helvetic

I know you've read my review of the Prince Gallery, and have stayed there as well. For me, it's my favorite hotel worldwide… extremely well-rounded, luxurious, and modern.

Here are a few reasons I love it:
- A small intimate club lounge with sake all day and a selection of great drinks from ~6 to 11pm. They were even serving Yamazaki 12 on one of my visits.
- Great breakfast: in the club with a fantastic truffle poached egg dish, or upstairs in the restaurant with a traditional Japanese breakfast or western buffet
- That lobby bar! And the one hidden behind!
- The VIEWS
- The Spa
- Location
- Every room is great, even the base room
- Super modern feel: glass, marble, brushed steel, colors, etc. Much more of a fan of that vs. the old style luxury full of beige and gold.
- Incredible service
- Bathrooms… beautiful bathrooms, with views.
- Great Platinum treatment, generous upgrades, etc.



As for the Andaz:
- The buffet breakfast is wonderful.
- Love the style of the rooms, modern wood decor
- The views, at the top of Tokyo's tallest building
- Free happy hour for all guests

Park Hyatt:
- Historic, but dated.
- Much more of a traditional "luxury" room, with old-looking furnishings and a big bathroom
- Location sucks


Conrad:
- Location is not the greatest, but ok
- A bit "big"
- That said, room and suites have great furnishings and views
- Club lounge is nice, though the views are a bit restricted
- Fantastic service
- Solid breakfast buffet

bhrubin

evergrn

What makes the pool at PH better than Andaz? Both are very high up, and Andaz pool appears to have high windows with views overlooking the city just like PH's. The only difference appears to be that Andaz's pool only has 1 lap lane?

Interesting feedback on Conrad. It's good to get an affirmation that Conrad's right up there with the rest. I have more experience with luxury hotels in HKG and, over there, I would say Peninsula > Conrad=I.Shangrila > K.Shangrila. I think Conrad Tokyo is at least on par with Conrad HKG hotel-wise (even though I love Conrad HKG more due to friendlier staff and better elite treatment).

So, would this be a reasonable top-9 (in no particular order)?

Prince Gallery
Ritz Carlton
Aman
Andaz
Park Hyatt
Palace
Shangrila
Mandarin Oriental
Conrad

And then the next tier would be: Peninsula, Four Seasons, Grand Hyatt, Hotel Tokyu Capitol, Chinzanso, Sakura Towers?
Wonder how Chinzanso is now. I stayed there not long before it debranded, but even then it wasn't as good a hotel as Conrad is.

I'm not familiar with Andaz Tokyo or the whole Andaz concept for that matter, but I'm sort of curious to see for myself why it gets such high marks here when it goes for same points as Grand Hyatt.

Pickles

Two lap lanes, much bigger pool deck, and full 360 degree view of the city, as the pool is on the roof of the building. And the PH locker room and spa is another level of swank relative to the Andaz and to pretty much any other city spa.

gengar

Just to be clear, IME the Conrad is an obvious tier below the Palace (although caveat-ing that I stayed in a specialty suite at the Palace) - and I wouldn't be surprised if it's also a tier below other luxury Tokyo properties I haven't stayed at, like the Aman or even Shangri-La. My point is simply that IME many of the luxury Tokyo properties discussed here have sufficient deficiencies (or, in the case of the MO, extraordinary deficiencies) in one or some areas that necessarily make the Conrad a consideration, especially when taking price into account.

evergrn

That sounds great. But is there a poolside jacuzzi? Also do they make you wear a swim cap (I hate wearing it, although I prefer to see other people wear it... how selfish is that!)? At Conrad, you don't have to. I seem to recall I had to at Grand Hyatt.

I get what you're saying. But... and I don't know about Palace but... I've been tracking paid rates for PH and Andaz, and it seems to me that Andaz and Conrad are of similar price point. At both hotels, you can find double occupancy rates from 40,000's but rarely less than that. And Conrad is consistently more expensive than 4.5-star type places like Capitol Tokyu and Sakura Towers. So it seems to me that Conrad is priced like an ultra-luxury place.

Pickles

No poolside Jacuzzi, it's inside the locker room and spa area. The one at the Andaz isn't really a Jacuzzi, it's more of a set of bubble seats and the one next to the pool isn't very high pressure. But it's nice. The GH has a "true" poolside Jacuzzi. As for the swimming cap, it's a city regulation, don't know how the Conrad gets away with not enforcing it.

gengar

As I mentioned in my original post on this topic, the value proposition at Conrad comes from 1) using points for base rooms or 2) paying for suites.

To put it in perspective, the last two times I stayed at Conrad, the King Suite Bay View was cheaper than a base room at the Palace over the same dates.

bhrubin

evergrn

Did not know that was a law. That's good to know. I know all swimming schools require it (including the one our kids go to in Tokyo), and there've been times I was turned away from using the hotel pool because of the cap rule. Wouldn't be surprised if Conrad has the same rule but, if they do, I don't want to know lol. Maybe they just gave up trying to enforce it because there're too many foreigners staying there. There's no mandatory pre-pool shower or sanitation foot pool there either. I at least will stop by the shower by the entrance staircase. I hate wearing swimcaps, but I personally think it's disgusting to get in the pool without showering first. Most Americans staying there will jump right in without a shower, let alone no swimcap. Staff walks by the pool frequently, but I've never seen them say a word. But if I have to purchase a swimcap for the sake of experiencing PH's incredible pool, so be it.

Aventine

It doesn't even have to be a Speedo tight silicon one. Just get one of the Mizuno relatively loose meshy ones.

MikeFromTokyo

BENLEE

Based on your post here, I decided to try this hotel for my next trip to Tokyo. Look forward to it, although I have not much status with Marriott ( Elite Silver only ) and I only booked a premier room.

bhrubin

BENLEE

Yes I did and the rates are quite competitive. ^