Aventine

I was impressed at how late the Aman spa receptionist worked with answering my reservation emails. 11:48pm same day (or night here in Asia) is rather impressive in my eyes.

Looking forward to our treatments next month!

EXPLAT

May 27th - June 1st in Tokyo, then on to Kyoto.

ProTraveler

Just returned from a stay at the Aman Tokyo and have the following observations. The property itself is simply stunning, and the fit and finish of the property is at a caliber higher than any other property in Tokyo.

With the being said, I would caution that the property is very much still in its soft opening, and I encountered small service issues that may disappoint those accustomed to typical Aman perfection. In regards to the room design, I would say that it definitely is not for everyone, and whereas I rather enjoyed the minimalistic design, my travel companion found the rooms to be a bit too sparse.

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bearbrick

Noticed that there are smoking rooms at the Aman Tokyo.
Anybody who's stayed there had any issues with lingering and secondary smells there ?
Aware of this particular trait at Japanese hotels.

And would imagine any housekeeping's nightmare especially in the upholstery and bedding etc .

Would be very helpful .
Thks in advance

Larkin

I have been on a business trip all week and tonight I am spending my last night at Aman Tokyo. It is a gorgeous property. The lobby is one of the nicest I have ever seen. The rooms are beautiful as well.

However, it is Definately not running up to Aman stds yet. i come to Tokyo fairly often and I have to say although I love the rooms and the design, I don't think the service is ready for prime time yet!

I had a very grueling and hectic work week. Instead of flying home I decided to extend a night to try the Aman. I was really looking forward to dome nice R&R for a little less than 24 hours. I was looking to really decompress!

I originally emailed them to ask for an early check in around noonish about a week in advance. I also requested also dinner reservation and a spa menu. I did receive a response but it took a few days. They emailed me back that they were very full and they would try but it was unlikely I could get an early check in. I asked for a 7::00pm dinner reservation as well. They informed me they would accomodate but highly suggested I change the time to 6:30 or 7:30 as they were very busy. Ugh, reminded me of so many restaurants that do this all the time!
Given that it was unlikely i could get an early check in, I decided to go to my early afternoon meeting and check in later. I emailed them to let them know, along with my approx arrival time. I also switched my dinner reservation as well.

When I arrived the reservations manager informed me they had been waiting all day for me even though they had a full house the night before. It made me feel kind of badly but I had emailed them early in the morning ( before 8:00 am) to let them know. Ok, a missed email.while I was sitting in the lobby waiting to check in the property GM came up and welcomed me and thanked me for all of the Aman stays. It was a nice touch, but I was still sitting and waiting in The lobby. It is a gorgeous lobby, so not too difficult!

Eventually someone brought me a hot towel ( it's been cold in Tokyo), and a thimble full of juice. Then I was escorted to my room. on the way I was given a quick tour of the library and the spa. Both were lovely!

My room was beautiful. I was very happy. Then I received a call from the spa that they were unable to accomodate my requested appt as they were fully booked. I could come tomorrow at 1:30, but this was when I had to leave for the airport! Oh well, too bad and my fault as I had only tried to book a day in advance. But you are right, nobody had got back to me!

I was just starting to settle in - it was about 3:15, 5 min. after the spa informed me they could not accomodate me - and I received a call back from the spa they had a cancelation and could I come down right now for a 3:30 appt. that was my only option they said before I was to leave so I rushed down for a 60 min massage. My masseuse met me in the spa lobby and said I had 10 min to use the steam, sauna and japanese bath. I was fine with that and shortly was off to my massage. It was terrific. I can't now remember the name of my therapist but she was great. I would ask for her again in a minute. She interpreted my description of what I wanted perfectly. It was a good experience although I will say upon walking to my massage room every room seemed empty. Upon walking back it seemed the same so I think the fact I did not book fact enough in advance was the issue. I think they just did not have additional therapists available! The good news is at the end of the day, very quickly they accommodated, just too bad the first response was no.

