Aventine

Maybe the language barrier has something to do with it? Japanese service won't come with the chit chat or charm of some old school HK attendant, etc. Service levels in Hong Kong are falling, IMO. The younger generation has lost some of the courtesy and service mindedness than the British educated and trained generations before them had. My best service in Paris came from the florist Estelle Preston, and, not George V.

Service at some of your suggestions in my Tokyo experience

Pen Tokyo is an outlier. Something has always been very off there for a while now.

Aman is probably just going to get better and better with its new native GM. It started at the bottom in the beginning.

FS: YMMV. Experiences vary. I remember them telling me to take the subway to Shinjuku to retrieve something I left behind.

RC can be very staccato.

I know we'll hear from you in May!

bhrubin

Aventine

If I were who you were with SPG, I'd go that route too.
That being said, my influence lies else where and that affects my own hotel choices.

Kagehitokiri

mostly in the past here: FS, multiple best city hotel in world. at least one for FS chinzan-so and one rosewood (also one okura), pen when it opened, multiple best city hotel in the world, then it dropped, while MO started pretty bad and mixed but is now well regarded for everything except some say tired. probably the market with the most change. aman was up and down, several best city hotel in world, value best during peak when RC etc are highest dynamic rates. while RC's lowest rate is much lower, ignoring room size, room count, pool, etc. RC has probably picked up some here over time. dont recall re SL, dont think it hit highs like aforementioned.

not sure HK has as many hotels as tokyo and paris. bangkok definitely doesnt. in terms of best regarded hotel markets here. tokyo definitely changes the most, especially compared to paris. but for all, preference also factor.

Aventine

HK has all the ones that count with more coming...

SL is probably getting a little tired as well. Just the whole design scheme but their carpets as plush as ever. If Marcus reversed the chintzy breakfast policy then I would be glad to go back. It used to be my no. 1 Tokyo station and Tokyo option.

Central90210

I have recently stayed in both hotels back to back and would like to share my comparison of the properties. Let me preface this by stating that I have SPG Plat and Hyatt Explorist (effectively useless) status, and I try to choose SPG properties in cities I visit whenever I can. For Tokyo, however, I have split my stays between Sheraton Miyako on the lower end and Andaz on the higher end ever since Andaz opened. Now that PG is open, I have stayed here for the first time and would like to decide for myself if PG can replace Andaz in my case so that I can consolidate stays with SPG.

At the PG, I was upgraded to the Grand Deluxe Corner King from a Deluxe King on a very reasonable BRG rate, which was much much appreciated. And coming from the Andaz Large King (also upgraded from Andaz King), boy is that room beautiful, especially the bathroom! The views were also amazing, with Imperial Palace/ Sky Tree on one side, and a bit of Tokyo Tower on the other. While I prefer the design language and feel of the Andaz room (wood, wood and wood everywhere), I have no particular preference for either rooms as the PG bathroom is just drop dead gorgeous.

Housekeeping at the PG, however, needs some brushing up to do. For a Japanese hotel, let alone a higher end one, they really paid insufficient attention to the details. None are big or major issues, but I would just expect better when even the Sheraton Miyako can consistently do better. Andaz housekeeping, as usual, was top-notch.

While the PG service has been great and polite, we preferred Andaz’s service big time, perhaps because we liked the more causal approach of Andaz more than PG’s overly formal Japanese service culture. However, for my girlfriend, she actually disliked the service at PG, as she has noticed that basically everyone at hotel only paid attention to me and didn’t bat an eye on her, whereas Andaz was exceptionally warm and kind to both of us. I can’t really verify her accounts, but that was her observation and couldn’t fault her as the Japanese culture (and in fact many Asian cultures) is very much about giving preferential treatment to men.

Location wise, many people disliked Andaz’s location for being middle of nowhere and far from subway stations. While true, I actually liked Andaz’s location for being a little bit away from the hustle and bustle of the city which provided some breathing spaces for us, especially when the Ginza Line is very much sufficient for traveling. For the PG, I think it’s also a bit middle of no where, but subway line connections in close proximity are plenty and sufficient for our traveling needs (although Akasaka-Mitsuke station is a hike underground - walk overground for at least 10 minutes of savings). I like PG’s location a bit more than Andaz’s though as there are a lot more (cheap) restaurants in the vicinity (around Akasaka-Mitsuke station) than Andaz’s, but correct me if I’m wrong, there aren’t any conbini in the immediate vicinity of PG, which was a bit inconvenient for us.

