Sakura Tower - Prince Shinagawa
 

Anyone have any feedback on the Sakura Tower at Takanawa Prince Hotel?

I've stayed next door a few times (Grand Prince Takanawa) and used the bathing and other facilities at the Sakura Tower.

What kind of feedback are you after?

This Shinagawa and Takanawa Prince complex is my normal place to stay in Tokyo. I've never stayed in Sakura Tower either but been in the Shinagawa Prince East, North, Main, Annex Towers, Grand Prince Takanawa and the Grand Prince New Takanawa.

Sakura Tower is pretty expensive so likely with nicer and bigger rooms.

The best room I've used is the Annex. This is the newest building with internet connection etc. The worst is the East Tower. This is the building with 1000 tiny rooms and two tiny elevators. If you stay on 4th floor and below, you can't get in the elevator in the morning.

This part is confusing.

I'm assuming that this paragraph relates to the Shinagawa Prince complex (these towers are in a different location to where the Sakura 'The Prince' is located.)
This means none of it relates to a stay at the Sakura Tower.

Across the street really. But this is a forum so as you wish.

I'll make it less confusing.

Here's a map with a green arrow showing 'The Prince' Sakura Tower
CLICK

Prince Hotels Brand their best hotels 'The Prince' - I would consider these to be 4+* establishments (reserving 5* for places like the Peninsular) - there are only two within Tokyo.

After that they have some 4* hotels which they brand 'Grand Prince'.

'The Prince' Sakura Tower shares a beautiful garden with the Grand Prince Takanawa (NNW of the Sakura Tower) and the larger Grand Prince New Takanawa (directly SW). One can get from one to the other through dainty pathways, if it is raining there are complimentary umbrellas.

Between the 'The Prince' and 'Grand Prince' complex and the Shinagawa Prince there is a Le Meridien Hotel (to the South), a road and a business hotel. There are no complimentary umbrellas offered for this route.

Once these have been circumnavigated, one can enter the Shinagawa Prince Hotel complex which is on a lower scale on Prince Hotels' self-assessed hierarchy. As soon as one gets into the Shinagawa Prince complex there is the potential to be confronted with hoardes of school children and other guests in great quantities, I have no doubt that getting into an elevator here can be extremely difficult . It is a very different experience to entering the Sakura Tower or the Grand Takanawa Prince.

The Shinagawa Prince Complex is shown on the centre bottom portion of the map. They may seem close geographically, but they are miles away in atmosphere.

Having stayed at the Shingawa Prince complex which is basically across the street from the Shingawa JR station, I can say that it is a maze of pathways leading to the main building complexes. There is an excellent restaurant in the tower (at the top), to the north of "Main Tower" and a nice shopping ginza adjacent to this tower. I stayed in the Main Tower which of course is the hulking tall brown building in the center for a couple days. Was a good time but remember to book a room above a certain floor as those rooms are renovated and better than the dingy old rooms on the lower floors.

Tip: try the shabu-shabu restaurant to the east which has a street level entrance and a sign saying "Shayu-Shayu(sic)". The people in this restaurant are very helpful if you are at a loss as to how to eat shabu-shabu at your table!

Sanosuke!

Certainly their website convey this kinds of brand positioning.

I am not sure why they changed the names to "Grand". They actually sell rooms to tour groups and visiting minor sports teams. Even if you ignore the lighted floating balls in the pond and the smoke and smell from the yakiniku place, the garden is not quite the New Otani Akasaka or Chinzan-so level. Rooms are generally much older and in need of renovation. Again, these are impressions of the Grand Prince Takanawa and the Grand Prince New Takanawa and not of the Sakura Tower.

Rooms in both 'Grands' have been renovated recently. All rooms in the Grand Takanawa Prince got the treatment, in the Grand New Takanawa upper floors were spruced up http://www.princehotels.co.jp/newtak...oom/index.html

How long has it been since you stayed at either hotel?

It seems pretty obvious to me that they changed their names to 'Grand' and had this coincide with the recent refurbishment to make it clear that the hotels are branded to reflect their quality. A 'Grand' hotel is better than a standard Prince Hotel, and 'The Prince' is reserved for the flag ship hotels. Works for me.

I don't know:

http://www.princehotels.co.jp/newtak...stroom/tw.html

Looks about the same to me.

May be some rooms got redone and what you showed are 38K-98K yen:eek:. Yes, last time was before Spring 2007. I only go there when I can't get a room at the Shinagawa Prince.

It actually says "syabu syabu" which is an unorthodox but perfectly legit way of spelling "shabu shabu" in romaji.

And the last time you stayed at the Grand Takanawa was when, SJUAMMF? Your comment was about that hotel too.

Too many hotels with the same name, I would certainly get lost!:o

Hopefully, once the OP decides what kind of feedback they want regarding 'The Prince Sakura Tower' they can ask again in a new thread. This one has become fudged and irrelevant.

The only reason I mentioned that I'd stayed at the Takanawa Prince next door is because guests there are/were invited to use the facilities at the Sakura Tower (where I've used the baths and sauna as well as the lobbies). I'm now very sorry I mentioned it at all.

To answer your question, yes, both Grand Takanawa and Grand New Takanawa, but at about the same frequencies, once a year or so. Much less frequent than Shinagawa Prince anyway. Of course I normally use the corporate rate single rooms, not the upper floor Superior or Club levels you showed. I am a Prince Club member and promotional rates available to me are much less than those on the website.

As for useful info for the OP, the Sakura Tower rooms looks much larger than other properties and much pricier also. For the same price I would go for the newest building which is the Annex in the Shinagawa Prince as I originally said.

Yes, I frequently wound up at the wrong lobby as many times as I stayed there. Last time was when they changed the names of the buildings.