Aventine

Worth a shot to see if things will change going on one year later.

BENLEE

Reading all these visit reports, it appears that the Aman Tokyo is very much Aman hardware without the legendary Aman service. Correct? Guess should give it a miss until things improve. Pity... I did tour the hotel back in March and find the property physical product and public areas to be impressive.

Aventine

Me too. Just the service has gone missing.

MacMyDay

I'd 100% agree with that. So, being the indecisive man that I am, we decided to swap things around and go back to Aman Tokyo just for 1 night. So for those completely confused by what we did, here is the original plan:

3 nights at Aman Tokyo
1 night at Gora Kadan
2 nights at Ginyu Hakone
1 night at MO

After hating Gora so much and cancelling Ginyu, we ended up with:

3 nights at Aman Tokyo
1 night at Gora Kadan
3 nights at MO

However in getting to the MO, whilst I thought the food and service was so much better, I just absolutely loved the rooms at Aman Tokyo. Plus I wanted my room upgrade, damnit. So we finally ended up with:

3 nights at Aman Tokyo
1 night at Gora Kadan
2 nights at MO
1 night at Aman Tokyo

I've got into a bad habit in recent years of expecting to spend $1k/n+ to receive exceptional service, whereas in reality anything more than $400-500/n should guarantee that. MO definitely does this and just had some wonderful service there. I've stayed in a few MOs before, but this had the best service by far. Small things like when ordering the American breakfast, they grabbed our notes from the previous day and just asked if we wanted the same. So easy and simple. When coming back from day trips they were asking how they were, which is very Aman like. Calling for room service and someone would be there within a few minutes.

Now let's compare to my less than 24 hour, one night stay at Aman Tokyo.

* Check in and receive a lot of "welcome back, Mr. MacMyDay" from the staff, which was actually lovely. GM was actually downstairs as well and said hello, but it was a brief chat, so I could tell someone else must have been due to arrive that he was waiting for. The entire process was very smooth though, with me just going up to the lobby and having someone take me to my room immediately without needing to provide a card or any information.
* Check into room and still given the same room category. I ask for an upgrade, they go to check, come back to me and offer the Premier Room. Just as I start to reimagine this wonderful, new and exciting world of possibilities, they finish with the words "smoking room". In hindsight I should have gone into the room to see how badly it smelt, but I just rejected it as I didn't like the idea of it.
* Head down to the restaurant around 4pm and find that it's closed, so head to the bar. The bar menu is incredibly limited, so we ask for the in room dining menu too, which the waiter has to go check if that's ok, which I'd expect them to know. Service is unbelievably slow and getting a drink took nearly 20 minutes. We're frequently having to chase people to get the menus and order anything. I order the tuna tartar (pretty good) and some spaghetti (horrible, so I sent it back) and then leave, not having to give my room number. For a city hotel, I just cannot believe they close the restaurant and then offer such a basic menu for the bar. Sure, this is an Aman etc etc, but it's no longer "Aman Resorts", but "Aman". I wouldn't expect this at any 5 star hotel.
* We head to the pool for a while and someone comes rushing down to ask us to sign the form, even though we did a few days previously. I explain this and they're fine.
* We then decide to go out for dinner so contact the concierge who book something for us. They say they'll print off the piece of paper they provides with directions for the taxi driver. This was around 8pm and we had to be there at 8:45, with the journey taking around 20 minutes. I go down at 8:20 and they have to print it off in front of me, which naturally takes 5 minutes. Why wasn't this done previously when they knew I had to be gone at this stage?
* Getting downstairs there are no taxis there and it can sometimes take 5 minutes to receive one. MO definitely has the advantage here.

Interestingly I saw on our check-in notes on the piece of paper they had that it said "4pm LCO" (I booked with AMEX) and also "Junkie".

All of these points are small, but for anyone used to the Aman experience it really feels disappointing. When I'm in Amanoi and there is literally nothing to do anywhere near you, I'm quite ok (most of the time) if it takes 10 minutes to get a drink, but in a city where there's so much to do and you're always reminded of the lack of time, it doesn't work. The above may be a small sample, but I just cannot emphasis how much better the MO is at service and food. Aman would be well advised to go spend as long there as possible to learn what needs to be done.

Groombridge

This is great info on Aman Tokyo, and definitely takes it off my list for now. I agree that MO Tokyo is excellent.

I also despise Gora Kadan and am glad you are also warning people away from it. I thought it was very, very tired, with formulaic service, terrible food, outmoded baths, and ugly interiors. None of which is clear from their exquisite website.

Aventine

All very valid concerns. It is head scratching because Japanese hoteliers are usually very service orientated. MO, SL epitomize this yo a fault. I think it comes from the top. The GM runs a loose ship or doesn't want understand the Aman way. It's like putting a F1 well oiled machine in the hands of a novice.

It's galling when HR Kyoto can deliver better service (name recognition, no signed bills, concierge printouts, stay preferences entrained, etc) than Aman Tokyo for a 1/3 of the price.

Kagehitokiri

plus new corporate owner/sales/marketing (who changed amanresorts.com to aman.com as MacMyDay noted)
sale of amanresorts closed in early 2014, then tokyo soft opened end of 2014, and dayan soft opened early 2015

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...l#post22947184
for all guests?

Aventine

For me, and presumably other high level guests/regulars of HR Kyoto. That's supposed to be one of Aman's trademarks for service, no? I think if lesser properties can do that for their VIP guests then Aman Tokyo should be matching that level of commitment for everyone.

SanDiego1K

MacMyDay, I love your style in writing. You give me a great sense of place while I'm laughing about your various travails. Thank you and please keep reviewing.

MacMyDay

Thanks I was planning on doing it for all the hotels we visit, but they are a lot harder and time consuming to put together than I ever imagined.

Aventine

An extra thank you for obliging my request then!

xray

Sounds that he does read it based on earlier posts...

Anyhow, regardless of reports of spotty service, I am more a fan of the hard product so am still going to try Aman Tokyo in a few weeks. Rates are actually comparable with the other usual suspects at the time so it's all fine.

Have only been to Tokyo twice and stayed at Peninsula and Andaz so here's a third data point...

Pausanias

My favourite food critic, Andy Hayler, just stayed 6 nights at the Aman, using it as a base for dining in a variety of Tokyo restaurants. His review of the Aman's restaurant is here:

http://www.andyhayler.com/restaurant/aman-tokyo

Aventine

HA.

He jumped ship from Shangri-la Tokyo.

As for the review:

For such low scores, I'm surprised Mr. Hayler actually enjoyed the meal. Only the desserts got a 16/20. I would have tried their Japanese menu items as well. They do those extremely well.

MikeFromTokyo

I remember having a laugh about Andy Hayler in the Japan forum a few years ago. Suffice it to say that I do NOT consider him a reliable source of information when it come to Japanese cuisine.

I know the family that runs Tempura Mikawa very well, and find it insulting that this idiot presumes to rate Mikawa Zezankyo after a single visit. It's edo mae tempura at its absolute finest.

I don't think this guy Hayler knows the first thing about Japanese cuisine.