A ryokan is not a hotel with tatami. You arrive at a fixed hour, you change into a yukata, dinner is served at a set time in a set number of courses, and the room becomes a bedroom while you are eating it. Done well it is the single best night of a trip to Japan. Done badly it is an expensive evening of feeling like you are getting something wrong.
That failure mode is what this comparison screens for. All five below take foreign guests regularly and their English-language reviews consistently describe the etiquette being explained rather than assumed. We also checked the two things that most often ruin a first ryokan night: whether the room has a private bath, which matters if you have tattoos, and whether the quoted rate is per person or per room.
