F 1

For my final day in Japan, i'm arriving at HND from HIJ at 9am. I have a JAL Maintenance Facility tour booked at 11am until 1230pm. Then will spend my last night in Tokyo enjoying food and shopping, then fly HND to HKG the next morning at 9am.

The question is which hotel to pick for this final night. I'd like somewhere on the luxury side as I'll be looking for a king bed, decent sized bathroom, and ideally a great view of the city. The closer to HND the better. My morning flight to HKG departs at 0855.

Right now I'm booked at The Strings because I love how it's 13 minutes from HND and a cheap and easy train ride. But at 35,000 JPY for the night for a basic room, feels a bit of a rip off to me. But perhaps it is my best option, and the reviews I have read are nothing but positive.

Open to advice and suggestions. I have no hotel loyalty program, so open to any property. Thanks

edit - if moderator could kindly edit my thread title to "Hotel for last night in Tokyo" I'd appreciate it.

NickW

The new Andaz Tokyo? Guest rooms start at the 47th floor and should have pretty spectacular city or bay views. It's a five minute cab ride from Hamamatsucho where you can get the monorail direct to Haneda's international terminal in ~15 minutes.

The Conrad Tokyo is also near the monorail station; but the city views are poor - the bay/garden view is rather good though.

If you're prepared to add an extra 10 or so minutes to your journey, that opens up the cluster of luxury hotels from Hibiya through to Nihonbashi: Peninsula, Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental are all high-rise. The Four Seasons is also there but it's on the lower floors of the building.

Going west, you can find the Ritz Carlton at Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi/Akasaka, which is also a super-high-rise with spectacular views. The Grand Hyatt higher floors are OK, but not comparable to the Ritz Carlton in the view department; it is half a rung down on the luxury scale also. The ANA Intercontinental at ARK Hills is reasonably tall (30 stories?), but I've always had obstructed views as its surrounded by equally tall buildings; it's also a whole rung down on the luxury scale from the Ritz/Pen/Shang/Mandarin/etc.

I haven't stayed at the Andaz but I'd guess it's a peer of the Conrad/Grand Hyatt in the luxury stakes. These are all very good hotels.

OskiBear

Have you considered the InterContinental Tokyo Bay? It's nice, but not super luxurious. I stay there regularly and it has a lot going for it:

1. Spectacular views of Tokyo Bay, Odaiba, Rainbow Bridge
2. Large hotel rooms - similar to western hotels
3. Large bathrooms
4. Walking distance from the Hamamasutcho Station so you can hop on the monorail to/from HND

Usually a lot cheaper than IC Strings

F 1

Definitely I did look at the IC Tokyo Bay. I like everything about it, especially the price. But was concerned about the travel time to/from Haneda. But perhaps sounds like it's not as much of a concern as I thought?

F 1

Those are all great suggestions. Thank you. I should have done a better job earlier and clarified my ideal budget of less than $350/night. That would put most of the properties you've listed out of my range. But I appreciate the help nonetheless.

SQ319

From what I understand the hotel is 10min walk from Hamamatsucho station. There is also a shuttle bus service from Hamamatsucho station to the hotel and vice versa.

http://www.interconti-tokyo.com/en/access/

It takes just 16 minutes on the monorail from the Hamamatsucho to Haneda airport international terminal, so definitely worth considering...

evergrn

I'm a bit surprised the basic room at Strings is 35,000y, although I guess there are certain peak periods. Nonetheless, I'd recommend it over IC Tokyo Bay for your purpose. It's way easier to get to Keikyu from Strings than it is to get to the monorail from IC. Plus, you say you're looking to enjoy shopping and dining... there's not a whole lot around IC Tokyo Bay although I grant you that it will be convenient to get to Odaiba from there. If you stay at Strings, there's way more in the vicinity and you'll have better access to dining/shopping hotspots like Shibuya.

Also, if you're looking for luxury + view + access to shop/dine + value, then you may want to expand your horizon beyond Shinagawa and Hamamatsucho area. Staying in Shibuya will only add 15-20min on top of the Shinagawa-HND travel time.

LapLap

I've been very happy with my stays at The Strings - but I've only had to spend a fraction of what the OP is looking at for my bookings. It is a popular wedding venue and has no problems with occupancy on the weekends, the 35,000yen charge doesn't surprise me.

