we have a holiday booked to niseko and the agent is trying to add a $2800 add on for currency flutuations so think we will cancel lose our deposit and try and book something direct..agents forget they have to take the good with the bad and the aussie dollar rose about 7% against the yen since last week but alas no change on the add on !!! not good publicity for niseko if all the agents are doing this
Well, typical agent commission is 10-20%. If AUD and JPY fluctuate enough, the agents could definitely lose money on a booking if they are offering AUD prices.
Read the terms and conditions you would have received when you made your deposit, if they notified you in advance that your final payment may change depending on the exchange rate, you're out of luck.
If you purchased Japanese accommodation in AUD they didn't notify you of that in the T&C, I'm not sure, but you may have a contract that they'll need to honor regardless of the exchange rate, and they're out of luck. But I'm no barrister.
Who's your agent? :cheer:
I think we'll be seeing a lot of this from now. It is now 45 days from the beginning of December, final payments for accommodation are coming due soon.
am dealing with agent now and trying to apply deposit to lift passes transfers and will take one night in hotel if we have to and then book accom direct in Niseko.
funny how they only sting you one way doubt i would have got a refund if the currency had gone the other way....will be interesting to see what happens...the agent in australia is linked to one in japan i will keep trying to save my $2000aud deposit and apply elsewhere but will probably be better off to let it go ...
Comparative ski lift prices in Australian dollars as at 15/10/08.
[url]http://aacniseko.blogspot.com[/url]
Japan still provides the best snowsports value.
PS: our members have the choice of AUD or JPY payments and since much of our costs are in AUD and we operate as a club, we are unlikely to adjust our accommodation costs for the sudden AUD/JPY spread.
A friend of mine said they haven't had a booking from an Aussie travel agent in over 10 days, see attached chart for reason why. This is going to be an interesting season.
As far as the question at hand: "is Niseko recession-proof?" Doesn't look like it. When I was a kid and times were tough, ski holidays were the first thing that got cut off the summer activity list.
Niseko will be OK. The best snow in Asia, Japan's Whistler, its not all hype. There may be some suffering in the short term, but Niseko will be fine. [img size=519]http://kutchannel.net/next/images/fbfiles/images/aud_jpy.JPG[/img]
Is Niseko recession proof? Ask the pension owners who have finally managed to sell out and our now looking over their shoulders. I think the moon is recession proof and that's about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_real_estate
Wonder how long it will take them to figure out how to work the snow machine without an atmosphere...