources for this section: Yamato: sending luggage from one hotel to another · Yamato: TA-Q-BIN rates