nan358

If you should have any problem getting something you ought to from front desk agent, call Mr. Thomas Hoeborn, the hotel manager of Hilton Tokyo. He should be well aware of HHonors rules.

chrism

I had a problem getting an upgrade in June and when I returned I sent an e-mail to Adam. The girl at the reception desk told me when I checked in that because I was using a reward for two nights of the four night stay I could not be upgraded. I argued with her and asked her to doublecheck. She went away and had a conversation with someone and came back to triumphantly announce she had been right--no upgrade. I received an e-mail from the manager, Thomas Hoeburn, very apologetic and offered me a suite for my next stay. He also returned the points I had used for my stay. He told me to contact him directly when I am ready to return and he will personally make my reservation and make sure I get a suite. Now if only the AA fares would come down to the $398 one I had back in June!

If I were you I would contact Mr. Hoeburn before making any reservation and tell him you wanted to make sure you would be receiving an upgrade. He certainly knows the HHonors rules.

Chris

P.S. It's a very nice hotel. I enjoyed my stay. My view of a kind of airshaft wasn't too great but otherwise the room was very nice.

FTraveler

nan358 and chrism,

Thanks! I really appreciate the reference. I'll e-mail Mr. Hoeburn in advance and give him my reservation no. and politely request a room upgrade if one is available. Hopefully, he will enter something positive in the record field.

ACORD

Kudos to Kristy at [email protected]: I recently reached Super Elite (100K) level with Air Canada which automatically qualifies you for HHonors Gold VIP status. I was already checked in the Tokyo Hilton on realizing this so I emailed [email protected] and asked if they would (a) Change my HHonors status to Gold and (b) ask the Tokyo Hilton to upgrade my room etc.

I’m pleased to report all this happened. Great service!

At the Tokyo Hilton, Gold VIP gets you to the Business Level floors but not the Executive Floors (Diamond VIP, perhaps?). Having experienced both the standard rooms and business floor rooms I thought it might be fun to itemize the differences:

1. Different color room key (silver instead of white)
2. Rooms are the same size but furnishings look a bit newer
3. Fax Machine / Printer / Copier in room
4. Smaller TV (to make room for fax machine)
5. ** Free ** high-speed Internet connection
6. Line changer in room
7. Fluffy bath robe as well as the yukata-thingy and slippers standard rooms get
8. Shoe shine sponge
9. In room safe (big enough for a laptop)
10. Three of everything in the bathroom (towels, hand-towels, etc) instead of two
11. Set of three hair oils (!)
12. Extra stuff in the bathroom like shaving gel and various lotions
13. Bigger bar of soap (good - I hate those Chicklet-sized bars)
14. Better hair-dryer
15. Access to business lounge

The business lounge is nothing to get excited about. It’s very small - about the size of a hotel room in fact. Coffee, tea and mineral water is available from 6am to 10:30pm but there is no breakfast -- you have to go downstairs for that.

If you are staying 8 days or more (I’m staying 30 days straight), the Tokyo Hilton gives out a discount card that gives you 20% off just about everything in the hotel (food, drinks, laundry, etc.) -- needless to say this is really worth having where socks cost 250Y each to launder. You also get free access to the fitness center and no cover charge at the St Georges Bar (which is usually a cool 1,500 yen).

As for breakfast: I’m not sure if you get this with Gold VIP or not. I got coupons with my standard room booking at 19,100 Yen/day -- which is a company-negotiated rate. All in all not a bad deal: Business floor room, breakfast and 20% off for 19,100.

Finally, this is a great hotel. As well as being in a good location for things to do and eat in Tokyo the in-house restaurants are good. The buffets and lunch-time deals (of which there are plenty) are good value and of exceptional quality.

thezipper

ACORD, good post, but I think you might not be getting everything you are suppose to. According to the Hilton web site, Understandably, you are staying for a LONG time, and they may not want to upgrade you for that long of a stay, but I would check to see if since you are a long stay guest the least they might be able to do is upgrade you for the final portion (week) of your stay, or at the very least give access to the executive floor lounge. Glad you are enjoying your stay, you might want to check out the following threads for more info relating to Hiltons in Japan, non-upgrade issues, etc:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/002913.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/000928.html

[This message has been edited by thezipper (edited 11-10-2001).]

kidpachinko

I like the Tokyo Hilton. Stayed there for an anniversary weekend (we live in Tokyo, so wouldn't otherwise stay 10 mins from where I work!) on the Executive floor. Didn't walk down to the Business lounge, but Executive is indeed nice. Small pool (normally costs extra) and sauna rooms are nice for Tokyo.

I think our rate was 24,000 yen or something (might even have been less - can't remember), and it was a good bit of pampering. -Great service, as one would expect from high-level Japanese hotels.

-KP

Canista

I'm staying at the Tokyo Hilton (first time)and was wondering if anyone could tell me which room is best: either a Junior Suite (business floor) or a standard Executive Room.

I understand that there is separate exec lounge and business lounge - maybe the Exec room itself is a lot bigger?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Canista

PS: anyone knows where the Marble lounge is located?

[This message has been edited by Canista (edited 11-22-2001).]

FTraveler

Room sizes based on type are the same on every floor, so a junior suite on the business floor will be larger than a standard room on the executive floor.

The executive lounge is relatively large, with complimentary buffet breakfast and snacks and a 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. cocktail hour when alcohol is complimentary. The business lounge is small - I mean small. It can accommodate a maximum of six people and has coffee, tea, and water.