For happy hour, PG’s lounge is obviously far superior to Andaz’s with a dedicated lounge (for Club guests/ Plat members) with great seats and view. Drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, were of high quality. Their food offerings are strictly cold finger foods with nothing warm or hot, but are of high quality too. No complaints as we are in Tokyo with absolutely no shortage of awesome food at any price range. Andaz’s happy hour offering is for all in-house guests and consists of red, white wine and sake plus two to three types of cold finger foods.

For other miscellaneous items such as breakfast, pool and gym, I rate both hotels as equal with no particular preference for either properties. So for my future stays, I would definitely look around for BRG opportunities at the PG and if they rate is reasonable and a lot lower than Andaz, I wouldn’t hesitate to return to the PG. The Andaz, however, still remains my favorite hotel in Tokyo and I will go out of the way to stay there whenever possible, despite forgoing SPG points and stay credits.

MacMyDay

My guess it's because of something MikeFromTokyo has picked up on before: it's very rigid. You will rarely, if ever, get any surprises, but it will be consistently of a high standard. If you watched football (sorry, soccer) and saw the same thing every single game, you would not go home and rant about it. It needs a bit of excitement thrown in, with the occasional waiter getting a red card for punching someone.

Also worth noting that in Gallivanter's Guide, Aman Tokyo came 2nd best city hotel in the world for 2017. Quite the rise from when it first opened.

Aventine

You just have to know when to give the hairdryer treatment!

People need to realize that it's not really a lounge at Andaz. No dedicated servers, meals, canapes, fruit spread, etc. It's supposed to be a living room kind of concept where you would hangout as long as you would like and maybe drink something. They put high quality local sake offerings there but that's as far as they go.

Luxury Hotels with lounges for this forum include:
RC
SL
PG

MikeFromTokyo

Arrow29

I found the service at MO Tokyo to be extremely good. Little things like having the doormen radio up our names from luggage tags so that they greet us by name when first walked in to lobby, never once asking for our room number at breakfast, remembering our drink preferences after the first day (and food preference for our then infant). On our second stay they welcomed us back and on my birthday, surprised me with two items (a special plate of fruit with birthday greeting at breakfast and a birthday cake and card waiting in room at night). One of our all time favourite hotels!

Kagehitokiri

for a long time FS and pen tokyo did not have any negative service comments here. only a few other FS and an aman had similar, but the run ended for all of them. size of FS (and LMO and upper house) are factors in their reputations here, with latter two also having design. in tokyo, pen especially, and perhaps others, may have poached staff when they opened, then lost staff to subsequent openings / over time. aman opened with some great reports here, but even on opening night there were different experiences.

Aventine

FS and Pen also had less competition back when they opened. EDITION will be opening for the Olympics. They're going to have another FS by the next decade too.

You have to be on top of your game in Tokyo and not trade off your name or past glories.

Kagehitokiri

(rosewood) seizo ginza and FS chinzanso opened before PH
GH, MO, RC before pen (& conrad, not compared to top here)

everyone wants upscale properties in biggest / wealthiest cities
with past olympics often leading to multiple new upscale hotels

cruisr

The Conrad lounge is less of a zoo now as they have more than doubled the size. They took out two suites, across the hall from the lounge, and now there is plenty of seating and light comes in from both directions. I have been staying at the Conrad every year for the last 7 years and every time I come back I am greeted by name by the staff. The lounge manageress, Naomi, is always so welcoming as are front desk and restaurant staff. I love their suites overlooking Tokyo Bay. Whilst it is in a corporate area you can walk 10 minutes (or less) to Shinbashi Station and get anywhere quickly. I also like the small restaurants near the station. Not gourmet, but very good.

We were last there in November and I thought the furniture looked fine. No knicks or scratches.

HKTraveler