Next was dinner - I was alone so I took them earlier time. The four was delicious. My had a very nice meal and would eat there again. The only surprise was the restaurant was nearly empty - when I got there and when I left. I am surprised they were concerned about my reservation time as it did not seem to be an issue. Having said hat the food was very good. There were a lot of creative sounding dishes on the menu and I was really happy with my meal.

Now comes the not so great part. I came back from dinner and clearly nobody had been in the room. It was exactly how I left it. i called housekeeping for turn down letting them know I wanted to take a bath and retire early. After the second call an hour later they came. Nothing special, I should have just skipped it, but I was curious.

Anyway, I am sitting here in my beautiful suit now typing this. Woukd I return? Absolutely. Would I wait til they have a few kinks worked out - absolutely! When I think of my corp rates at Park and Grand Hyatts, the Pen and the MO, not sure it usc worth the price for business, but for vacation YES!

More later....

MacMyDay

It's interesting reading this. My partner and I were going to visit in February, but instead moved it until the 2nd week of September, so we could visit Gora Kadan and Hakone Ginyu at the same time, in warmer weather. I have been discussing with the concierge about restaurants to visit and whilst they have been very helpful, there has been a huge delay in response to a lot of the points. 24 hours is understandable, although not what I'd consider decent service for a high-end 5 star hotel, however it's taken well over a week for some replies.

Larkin

Continued from my last post. I woke up this mornng after a great night's sleep. The bed is really comfortable! the black out shades work great, although I almost hated to use them as the lights at night are so beautiful!

I had the full American breakfast via room service and it was perfect. I am staying in a big beautiful corner suite ( an upgrade), and they set the dining room table perfectly. The breakfast was delicious and I could not be more happy. The only negative with room service is they have several courses so you get it all at once. I ate the hot food first so it would not get cold, so it was a bit backwards from eating in the dining room, but it's what I wanted to do as I was feeling very lazy after my hectic work week.

After breakfast I went for a swim in the pool. It is amazing! i was the only person in the pool. Loved having it to myself. It was truly a surreal experience.
Although I have not checked out yet, here's is how I would rate things:
Room - Wonderful. I love the zen, minimalist look. Details in the room are perfect too. If I had one complaint it would be that in this part of the hotel there is a lot of constrction going on. I am very sensitive to noise. If you have the shades pulled you really can't hear it and at night they are not working anyway. But during the day you can hear it even though I am on the 38th floor which is the highest. It's not really loud but you can hear it especially if you are using the daubed in the bedroom by the window. I would recommend if this is an issue you stay away from this side if the hotel ( I'm in suite 414). It is a corner suite. The opposite corner would have the same issue I would imagine. I don't think this would be an issue in other parts of the hotel, but tpits worth noting.
The living room faces the garden and the bedroom faces tokyo station tower.
Food - I would rate it very good! I had a wonderful dinner and room service breakfast. Service in the restaurant and room service was very good
Spa - I would also rate highly for a city spa ( although I don't generally use a spa in the city hotels often). My masseuse was very good. I love the pool as well so this was a great part of my stay.
Housekeeping - this was not good. I assumed when I was at dinner my room would be turned down and things straightened up. I was gone for about 2 hours and nothing had been done. I probably should have asked for a turn down before I went to dinner, but I just assumed since it was an aman it would be done. I was also disappointed that when I called housekeeping it took another hour for them to come to my room and that was after a second call. Turn down was really nothing special - they missed a towel that was used in the bathroom, and dud not empty the trash, just turned Finn the bed and left - maybe because I was in the room.
Service in advance via email - was slow to respond, and strange that they told me they could likely not acvomodate an early check in and then asked me why I didn't come earlier! And asking me to change the dinner reservation was really unnecessary as the dining room was not even half full! But the hotel was full and I think they are still working out the kinks on the service.
Overall- I have loved my stay. I come to Tokyo several times a year for business. Given the price and the fact I have great corp discounts at great hotels, and given the service overall not quite as good, I would probably wait to come back until they work out the kinks. However, if I were coming on vacation with my husband, I would come here again in a heartbeat, despite the kinks.

