Urisen prices aren't decided by the listed price: how to work out what you'll actually pay

When you try to choose an urisen shop by price, the first thing you compare is how much 60 minutes costs. But when we went through 89 shops in Tokyo, the order by listed price did not match the order by what you actually pay. The reason is simple: in this industry, the bill is not decided by the course price alone.

Some shops don't publish prices at all

First, one premise. Our editors opened the official sites of all 89 shops we list, going past the top page to the price and access pages, and 86 published amounts. The remaining 3say only “price on request,” have no price page at all, keep prices behind an age-verification screen that can't be seen from outside, or similar.

Not publishing prices isn't automatically bad. If you ask, they will tell you. But the fact remains that at the comparison stage, those shops aren't in the running. It's risky to take amounts on round-up sites at face value. We don't list any amount we can't confirm against an official source either.

The price is the course fee plus four kinds of extras

Reading the published price lists, what you pay is roughly the sum of the following.

1. Course fee: the base price for each length, such as 60, 90 or 120 minutes. Almost every shop publishes at least this.
2. Extension fee: added for every 30 minutes. In this survey it ranged from ¥3,000 to ¥6,000 per 30 minutes (44 shops). This difference is what reverses the final order.
3. Room fee: what you pay for the room when you use a private room at a private-room / outcall shop. It ranges from shops that state it is free to ¥3,000 (30 shops), and even at the same shop it costs more for an overnight stay.
4. Travel / outcall fee: added when you call someone to your home or hotel. 22 private-room / outcall shops publish a base amount: ¥0–¥1,000. Many shops then raise it in steps according to one-way travel time, and long distances are charged at actual cost or taxi fare.

On top of this, some shops state a cancellation feeand some don't. Some shops charge 100% for same-day cancellations, so always check before you book.

Recalculate with actual amounts and the order changes

So let's actually calculate it. The scenario is “a 120-minute course, extended by 30 minutes, with the boy coming to you”. That is a perfectly ordinary way to book. We only added up amounts written on each shop's official site.

Compared with lining shops up by the listed 120-minute price alone, some shops move once the extension, travel and room fees are added. We have noted the shops that moved in the table. Just running 30 minutes over, or just having someone come to your home, is enough for “the shop I thought was cheap” and “the one that wasn't” to swap places.

Typical prices

Within what we could tally, the median 60-minute course was ¥15,000, with a range of ¥13,000–¥17,000 (45 shops). The median 120-minute course is ¥23,000. The full side-by-side table is in our price comparison. Overnight courses cover different hours at different shops (some run from 23:00 to 6:00 the next morning, others are 8-hour packages), so compare the hours as well as the price.

Four amounts to confirm before you book

When you contact a shop that doesn't publish its prices, asking these four things pins down the actual amount. Ask by email, LINE or another method that leaves a written record.

1. The course fee for the length you want (and whether tax and service are included)
2. The time unit and price of an extension
3. The room fee if you use a private room, or the travel fee if someone comes to your home or hotel
4. When a cancellation fee applies, and how much it is

If a shop can't answer these four straight away, or says “we'll explain on the day,” it is safer to assume that you and the shop may not be on the same page when it comes time to pay.

Summary

• Of the 89 shops we list, 86 publish prices
• What you pay is the course fee + extension + room fee + travel fee
• Recalculating with actual amounts reshuffles the listed-price order
• A shop that doesn't list its extras isn't really in the comparison
• When you ask, confirm the four amounts in a way that leaves a written record

We score each shop with the heaviest weight on how specifically it publishes its prices. All our criteria are published in our ranking criteria, so if you disagree with a weighting, you can check it for yourself.