Originally Posted by
tinkerbell78
Just booked 8 night award stay for December: 7 nights on points and 1 night w certificate (475k pts) - no booking issues, but we did want to travel at the end of october and the points redemption rates jumped from 95k to 425k PER night for a standard redemption before i could book them! Nonetheless, December is fine for us. I am looking for some advice - this is our 1st time to Tokyo, we have stayed at many Conrad properties and that is our hilton hotel of choice, when its available, but i just noticed that the Hilton property has rooftop tennis courts...
We loved playing tennis at the rooftop courts at the BKK Conrad! we typically play tennis on all our vacays (beach or city) and now i cant decide if the courts are worth staying at the Hilton instead of the Conrad. It seems that many of the recent trip reports indicate that the service at the conrad has gone down & there are overcrowding issues - but tbh the Hilton trip reports seem equally poor...
Naturally we will be out in the city most of the time, but we do like a day or 2 of just lounging around the hotel, if the property is great...Any opinions / advice are welcome!
Hi,
I was at the Conrad just after new year and the service was excellent ( louge was busy but this was just after new year and the weekend before the Coming Of Age Day ( Public holiday) but was always able to find a seat somewhere. In Jan 2018 there was one night out of 4 where they were taking names and room numbers to get into the lounge ( waiting time of 1 hour) . In Jan 2019 checking in the lounge in mid afternoon took about 30mins of waiting due to the number of people but I was offered a Bay view suite for the following nights for my last 2 nights)
Both the Conrad and Hilton are very good ( the Executive lounge at the hilton will reopen at the end of april after renovation and expansion). The conrad is a better hotel but you are probably paying a bit more. Exploring tokyo you will probably be using public transport a great deal so location is probably less important ( both are close to excellent transport links with the Hilton being towards the west of central tokyo and the conrad being towards the south east. The Conrad is handy to get to Haneda airport though)
The lobby of the hilton can get crowded at times ( more so than at the Conrad) but once upstairs in the lounge it is generally peaceful. I found the afternoon tea selection slightly better at the hilton ( lots of small cakes and puddings) ( hopefully the new lounge will have similar selections) and service in the lounges generally very good ( at peak times the staff in both hotels are kept busy maintaining the flow of food from the kitchens as the food gets take quickly with all the lounge guests with the occasional wait for more food selections to be brought out)
Conrad lower lobby (street level) generated a sense of calm after exploring tokyo and the main lobby on the 28 floor was huge and luxurious . The lounge and bar can get busy in the afternoon/evening.
I like to work out daily but after walking around tokyo all day I occassionally skipped a session or just had a light workout or just a swim
December is an excellent time to visit with all the Christmas/winter decorations ( Thr Conrad is very close to the Carretta shiodome which has lots of christmas tree shaped metal decoratios with lights and fake candles with regular music ( Disney tunes such as Be our Guest and Let it go) and the Hilton is close to the beautiful winter illuminations at the south terrace of Shinjuku station.
It probably depends which area you will spend more time and if you need to save some points for other trips.
Regards
TBS