Tag: hotel rooms

The double you have in your head

At home, “double” means a bed for two. A full is a double. So a semi-double sounds like a small double, a bit snug, fine for a couple who like each other.

In Japan the word works the other way around. It is a step above the single bed, and it is sold first as a bed for one person who wants room to move. The “double” part describes how much wider it is than a single. It does not describe who sleeps in it.

This article covers one word. For how a whole room name (single, twin, double, deluxe) fails to carry a bed width, see the rooms article.

What the word names

Start with how Japanese bedding companies use it. Nihonbashi Nishikawa, a long-established Japanese bedding company, publishes a size table. Its table runs single 97 to 100 cm, semi-double 120 cm, double 140 cm and queen 160 cm, all 195 to 200 cm long. The same article labels the semi-double a bed for one person with room to spare, and the double a bed for one or two. The 120 cm figure is 47 inches.

That is one retailer’s table, so read it as the usual retail picture and not a rule.

As of September 2026, from Nihonbashi Nishikawa (in Japanese): size table article. For the national bed standard, see kikakurui.com (in Japanese): JIS S 1102:2017 page.

A person living in Japan, asked whether a semi-double is for one person or two, said it depends: someone with a Japanese build can probably manage two, and someone with an American build basically can’t. That is one person’s reading, not a measurement, but it points the same way as the retailer’s table: a semi-double is a one-person bed.

One hotel, two photographs

The 120 cm bed is the textbook figure. Hotel pages are looser. Richmond Hotel Tokyo Shiba lists six room types on its rooms page.

The Standard Twin Room’s text reads 「122cm幅のセミダブルサイズのベッドを採用したスタンダードツインルーム」, a standard twin room with 122 cm wide semi-double size beds. The icons under it say capacity 2, 23 m² (248 ft²), and 122 cm x 2.

Here the semi-double is each bed in a twin room: two people, two beds, 48 inches each.

Now the Single Room on the same page: 「140cm幅のダブルベッドを採用したワンランク上の客室」, a room one rank up with a 140 cm wide double bed. Capacity 1, 16 m² (172 ft²), 140 cm x 1.

The hotel calls the 122 cm bed a semi-double and the 140 cm bed a double. The room sold as a “single” holds the wider bed, 55 inches against 48, a difference of about 7 inches (18 cm). So the room name told you nothing here, and the bed word is the only part that sorts the two. Only two of the six room types use the word “semi-double,” both of them twins at 122 cm.

As of September 2026, from Richmond Hotels (in Japanese): Tokyo Shiba rooms page.

Next to US sizes

US sizes: twin 38 by 74 inches, full 54 by 75, queen 60 by 80. Some sellers list the twin at 75 inches long.

As of September 2026, from Amerisleep: mattress size guide.

A semi-double is closer to a full than to a twin, but it is a full with 7 inches shaved off. One adult will be comfortable. Two adults share about 23 inches each, against 38 on a US twin.

One person or two

Don’t expect the room page to settle it with the word. Dormy Inn Ikebukuro’s rooms page has no room called semi-double. Its single rooms have a 120 cm bed, the semi-double width, and a capacity of 1. Its double rooms have a 140 cm bed and a capacity of 2. Here, width and guest count line up.

Super Hotel Anjo’s gallery page does not line up. Its Standard Room is listed as 120 cm x 200 cm or 140 cm x 200 cm, 12 m² (129 ft²), capacity 1 to 2 people. The hotel gives two widths for one room name, so you need to know which bed you are getting. 120 cm is the semi-double width.

As of September 2026, from Dormy Inn (in Japanese): Ikebukuro rooms page. From Super Hotel (in Japanese): Anjo gallery page.

The rooms article covers other hotels where a 140 cm bed is called a semi-double (Route Inn) and where a 120 cm single bed is the semi-double room (Sotetsu Fresa Inn). In a twin room, a semi-double is the nicer outcome: one 48-inch bed each, wider than the 38-inch twins you know. In a room with one bed, “capacity 2” next to a 47-inch bed is the maximum the hotel will sell, not a promise that two people will sleep well.

