Bathing Fee and Service Charge in Soaplands

Have you ever visited a soapland and been told to pay more than the fee stated in the website? Not only foreigners encounter such cases but sometimes Japanese would feel being ripped off when charged three times the fee they thought necessary. This is due to the special system in soaplands.

Soaplands are supposedly a kind of special bathhouse, the shop owners only provide the bathrooms and facilities for the bathing fee received, you then pay the service charge to the nominated companion in the bathroom for assisting in the bath, during which the two of you get acquainted and escalate to a special relationship. The shop owners know nothing about what happened inside thus do not engage in the management of any form of prostitution. This is the reason why you can only find the bathing fees in the official websites of some soapland shops.

Traditionally you would pay the bathing fee to the shop firstly, then the service charge to the companion nextly, the sum of these two fees is then the total amount you should pay for using the soapland. As a rule of thumb, the total amount is often 3 to 4 times the bathing fee. As time goes there are also shops starting not to follow the practice straightly, but charging the total amounts when you enter the shops and stating the total amounts up front in their websites instead.

In JHGC we also help foreigners visiting Japan to reserve soapland companions. We will let you know the total amount needed before confirming any reservation and to be paid directly to the staff when you enter the shop. No more service charge will be charged by the companions. If you are worry of any scam, please come to make an inquiry to our JHGC concierges.