kirkwoodj

No big difference between em

dascc

oh ok? do you know what the difference is? The best that I could guess was Shinjuku views faced the high rises but I'm not 100% sure.

dascc

thanks!

kirkwoodj

Maybe. Certainly not worth paying extra money or points for.

dascc

oh gotcha, yeah points/price is same. just sacrificing the larger bed.

kirkwoodj

I love this property. Window view is always a bunch of buildings, but I don't care about that. Just there a couple weeks ago.

CanuckFlyHigh

Take the king bed. The queen is more like a double, and the room is tiny.

kirkwoodj

Definitely

nyc10036

I have been staying there several nights each year since the 1990s, and I echo what others have been saying about this differences being negligible. My gut feeling is that Shinjuku view = your primary view will be Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bldgs and their grounds. City view = most rooms to your left (as you exit the elevator bank) w/o direct views of the Tokyo Metro Govt Bldg. Either way, you will see the city skyline w/ similar sets of highrise bldgs.

I may have it backwards, but the differences are pretty much unnoticeable (which is probably why I can't even remember for sure which is which). Sure, the Tokyo Metro Govt Bldg is an icon, but it's not like it's pretty to look at or anything...

dascc

cool thanks for the input everybody... I'll stick with the King room.

nyc10036

Conrad Tokyo is nice, and I once got an amazing upgrade from their base room to an executive suite w/ 1.5 baths (it was right after Christmas last year). I agree that 80k/night is a bit steep, but it's a nice hotel... 48k for Hilton in Shinjuku seems fair.

Anyhow, have you considered Hilton Tokyo Odaiba (former JAL/Nikko Odaiba--not to be confused w/ Grand Nikko Odaiba)? I just booked a room for 39k/night and I find it to be generally a better hotel than the Hilton in Shinjuku. The rooms are bigger, the water view is certainly amazing, and the property is overall quite a bit nicer (the lounge is far nicer than the one in Shinjuku). Perhaps more importantly, I find the service at Hilton Odaiba to be far superior and more "typically Japanese." Lately, I have noticed some inconsistencies in the quality of staff at Hilton in Shinjuku, so I have been shifting my business to Odaiba gradually.

Odaiba offers a lot in terms of shopping and restaurants. The location is a bit tricky, though, if you have to go to the west side of Tokyo (Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Shibuya, etc.), but access to eastern Tokyo (e.g., Shinbashi, Tokyo, Ginza, Asakusa, Shinagawa, Haneda, etc.) is excellent.

kirkwoodj

That has been the issue preventing me from trying this property, agree it looks excellent otherwise.

oh_lol

What makes it difficult?

Cynicor

It lacks the sheer number of different lines running through that other areas have. The monorail is also expensive and possibly a little less frequent.

I dont find find that there are as many basic/cheap restaurants as the wider Shinjuku area, but I haven't spent much time around the actual hotel, just the general area.

jphripjah

I just finished a seven night stay. One night paid at flash sale rate, five nights on points, then one more night paid at flash sale rate.

I really liked the hotel. I'm a Dimond member, on arrival they told me I had been "upgraded" to an executive floor room (30th floor) but that was a little disappointing because I have lounge access already.

I thought the room was quite nice and large by Japanese standards, separate shower, small separate sitting area.

Ate breakfast in Marble Lounge on ground floor a few times. It gets very crowded. Check in agent said something about second floor breakfast but I thought that was Japanese breakfast and I wasn't interested. I think she advised me to make a reservation in advance if I was planning on eating breakfast there.

I thought the hotel is very well located with great access to the Oedo and Marunouchi subway lines. I used the underpass a few times but I think it's longer walking through the underpass to the subway stations than staying about ground. You can also walk all the way to Shinjuku Station staying underground, I did this by first following signs to Tochomae subway station and then once you get there, you will see signs to walk to Shinjuku station. I don't know if that's the fastest way. It took 15 minutes.

Getting TO the hotel using the underpasses is a little trickier as the route is not as well marked. I remember seeing something at each subway station saying to use exit C8 but I never found it. I guess from Shinjuku Station you use the JR West exit and maybe then follow signs to Tochomae station and then to Hilton? I'm not sure.

Whenever I got sort of lost I would follow signs in stations or on the street in the direction of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

I've never seen so many airline flight crews in a hotel. That's not a bad thing, it's just an observation, the place is crawling with airline staff.

I used the airport limousine bus to return to Narita and I think that was a mistake. First, it costs 3100 yen. Second, it takes 2+ hours. Hilton is the first pick up spot and then the bus spends about 40 minutes driving around Shinjuku picking up people at other hotels before it finally heads to the airport. I was flying out of Terminal 3 and of course the bus stops first at Terminal 2 and then twice at Terminal 1.

We left Hilton at 9:40 a.m. and I got into the airport at 11:50 a.m. with just a minute or two to spare before the check in closed for my flight. This was with no traffic - the online bus timetable actually says it takes 2 hours and forty minutes from Hilton to Terminal 3.

Next time I would just take the train to Narita.