After the booking I describe in the rooms article, where a room that came back from a search for two was too tight, I treat a semi-double as a bed for one and let the page change my mind.

Before you book

Four things to read, all on the hotel’s own page:

1. The centimeters. 120 cm is 47 inches. 122 is 48. 140 is 55. If the hotel says only “semi-double” with no number, you don’t have the size.
2. The count. “122 cm x 2” is two beds. “140 cm x 1” is one bed. A twin room with semi-double beds is the comfortable case for two.
3. The guest count next to the bed. One bed under 55 inches with “capacity 2” means the maximum, not the comfort level.
4. Both long sides in the photos. If one side is against the wall, the person on that side climbs over the other to get out. In a narrow bed that matters more.

The short version

1. Semi-double is a Japanese bed size, 47 inches (120 cm), sold as a bed for one. Hotels stretch the word: it appears here at 47 to 48 inches, and the rooms article has one at 55.
2. The room name tells you little. At one Tokyo hotel, a room called “single” had a wider bed than the semi-double twin.
3. For two people, look for two beds or a published 55 inches or more.

Cover photo: lic-3-semi-double-compact by J o, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. It shows a different property from the ones discussed here.

Contents

1. A Japanese double is close to a US full
2. Inches per person
3. What the page means by two
4. One bed sold for one, and for two
5. The wall side
6. Choosing
7. The short version

1. A Japanese double is close to a US full

At home, the word on the booking page answers the question. A double or full is the bed for a couple who are fine with snug, and a queen is the normal bed for two. Carry those words to Japan and the width holds, but the meaning of “double” doesn’t.

A Japanese “double” is usually a 140 cm bed. That is 55 inches, one inch over a US full’s 54 inches. A full is 54 by 75 inches. The Japanese pages below give 195 or 200 cm for the length, which is 77 to 79 inches, so the Japanese bed is a couple of inches longer.

As of September 2026, from Sleep Foundation and Amerisleep.

The idea that “double” means “for two” doesn’t hold. Nihonbashi Nishikawa, a Japanese bedding company, publishes a size table. It lists the semi-double at 120 cm wide with 推奨使用人数 “1人（ゆったり）”, the double at 140 cm with “1〜2人”, and the queen at 160 cm with “2人”. In that table, the plain “2” sits on 160 cm, which is 63 inches.

As of September 2026, from Nishikawa (in Japanese): size column.

The US side isn’t settled either. Sleep Foundation says “Couples generally need at least a full size mattress.” Amerisleep says a full is “not big enough for two adults but can accommodate one adult and a child,” and says a queen gives each sleeper 30 by 80 inches. They agree on the size and disagree on whether it is enough for two.

2. Inches per person

Each figure is the bed’s width halved, ignoring the gap between sleepers, blankets and how anyone lies.

The Japanese double gives each person half an inch more than a US full, and 2.5 inches less than a US queen. The Japanese queen is the first row that gives each of you more than a US queen does. The semi-double, at 24 inches each, is where Nishikawa’s “1人” label starts to make sense. The word isn’t stable from hotel to hotel: the room-names article shows it running from 47 to 55 inches.

3. What the page means by two

Floor area (客室面積), guest count (ご利用人数) and bed size (ベッドサイズ) sit in three separate boxes. The guest count reads “2人” and the bed reads “140cm*195cm”. Nothing in the line says whether 140 cm is comfortable for the two guests. The floor area is a range, 13.9 to 14.5 m², which is 150 to 156 ft².

The same hotel lists the chain’s single rooms too. The Economy Single and the Standard Single are each “120cm*195cm”. So on this page the step from one guest to two is 20 cm, or 8 inches, the same gap Nishikawa’s table puts between a semi-double and a double.

