mhy

Looking to stay 3-4 nights in Tokyo mid-January next year. On the last day, will be checking out and heading to NRT to fly back to JFK.

Mostly want a convenient location and a focus on really high quality amenities (spa / pool / lounge / gym / restaurant).

I plan to spend a lot of time in the hotel, either at the lounge, pool, or spa. Obviously will be getting outside for some meals and a bit of tourism.

I have stayed at the Park Hyatt before, it was awesome, and wouldn't mind going back but am open to other suggestions.

• Peninsula?
• Imperial Hotel?
• Andaz?
• Mandarin Oriental?
• Four Seasons Marunouchi? (FS Hong Kong is my favorite hotel in the world, so would love to try but looks very small)
• Hoshinoya?

Being Japanese, I find it weird asking for Tokyo tips but I suspect a majority of the people here are better-traveled in Japan than I am :P

Thank you all.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

I like the Conrad in Shiodme ( especially on the executive levels and with a bay view room)- the pool on floor 29 is very good.

Peninsula, Four Seasons and the Mandarin Oriental might be similar or higher standard

Regards

TBS

mhy

Thanks, I tend to avoid Hilton (status is through CC) as I had very unpleasant experiences with them in the US but I imagine I shouldn’t even be comparing them to the Conrad right?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

The asian conrads ( and hiltons) are generally above the US ( and european hiltons) in terms of service generally (lots of posts in the hilton forums) and had a good experience there

I did like the New Otani ( stayed in the regular rooms but the Executive house Zen looks good)

Regards

TBS

evergrn

Out of your list, I've only stayed at Four Seasons. If memory serves, gym was decent but it's a rather small hotel and I don't even know if they have pool there.

As for Conrad, I'm really partial to Conrad Tokyo because I stay regularly and they treat me well, but the pool can go from quiet to crowded in a hurry because there's only one lap lane, the gym is functional but limited, the lounge can get very crowded in evening, and you will see plenty of cash-strapped points-redeemers like me and my family lol.

jib71

No pool at Four Seasons Marunouchi.

od_sf

Recommendations based on your requirements (convenient location + focus on high quality amenities)

- Aman (Marunouchi)
- Shangri-La (Tokyo Station / Nihonbashi)
- Andaz (Toranomon)
- Prince Gallery (Akasaka)
- Conrad (Shiodome)

Edit: might also be worth looking into the brand new Okura in Toranomon. Not the most convenient location but hard product looks fantastic (especially the Heritage wing - https://theokuratokyo.jp/en/stay/heritage/), with a nice spa as well.
https://theokuratokyo.jp/en/experience/fitness_spa/

MSPeconomist

If you're willing to pay extra for lounge access, I would highly suggest Prince Gallery, although it's not a great location IMO. However, a lot depends on how you plan to travel to the airport. I tend to pick hotels in Tokyo based partly on the limobus schedules as I consider having door to door service (at a reasonable price) to be a big advantage, but I don't want to be forced to depart extremely early due to infrequency of schedule.

Second choice for lounge (also paid) would be RC but I personally don't like the location.

I don't know the Conrad (aren't there at least two of them?) or its lounge.

With top tier Hyatt elite status, PH is nice and for others Andaz (which offers happy hour for all in its lobby lounge). Here we're talking about lounge substitutes rather than actual lounges. I'm not really a fan of either location.

IIRC Imperial has four concierge floors at the top of the older main building, with hostesses in kimonos, but no lounge. However, there is some early arrival/late departure waiting room IIRC on the same floor as the business center, which offers coffee and tea only. I like the Imperial's location (almost next door to the Pen). The pool seems dated. It's also a large hotel, so most wouldn't consider it to be true luxury. Normal lines to check in/out can be long, but then staff bring chairs and beverages.

beep88

I've stayed at the Peninsula and Prince Gallery. I love the Peninsula.

Location for the Prince Gallery is lousy. But you plan to stay in a lot so probably that's not a big issue. They have public Japanese bath.

There are all sorts of automated gadgetry in room, that kept failing during my stay. Pretty frustrating when it thinks you've spent too much time on the toilet when it turns off the light and closes the lid. You want to close the blinds but the iPad that controls them kept crashing.

evergrn

Any reason why you left off Park Hyatt and Mandarin Oriental?
I've got a booking for PH this month and I have extremely high expectations particularly with their pool and gym, but I'm thinking about cancelling for various reasons. I've never stayed at PH before, but I thought their pool and gym are top-notch.

Based on a number of posts from Luxury Hotel thread, it seems to me that many favor Aman, MO, Prince Gallery, Shangri-la, Palace, PH, Andaz as the top 7 or so hotels in no particular order.

MSPeconomist

I thought about including Palace in my comments but AFAIK there's no pool or lounge unless they were added during their renovations. I think of it as more of a high end business hotel than true luxury but YMMV. Good location.

mhy

The PH gym and pool were very nice. There was literally one other person there when I went to use the gym/pool (it was maybe 8pm) and locker rooms were super nice.

mhy

Thanks for all the recommendations. Though The new Okura looks nice, but it's almost as expensive as Aman, and out of budget.

I've never stayed at an old-school Japanese hotel chain before, so I may go with Imperial, but will read reviews first. Looking at Andaz & Shangri-La I don't think they fit my tastes that well. I think PH or MO, and I don't want to rule out FS yet but it does not look like it's got enough amenities (eg no pool).

evergrn

Japanese luxury hotel chains... that'd be an interesting thread.
Problem is, I don't know if there is one.
Jpn has so many hotel chains, yet I don't think a single one of them is consistently 5-star or even 4 star as you'd expect from Westin, Fairmont, IC, etc.

* New Otani - Ones at NASPA and in Yokohama are definitely not luxury hotels.
* Fujiya - The original Fujiya in Hakone has always had dated rooms with sketchy housekeeping.
* Hotel Nikko - Some are legit 4-stars, others (eg, Kawasaki) are really business hotels.
* ANA Hotels - mostly range from 3.5-star city hotels to business hotels.
* Royal Park - Was encouraged when I first stayed in their Minatomirai location, but Shiodome and Kyoto locations are not high-end.
* Okura - I understand their Tokyo location is 5-star, but their Kobe location had unit baths.
* Teikoku - I've only stayed at their Kamikochi one, but hard to classify them as a chain when they only have 3 locations.
* Prince - most inconsistent brand in the world probably... from Sakura/Kioicho Gallery to complete dumps at Sunshine City & Shinjuku.
* Righa Royal - Don't know enough about them.

Pan Pacific is probably the only one I can think of that had the potential to be a legitimate global luxury brand originating from Jpn. Too bad it's not Japanese anymore. Perhaps Royal Park has potential to be a reliably upscale chain, but they're not high-end based on my small sample size.

I think what really ruins the credibility of a lot of the above brands is the prevalence of unit baths which I really despise. I think they're ugly and often smell funky. Unit baths are good space savers, but why are Okura and ANA installing unit baths in rooms that are like 40m2?

shuigao

Totally off topic, but that's interesting to know, because the PanPac in SG is one of my favorite staycaytion hotels in the city ... and yet when I was searching for hotels for next JP trip there was not a single PanPac or even GHA Discovery (the alliance that PP belongs to) property in the entire country.