Animate Cafe (How to Cancel Cafe Reservations)
How to cancel “Animate Cafe” Reservations
A few weeks ago, I received a question from a reader on how to cancel Animate Cafe reservations.
And I realized that the cancellation links/button may not be that apparent on the Animate Cafe website.
As such, I decided to do a post on it to help those who might, for whatever reason, need to cancel their reservations.
For those who are not aware, Animate clearly states on their website that if you are a no-show without a cancellation notification to them, your chances of getting a reservation for subsequent cafe campaigns will be much lower.
キャンセルをご希望のお客様につきましては、必ず下記をご確認の上、キャンセル手続きをお願いいたします。 万が一、事前のご連絡無くご来店されなかったお客様につきましては今後アニメイトカフェの予約抽選が当選しづらくなる可能性がございます。あらかじめご了承ください。
Although I’m not sure how effective or how strict Animate is in “black-listing” those who failed to show up without cancellation, it is still good practice to do so because it opens up space for those who didn’t manage to get a reservation through balloting.
Most of us aren’t able to visit Japan that often, so you really don’t want to lower any chances of getting that cafe reservation, right?
Method 1: Access the Animate Cafe Cancellation page via the URL provided in your email
For Animate cafes, if you manage to score a reservation through the ballots, you will receive an official email with your reservation number.
If you scroll to the end of this email, there is actually a section that mentions about cancellation of your reservation and the date/time that you can do so by via the URL provided. It’s a unique URL linked to your reservation. (For security reasons, I have blanked out the reservation number identifier in the URL)
Important:
- Please note the red underlined text in the image. As I’ve explained earlier, Animate Cafe clearly states that if you did not inform the cafe of your cancellation (i.e. a no-show with no reason), they might refuse to accept your ballot entries and/or lower your chances of getting a reservation slot for future campaigns that requires reservations.
- Additionally, if you need to change the number of pax of your reservations, you would need to call the Animate Cafe Support Centre to inform them.
Method 2: Call the cafe and/or Animate Cafe Support Center General Hotline
Putting aside our Japanese language speaking skills, this is perhaps most useful when you need to do a last-minute cancellation; the website is down for maintenance and/or change your reservation from 3 – 4 pax to 1-2pax. Animate’s preference is to do your cancellation online though.
The contact number can usually be found:
- The twitter account of the respective cafes
- Animate Cafe website (under the list of cafes) https://cafe.animate.co.jp/shop/
- The email mentioned in Method 1 also provides the contact number, days and hours of operation of the support center hotline. For easy reference, I’ve included a screenshot of the information below. (Please refer to your own email for the information as they might change the phone number). This information is accurate as on 24 May 2019.
Side note: Several moons ago, when I first started going for Animate cafes, I had to call their hotline for last-minute open slots. I vaguely recall there was an English option but it was limited in service and the hours for an English-speaking staff vary. I’m not sure what it is like now (since they are aware that more and more non-Japanese are visiting the cafes), but I think a safer bet is that they require you to converse in Japanese.
So if you are not confident in your Japanese, you can ask your hotel concierge or front desk to help convey your cancellation request. 😊
Method 3: Follow the instructions/links on the “Cancellation Section” on the user guide information on the Animate Cafe website
Animate Cafe actually has a section on their website devoted to how to cancel and the instructions for doing so. However, it’s kind of hidden within their Information User Guide so you need to know where to look.
Here’s the direct URL for it: https://cafe.animate.co.jp/info/cancel/
From there you, scroll to the part when you see the below diagram:
There are two different URLs for cancellation, one where your reservation was from the ballots (予約抽選受付サイトはこちら); the other is from the arrival/vacant reservation system (空席予約サイトはこちら).
From there just click on the URLs provided accordingly, depending on which type of reservation yours is.
Follow the instructions accordingly and you will be able to cancel your reservations.
Just a note that if your cancellations were for those you got from the Vacant/Arrival Reservation System (空席予約サイトはこちら); the cancellation might not be reflected in your reservation history. An email will be sent to confirm your cancellation.
And that’s it!
I hope this information is useful to you. Nevertheless, I really hope you won’t need to use it as it would be a shame to not be able to visit the cafe if you managed to get reservations. However, stuff happens and plans do change so it is perfectly understandable that you might need to cancel your Animate Cafe reservations. (For example, I got lost once or twice trying to find an anime cafe I have never been to but that’s a story for another post.)
OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION
If you are interested to know how to make reservations and/or to get some tips to help make your cafe experience more fun, check out my post on Animate Cafes (How-to & Tips)
If you would like to know more about anime cafes in general, check out: Anime Cafes … in a snapshot (An introductory post)
For an idea on what goes on in an Animate cafe, you can check out some of my Animate Cafe escapades: Bungo Stray Dogs 文豪ストレイドッグス ; My Hero Academia; Hunter x Hunter and Attack on Titan
For information on the special campaign card of Animate Cafe, check out the post on Animate Cafe Stamp Card
Hope this helps! Feel free to contact me via twitter or email for questions on Animate cafes. I’ll try to answer and help to the best of my abilities. 😊