Super Hotel’s Anjo property words it differently. Its Double Room entry reads ベッドサイズ “140cm ×200cm”, 部屋の広さ “12㎡” (129 ft²) and 収容人数 “1～2名”. Where Dormy Inn lists 2, Super Hotel lists 1 to 2.

As of September 2026, from Super Hotel (in Japanese): Anjo gallery page.

4. One bed sold for one, and for two

Richmond Hotel’s Tokyo Shiba property lists a Single Room and a Double Room on one page. The Single is 16 m² (172 ft²) with a “140cm幅のダブルベッド”, capacity 1. The Double is 16 m² with the same “140cm幅のダブルベッド”, capacity 2.

That is one bed in one room size, sold under two names, with one more person in the count. On that page, “single” doesn’t mean a narrow bed and “double” doesn’t mean a wider one.

If you want a wider bed at that property, the Deluxe Double is listed at 25 m² (269 ft²) with a “180cm幅のキングサイズベッド”. That is 71 inches wide, or about 35.5 inches each. It is also 9 m² (97 ft²) more floor than the 140 cm rooms, so the upgrade is a larger room as well as a larger bed.

As of September 2026, from Richmond Hotel (in Japanese): Tokyo Shiba rooms page.

In the room-names article, 55 inches turned up at eleven of twelve properties under three different names.

5. The wall side

Width is only one of the ways a 140 cm bed can feel tight. In a small room, one long side of the bed may sit against the wall, and then one of you has a wall on one side and a person on the other. At home you can probably get out of either side. When the bed is against the wall and there are two of us, I climb over the other person.

On a 140 cm bed, you’d each have about 27.5 inches, and the wall-side person’s way out runs across the other’s half.

The check is in the room photos. Look at both long sides of the bed and see whether there’s floor on each. The room-names article has a diagram for it.

6. Choosing

I only open the dimension line when two of us are going, and then I read it alongside the room photos, the floor area and the reviews.

The bad booking in the room-names article, a cheap room that came back from a search for two, was a single-size bed.

Here is how I would sort it:

• If a full would be fine for the two of you at home, 140 cm is close to the same bed.
• If you would have booked a queen, look for 160 cm (63 inches) or wider. Nishikawa lists “2人” there, and at Richmond Tokyo Shiba the wider bed came with a larger room.
• If the hotel lists a room called “single,” open its dimension line before you skip it. At Richmond Tokyo Shiba, it was a 140 cm bed.
• If the hotel gives a guest count and no width, you don’t have the number. Ask, or pick a room that publishes one.

7. The short version

1. A Japanese double is 140 cm, which is 55 inches. That is one inch over a US full, and about 27.5 inches for each of two adults, against 27 on a full and 30 on a queen.
2. Hotels list guest count and bed width separately. Dormy Inn lists its 140 cm room for “2人” and Super Hotel Anjo lists its for “1～2名”. Nishikawa puts “2人” on the 160 cm queen.
3. The same 140 cm bed can be a single or a double. Richmond Tokyo Shiba lists it as both, at 16 m², with the capacity the only difference.
4. Two checks cost nothing. Read the width on the room’s own page, and look at the photos for floor on both long sides of the bed.

Cover photo: lic-10-single-bed-large by J o, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. It shows a different property from the ones discussed here.

1. Two beds, not two small beds

At home, “twin” is a size. It names one mattress, 38 by 75 inches (97 by 191 cm), the one you slept on in a dorm.

In Japan the word turns into a room type. A twin room (ツイン) is a room with two single beds, and the beds are whatever size that hotel installed. The word survives the trip and the measurement doesn’t.

If you came here worried that a twin room means two narrow cots, it usually doesn’t. The bigger risk runs the other way: you read “twin,” picture 38 inches, and plan a room around the wrong number.

For how room names and bed widths line up in general, see Japanese Hotel Rooms Decoded.