KrazeeJoe

Stayed at Aman Tokyo a few days ago. The hardware is definitely up to Aman standard but the service, like many people mentioned, is not Aman-like. Having been to over 20 aman resorts, this was the first time we were asked for room number when we went for dinner.

The staff are responsive and curteous, but the same can be said for many hotels and ryokans in Japan.

With 84 rooms it is hard to imagine all the staff can recognize and memorize all the guests. Perhaps we just have to lower our expection of services for future Aman city hotels which will inevitably have relatively large number of rooms - especially with the new profit-orientated owner.

As for the hotel restaurant food standard, let's just say there are too many places with delicious food in Tokyo to spend time eating at the hotel unless you are too lazy to go out.

pricesquire

Odd...I was asked my room # at Puri at least a dozen times, maybe 3-5 times per day.

Maybe Puri is different due to high bed count compared to a normal Aman?

FlyerEC

Very odd indeed . Maybe once from newer team members but so many times a day
Has been the benchmark of knowing where anyone is at any time , whether from pavilion or villa , even during high season or peak periods & even before gadgets like cctv became common .

But for Tokyo , perhaps a different drumbeat so will take awhile .
They can expect more non residents at restaurant , public areas too unlike other Amans

MacMyDay

I only recall being asked for our room at Amanzoe on the first day and that was once and never again. We've been back twice since and stayed in the same room, so surprisingly no one asked afterwards.

It's always one of the points that impress me about the Aman's, is just walking off at the end of a meal and not worrying about any bills.

With my on going issues with the concierge (still no response since the 6th - it's a good job my stay isn't until September), it certainly isn't something new to me with Aman's. I do feel they've greatly improved in the last 18 months, but to begin with their sales team were particular unhelpful and unresponsive when it came to booking resorts and finding out more information. It may either be they've got better, or because I'm a regular I get treated better. We had a period where due to our flights being cancelled we were trying to work out the best route of getting to Amandari, yet their response was basically "Sorry, we can't do anything for you". Contrast to Alila Villas we were also staying with afterwards who couldn't have been more helpful and reorganised everything for us.

Sorry, gone completely off subject here

scented

I sincerely hope service catches up soon. While some rave about Aman Tokyo, reviews like this paint a different picture. I fear in cities we pay Aman rates for great style, facilities and the privilege of few keys. And that's about it. We'll see if they can bring the magic into town.

RodHK

I'm sure Aman will bring the magic into town. They have already done it in Beijing and Hangzhou, but, yes, on a different way since in Beijing and Hangzhou, the resorts are not right in the city center and in historical buildings. In Tokyo, this is truly a city hotel but it looks just stunning. Architecturally, it reflects the best of the japanese culture and it looks peaceful and serene. After looking the first pictures from travelers, we can easily detect the sense for details we are used to find in all the Aman resorts.
Now, I'm curious how is the atmosphere and how Aman Tokyo can be different from Peninsula or MO which are excellent in Tokyo. Since Aman is a philosophy, I really hope we can feel it immediately we get into this temple of serenity in the middle of the city.
I'm surprised they didn't choose a GM from an other Aman as the first GM to be able to breathe this strong philosophy to the team. Jeffrey is probably a very nice guy and I'm sure since he has been recruited by Aman, he knows what Amanjunkies expect from a GM... I'm so curious to see and will try to visit this urban Aman as soon as possible...

vuittonsofstyle

The new management at Aman appears to be discarding the GMs with Aman DNA, so I don't see how we can expect a new Aman to embody the Aman philosophy.

RodHK

What a shame cause it was one of the most important WOW factor in an Aman to have very friendly and close to guests GMs... I regret if the new management has decided to change this perfect recipe...