got miles?

I'm visiting Tokyo between th 24-27th and many of the top hotels are already booked out. Currently I'm trying to decide between the Century Southern hotel in Shinjuku, the Keio Plaza hotel also in Shinjuku and the Inter-Con tokyo bay. The Keio is only US $200, but the Intercon and Century Southern are $240. Any comments on these hotels? I'm open to suggestions to other hotels under US$250, but are also in a centralized area.
Thanks

yasuki

If priority is given to width of the room, Inter-Con Tokyo Bay is the best. ( I recommend the "Bay View Room".) If you need the scene of an upper-layers story, you should choose Century Southern Tower or Keio. As concerned as incidental institutionors including restaurants, Keio is the best. If I were in your place, I would choose Inter-Con Tokyo Bay because of the straitness of the room of Keio and the less hospitality of Century Southern Tower. ( There is no bell-staff, no door-man or no room-service there.)

RichardInSF

I think there is little doubt that the Keio Plaza is way better than the Century Southern Tower, although there is a big quality range of rooms at the Keio Plaza and a few bucks more may make a big difference -- check that out.

As Yasuki points out, the room may be nicer at the Inter-Continental, but the location wouldn't be as good IMO.

I haven't stayed in any of those hotels, but faced with the choice as you presented it, I'd pick the Keio Plaza without giving it a second thought.

yasuki

I totally agree on RichardInSF's opinion. There are many kind of rooms in Keio Plaza. I only compared the standard twin rooms of their hotels. In the point of the hospitality of the staffs, I think that Keio Plaza is as good as Inter-Continental Tokyo Bay. But for the bathroom, Inter-continental is much better because they have separate shower booth in standard(superior) room. So it is Shinjuku VS bathroom.

HKTraveler

Isn't the Intercon highly inconvenient compared to the other hotels? Don't you need to take that special line to get to Odaiba?

yasuki

The station near Inter-Con is JR Hamamatsucho. 15 mins on foot or 5 mins by cab. As HKTraveler says, Hamamatsucho is not very inconvenient but for tourists, Shinjuku might be better. 'Yurikamome' departs from Shinbashi which is next door of Hamamatsucho on JR Yamanote-line toward Daiba.

got miles?

Thanks everyone, I've narrowed down my choices to either Intercon or Keio Plaza. I plan to do a lot of shopping/sightseeing and will not be using the room for most of the day other than to sleep in. As I plan to get IC ambassador status before 12/31/04 to get 5000 bonus AMEX points, I thought if I stayed at the IC I would get a complimentary upgrade to a room with a view or on a club floor. But then again because I'm staying from 12/23/04 to 12/27/04, I thought that an upgrade is not that likely as the hotel will must likely be full as are most hotels in Tokyo right? If the Keio is really in a downtown area with malls, shops, restraunts on the doorstep than I will be inclined to stay there. I take it from your posts that the IC is an inconvenient area and does not have any major shopping malls or restraunts within walking distance. Any further comments?? How full are tokyo hotels too at this time?

aleph08

Intercontinental Tokyo Bay is indeed 10 min walk from Hamamatsucho station. However, there is a Yurikamome station just underneath it - Takeshiba, which is two stops away from Shinbashi. Please refer to their map.
http://www.interconti-tokyo.com/lc/map_eki.html

But if you plan to do loads of shopping, Keio Plaza would be far more convenient. Lots of people mention they liked the hotel, which is good, but once I've had a huge argument with the bell captain who lied to me about a DHL package that had arrived but was misplaced somewhere. Obviously a single incident but bad enough for me to stay away.

mosburger

The Keio Plaza itself is surrounded by the office & city government skyscrapers of Western Shinjuku, but on the other side of Shinjuku Station you have more than ample shopping opportunities. Restaurants abound, cheap noodle and curry places in Kabukicho, dining and beer & wine restaurants between Kabukicho and Shinjuku station and in the other end of the spectrum gourmet temples including the Park Hyatt's New York Bar and Grill sprinkled through the area.

Don't forget to visit Shinjuku Park for great views of the surrounding skyscraper district. And it's safe!

RichardInSF

I hope by "Shinjuku Park" you mean the park on the eastern side of the station (where you have to pay to get in). Shinjuku Central Park, across the street from the Park Hyatt, and a few blocks behind the Keio Plaza, is safe -- but it was being increasingly occupied by homeless when I was last there.

mosburger

Yep, I mean Shinjuku Goen. The park next to PH and Gov. Ishihara's Royal seat is by no means an aestethical experience, and I'm not meaning the poor homeless guys. And for dining, I forgot to mention Koreantown beginning on the, umm I guess Western(?), outskirts of Kabukicho. Good Korean bbq joints, although by no means cheap.

yasuki

I hate them very much.

Pickles

Why? Not like they do it for fun. Besides, some of them are very creative in the way they arrange their homes. There's even a book about them, I think it is called "Zero Yen Houses" or something like that. Saw it both at the Libro in Aoyama and the ABC in Roppongi.

mosburger

If Yasuki San has the same workload as much of corporate Japan nowadays, I think this is a natural reaction to the homeless guys drinking Sochu and having their cigs in the park while the corporate warriors in the PH are arguing with their controllers and planning the next sales trip to exotic Nagoya.

yasuki

Thanks, mosburger-san. The reason why I hate them is that most of them are enjoying themseives while they are making people trouble. I think some of them are pitiful, but others are not. While they are living in the park, I can not take my children and play there. I do not want my children to be like them.