Dave510

All things considered, service is better than last time, and the consumable goods in the room seem to have been upgraded. I did ask about lounge access at check in and they offered it for this stay without me having to demand it, but it is getting removed going forward (as everyone else has confirmed earlier).

At the restaurant, they gave me the regular menu rather than the Bonvoy menu, so no 1,000 yen surcharge for Japanese breakfast. I think it was mentioned that that's beacause of lounge access?

nexusCFX

Yes. If you have a club level room here you are allowed to get restaurant breakfast, either buffet or Japanese breakfast.

Also, I just finished up my stays here. A seven night stay, followed by a final night with a two night gap where I went to Suiran Kyoto. For both stays, despite the hotel being near-full, I was upgraded to a corner king room which was spectacular. The hotel honored club access for both stays, although they made it clear that it won't be given going forward.

Honestly, although the removal of club access sucks, given the rates I was paying and the rooms I got, I would definitely return here in the future.

tomwhom

Posting bad reviews regarding the benefit reduction on TA seems a working idea as they may re-consider, HAHAHA:

Response from kioicho, Manager at The Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho, A Luxury Collection Hotel
Responded 5 days ago
Dear exe_ck

Thank you very much for your patronage and thank you for taking your time to write your valuable feedback.

First and foremost, we are sorry to disappoint you in regards to the change of the benefit to our elite members. We should announce it to our loyalty guests in advance.
In addition, we fully understand your frustration that you experienced at breakfast.
We took your comments seriously and will discuss with our management team to re-consider a benefit as well as breakfast options for elite members.

It is regret to hear that you will not consider staying with us again, however we sincerely hope that we will have the opportunity to serving you again in the future with our improved service.

Sincerely yours,

Daisuke Namikata
Chief Manager
The Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho

tomwhom

What a tone change from 'We are in accordance with Marriott Terms & Conditions' crap to 'will discuss with our management team to re-consider' just in a few days, obviously they are feeling a little pressure after five one or two stars rating since benefit changes:

Response from kioicho, マネージャー at The Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho, A Luxury Collection Hotel
Responded 1 week ago
Dear swiss_travel_relax,

Thank you for your comment regarding Club Lounge access, breakfast option and Suite Night Award.
We are in accordance with Marriott Terms & Conditions, and Club Lounge access for Platinum elite members and above tiers are not included at a Luxury collection Hotel brand according to its Terms & Conditions.　Therefore, currently Club Lounge access is exclusive for Club floor rooms only. In addition, we still offer a buffet breakfast as well as other options as a welcome gift for our platinum members and above tiers. Please accept our sincere apologies for the malfunction which we could not explain appropriately. As for Suite Night Award, we are afraid that because our Hotel is being a franchised hotel and under Prince Hotel operation system, our Hotel is not able to participate in the program at this moment. However, we would like to continue Suite Night Award service, so currently inquiring Marriott team in order to reinstate it. If we can be of any help, please reply to [email protected] for discussing your experience with the hotel further. It will be our pleasure to assist you.
Once again we thank you for choosing to stay with us and we look forward to welcoming you again.

Sincerely yours,

Daisuke Namikata
Senior Manager
The Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho

cozysuite

This comment is Bonvoyish... wondering how they would have announced if in advance Send email to elite guest who have reservation, frequent guest of this property, or Bonvoy Elite? I have never received such property specific announcement from Bonvoy properties....

Sounds like they just write without practical idea of execution

EuropeanPete

C17PSGR

Glad people are raising this issue.

Looks like they've also dropped the claim that Marriott told them they had to do this.

MasterGeek

joakgarp

Still waiting for their press release when they announce a renovation of their lounge to twice the size. That will probably never happen but PG need to reconsider.
Prince Gallery has 250 rooms and Sheraton Yokohama has about 350 rooms. The lounge in Sheraton Yokohama is twice/100% as big as the one in PG but amount of rooms is only 40% more. Dropping the ball on returning Elites is not future proof so I guess they are considering dropping out of the Marriott program in some time?

MSPeconomist

zack14

Please post your bad reviews on TripAdvisor regarding the benefits cuts. This is what the PG deserve.

kaizen7

It seems some hotels did take tripadvisor reviews seriously

For me, the lounge access at PG is good to have but I wont miss it too much if I dont.
Although the removal of the said benefit might make me consider other options

Kacee

I understand people are bitter about shutting off lounge access, but if the property provides a full breakfast, it still appears to me to be a competitive high-end option in Tokyo. It seems to price on average quite a bit lower than the RC. And within Marriott, what are the other high-end options? Looking at other programs, I'm not sure there are clearly better options either. While the Conrad has large rooms and good service, it lacks "wow" and I did not love the office complex location. Neither Andaz nor PH has a lounge. Maybe GH?

nexusCFX

I feel the same way. I was paying 295 USD a night and got upgraded to a corner king with my requested view (Tokyo Tower + Skytree) on a seven night stay when the hotel was nearly fully booked, and got a corner king again when I returned for a final night. In my opinion, the Conrad, Andaz, and RC hard product are not on the same level as this hotel. For the RC in particular as the other high end Bonvoy option, I honestly think the rooms are boring, and they look way more dated than you'd expect from a hotel renovated in 2015. The rates at all those hotels are higher than the rates I get here too.

anchor79

I felt this hotel is cookie cutter hotel even before they removed the breakfast option. Andaz on another hand offers much better breakfast, free continental breakfast for all guests in their lobby area. This hotel on another hand, is quite inconvenient when you are taking subways to Chuo area. In terms of rooms I already see wear and tears.

It was great while we had Japanese bento box as an option before but they never changed any item, it got boring when you eat same food for days.