As of September 2026, from Sleep Foundation: twin mattress size chart.

2. How wide each bed is

Here are the twin rooms at three chains. Widths are per bed, and every room has two.

As of September 2026, from the chains’ room pages linked in the table (in Japanese).

Of the six rooms, one has a 35-inch bed, the closest to the US twin’s 38. The other five are 43 to 48 inches (110 to 122 cm) per bed. Two beds in one room give 86 to 96 inches (220 to 244 cm) of sleeping surface, plus the gap between them.

Two things follow. A Japanese twin bed can sit ten inches wider than a US twin, which puts it within six inches of a US full’s 54. And a chain’s “Twin” and “Economy Twin” can differ by 12 inches a bed in one building, as Super Hotel shows. At Dormy Inn Ikebukuro, one grade up added ten centimeters, and the bigger bed came in the smaller room.

These are six rooms, not every hotel in Japan.

3. One page, in Japanese

Here is the Dormy Inn Ikebukuro page for its Standard Twin.

The label reads スタンダードツインルーム (Standard Twin Room), 客室面積 20.5㎡ (floor area), ご利用人数 2人 (two guests), and ベッドサイズ 110cm*195cm2台 (bed size, two beds). The number that settles it is the last one, 110 x 195 cm, times two, in a room for two. That is 43 inches wide for each bed.

So this twin is two beds that are each five inches wider than a US twin.

4. Double or twin for two

Choose by how you sleep, not by the price.

• Double: one bed, both of you in it. On the chain pages, double beds run from about 55 to 71 inches (140 to 180 cm), covered with the other sizes in the decoder article. Check the width. A 55-inch bed is one inch over a US full.
• Twin: two beds, each of you in your own. Each bed is likely wider than a US twin, as above, and you get a gap or a shared night stand between them.

If you are a couple who shares a bed at home, a twin is a downgrade in closeness and an upgrade in space. If you snore, travel with a colleague, or sleep badly next to anyone, a twin is the room built for it. Compare the price of both on your dates.

I only open the bed-width line when two of us are going. For one person it doesn’t matter. For two it does, most of all on a double.

A third person is a different question, and the headcount box answers it before the room name does. That is covered in Booking a Japanese Hotel for Three, or With Kids.

5. Pushing the beds together

There is no general yes or no for Japan on whether the two beds can be pushed together.

What you can do is ask the property, in writing, before you book, and ask in a way that is hard to misread: “Can the two beds in the twin room be joined?” Don’t assume a hotel that sells a “Hollywood twin” does it by default. The one chain page that lists that term gives only a width, 35 inches (90 cm) a bed (see the decoder article).

Even if the beds move, joined beds are two mattresses with a seam, not one 96-inch bed.

6. What to read on the booking page

1. The number and unit of beds. “Twin” should come with a count of two, and a width for each. Look for something like 122cm×2.
2. The width in centimeters. If the hotel gives a size name and no centimeters, you do not have the number. Convert: 90 cm is 35 inches, 110 is 43, 120 is 47, 122 is 48.
3. Capacity and floor area. The Dormy Inn room above is 20.5 m² (221 ft²) for two, and the other Dormy Inn rooms are 202 to 217 ft². Two 120 cm beds in a room under 220 ft² leave little floor.
4. The third-party site’s wording. An English booking site can translate a room into its own word. Japanese Hotel Rooms Decoded has one listing where the room name said “double” and the line below it said “twin.” Open the hotel’s own page and compare.

The short version

1. In Japan, twin is a room with two beds. At home it is a mattress size.
2. Across the six twin rooms in the table, each bed was 35 to 48 inches (90 to 122 cm) wide, against the US twin’s 38.
3. For two people, a double is one bed and a twin is two. Read the width either way.
4. Ask the property before you count on joining the beds.

Cover photo: lic-4-twin-beds by Aspiringshortlot, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. It shows a different property from the ones discussed here.