The Marble Lounge is on the lobby floor, next to St. George's Bar.

l etoile

I was just at the Tokyo Hilton and at first was given a junior suite on a regular floor. Having stayed in a regular room before and finding it to be of good size, I figured this would be considerably larger. Wrong. I'd say it was about four square feet larger than a regular room.

The desk clerk had told us as golds that we'd either get a junior suite or free breakfast. Once we saw the so-called junior suite, we immediately went down and asked for a regular room and the breakfast coupons.

Canista

Thank you for your feedback - really helpful.

Canista

l etoile

I believe that's the name of the restaurant where breakfast is served. It's on the main/lobhy floor to the right when you walk in.

JAP

Big high fives to chrism & nan358 for the following !!
I made a GLON reservation in the Tokyo Hilton for 6 nights during the World Cup next year. I searched for any comments on Tokyo Hilton and received the email address of the General Manager from my aforementioned flyertalkers (best-) friends.
Sent an email yesterday - received the following reply today:
" Dear Mr. J P


Thank you very much for your message received and we at Hilton Tokyo are
all looking forward welcoming you to our hotel in June next year.

The period of your stay falls into the World Cup happenings here in Japan
and a extremely high reservation status is occurring, but i am pleased to
inform you for your reservation we can confirm already now a Junior Suite
on our Business Floor, none smoking room, and of course all Hhonors Diamond
privileges will be applied for.

Hope the above confirmation meets your expectations and we are looking
forward welcoming you to our hotel.

Please feel free to contact me directly for any kind of assistance or
information you may require in the meantime.

Your sincerely "

Great service eh ?!! However, does anyone have any comments on the Junior Suite ? Should I try for the Exec floor or is this just being greedy ?

l etoile

Although the letter is quite nice, don't get too excited about the junior suite. It's basically the same - just a touch larger - as a standard room.

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 12-04-2001).]

Canista

Just back from the Tokyo Hilton (Shinjuku) and thought I’d post some further details (if you need more details on this hotel, do a search, there are two very good threads on it).

The property is ideally located for both business and leisure stays (mine was leisure) – a short distance from Shinjuku station (a huge station that will get you anywhere in Tokyo). The hotel itself has great facilities: numerous restaurants, health club with sauna, Kinkos and a small shopping arcade (with a direct link to a small subway station that goes to Shinjuku). There is also a free shuttle service to Shinjuku station. It is serviced by the Airport limousine, by far the best way to get to and from the airport (I personally cannot see the point of braving the subway and train with suitcases).

The hotel has three different levels of rooms: standard, business floor and executive floor. The layout of all rooms is the same across all 3 floors (except for Imperial and Presidential suites).

Apart from standard rooms, there are Junior suites and one corner suite per floor. Room numbers are (always preceded by floor number): 21 (Executive Suite, flanked by 2 connecting standard rooms if needed), 9, 10, 25, maybe 24(Junior suite) and 1 (Corner suite). 10 and 25 seem the most spacious of the junior suites.

The staff is very helpful but very few speak acceptable English. There is no Concierge service per say except Executive floor (also Diamond desk in the lobby). No “Clefs d’Or”.

I won’t go into the comparison between Exec and Business amenities, this was done in a previous post, but having stayed in both floors I would say that the Exec is only marginally better and only valuable if you plan on entertaining clients – a small lounge area could then prove useful.

The Executive floor has a dedicated lounge, fully staffed. Check-in/out is done there. Breakfast is to be taken in the lounge, which also offers cocktail hour (you may have to pay for these) and cookies/soft drinks during the day. The Business lounge is one room, un-staffed with basic facilities – a printer and a few magazines/coffee/water. All Exec and Bus. Rooms have free unlimited RINKS high speed internet access.

In terms of upgrade, the staff is quite strict and not necessarily helpful – they seem to favour Japanese guests. I was advised to contact the hotel manager (Thomas Hoeborn) in advance and that worked very well. From a standard room on the Business floor (Y23500/day) I was offered the choice of either a standard room on the Executive floor with breakfast in the lounge or a Junior Suite with comp breakfast in the Marble lounge (the main breakfast area).

I initially picked the Exec floor but having checked in soon realised that (1) the lounge staff wouldn’t provide that much assistance over the information desk in the lobby and (2) I had no use for the lounge or its facilities (also provides a rather poor breakfast).

I moved to a Junior suite on one of the Business floors and this is much bigger than standard room –first impression is very deceptive as the lighting is progressive – at first the room seems very dark and bleak – wait a few seconds and you have a very nice and bright room…Breakfast in the Marble lounge is great – huge buffet and wonderful choice (some of the nicest “pain au chocolat” I’ve ever had, and I should know ).

This stay was a great eye opener for me on the value of contacting the hotel manager in advance – I am convinced that had I arrived without everything already arranged it would have been a very different story (this is shown also in several previous posts).

Hope this was helpful – let me know if you have any specific questions or need any additional details. Flyboy – this might answer some of your questions.

Canista

JAP

Canista,

Thanks for the excellent report - a friend and I will be on a 6 night GLON stay in June next year, during the world cup.

As recommended, I have mailed the GM and received a pre-guaranteed upgrade to a Junior Suite on the Business Floor, and an acknowledgement that "All Diamond Privileges will be applied" !!

Thanks for your great insight into the hotel - I am really looking forward to the trip after such a report !!

JP