Had a rather enjoyable 1-night stay on a P&C rate last week, but it was not without some disappointments.

Totally agree with all the praise for Ms. Lobo, who we met both at check-in and check-out, and with the exceptional high quality of the breakfast, but I had issues with room design and room amenities, and especially with totally clueless staff.

We were upgraded to a Large King, which was much appreciated. Lavish use of fine woods throughout, wonderful panoramic windows, an incredibly gorgeous wood slab table, a great shower and bath. BUT, you have to zig-zag to get around the mini-bar/fridge unit with its sharp corners dangerously sticking out, and the sofa behind the beautiful table is too small for the table, making it totally impossible to comfortably using it for dining purposes.

As for amenities, there are 2 types of slippers, a mule type and a sandal type, but only one pair of each, so you can fight over who gets which (the only other property where I have seen 2 different types was PHV, were they were 2 pairs of each). I choose the mule type and it was a standard Japanese size (about 26 cm), so of course too small. No wine glasses in the room; in fact almost no glassware at all; not sure how they expect anyone to drink the single malt whiskey! Turndown was perfunctory, no ice and no mini-bar replenishment. And no morning newspaper (although I did see some at other rooms).

I'm sure you could call for slippers, wine glasses, ice, newspaper, etc, but that gets to be a PITA.

The many clueless staff were really frustrating. Check-in went very smoothly and was very quick, but everything after ranged from mediocre to terrible. First off, we went to the spa area and a staff tried to show my wife how to use the locker, after locking and being unable to reopen 3 different lockers, the girl simply said "I haven't done this very often" and left my wife to figure it out for herself, which was not that difficult. On leaving the spa area I asked a staff if she knew what time the wine service in the lounge area ended. She did not know but said she would check. I considered saying never mind, but thought I would be polite and allow her to be helpful. She came back with another staff who said "it's open 24 hours", at which the first staff looked aghast at the miscommunication but did not say anything, and I left. I could go on with 4 or 5 more examples. On top of it all, some of the very obsequiously grinning male staff were extremely off-putting.

Someday we will give the Andaz Tokyo another try. The hotel is beautiful, there are stunning views, the evening wine service was very pleasant, and breakfast is exceptional. But I will probably try to make one phone call to ask for all those things that I would normally expect not to have to ask for, and I would try not to ask staff any questions that I would not ask some passing teenager.