Not a huge amount to do in Shinagawa, even less at the Tokyo IC Bay (have also stayed here).

We once needed to take over 150kgs of luggage from Shirokane Takanawa/Azabu Juban to Haneda and took a taxi - it cost around 5,000yen. I don't remember the journey lasting more than 20 minutes. There were three of us plus my father-in-law, the taxi was an easy decision.

Rather than stump up 35k to be in a rather soulless part of Tokyo (best part of Shinagawa is how easy to get elsewhere from there) factor in a 7-8,000yen taxi ride and stay in Shibuya.

If budget remains an issue, then use a booking site such as Expedia to check the prices of a SUPERIOR room at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Shinagawa. It should be available for under 160USD per night. The Superior rooms are nicer than those at the IC Tokyo Bay and better than the standard rooms at the IC ANA Tokyo in Roppongi. Not quite as swish as at The Strings but they are a little larger, the other advantage over the Strings are the beautiful gardens. You also have access to a neighbourhood Sento experience at the GP Sakura Hotel for a modest fee.
Please note that I am recommending the superior rooms at the NEW Takanawa Grand Prince Hotel. There are other hotels nearby with very similar names.
You'll have to pay a lot more than 160USD to get anything better than the rooms here.

gnaget

The train ride from Shibuya to Shinagawa is 12 min and it's up the stairs and hang a left for the Keikyu to Haneda. Otherwise a flat rate taxi should be 6000 JPY. There are also buses that depart from the two "luxury" hotels, Cerulean and Tokyu Excel.

Remember that check-in cutoff for HND intl is 40 min so no need to target more than 60 min prior to departure.

When they finish C2 from Ohashi (soon?) then the drive to HND should be less than 15 min from Shibuya.

F 1

Any thoughts reagarding on the park hotel tokyo? I see a king corner room at just under 30,000 JPY taxes in. Seems like an easy journey to Haneda (yamanote to keikyu line I believe) and it would save me 5000k JPY from The Strings.

jib71

The transfer from Yamanote line to the monorail at Hamamatsucho is very short and easy. However, the Park hotel is probably a 7-8 minute walk from the station. If you want a short walk from your hotel to Shinbashi station the Dai-ichi Hotel is closer. Possibly cheaper too. It's an older property, but decent.

nux

Its about 30mins door to door. If you get the 7am shuttle you can easily make the 7:15am monorail (runs express on weekends) and arrive just after 7:30am.

F 1

After much deliberation and searching, I basically talked myself into staying at The Strings and paying 35k JPY for the night. All of your suggestions were appreciated, but I realized that ultimately I valued the close proximity to HND, plus it seems to be a fairly nice property. While the rate is higher than I would have liked, it's only because of tight avails that particular night.

Having said that, I continued to search high and low for many days to see if by chance I'd come across a lower rate. Last night while reading the best rate guarantee discussion thread, I discovered the anaihghotels.co.jp website. With the help of google translate and a japanese friend, I was able to find and book a room at 26,400 JPY.

While I am happy with the lower rate, it's funny how I made several calls to IHG reservations asking if lower rates existed, and was consistently told no. I then called the hotel directly to inquire and was told no lower rates existed. An email to the hotel gave the same response. And yet there was in fact a lower rate on the ANA IC Japan website site the entire time.

Certainly, the hotel booking world is complicated with different countries, reservation centers, websites, and of course the hotel itself. Here's a great example of that.

jib71

Worthy of a complaint to IHG, I think.

evergrn

This is unfortunately not an unusual phenomenon. I read both English & Jpn, and all the time I see certain packages & offers being offered only on the Jpn websites. I think it depends on the hotel, though. I've seen such price discrepancies many times at Kobe's CP. In fact, just a few months ago I alerted another FTer about how he had booked a much higher rate at one of the Associa hotels than what he would've gotten if he had used the hotel's Jpn reservation engine. I'm not sure if IHG's central reservations would have access to the same rates & promotions found through the hotel's Jpn search engine. Likewise, the local hotel staff may not have access to the internet rates, or at least they may be trained to say that they don't have such access.