kats

Travelzoo offer. JPY24,000 per room/night including taxes. Book by June 17, stay by Sep 13.

https://www.starwoodhotels.com/westi...818_WI_1062_AP

stanfordhokie

Anyone with any insight as to how this is being handled by the property?

My cash and points reservation stay still says the following:
Service Charge 10.0 Percent Per Room Per Night Not In The Rate
Sales Tax 5.5 Percent Per Room Per Night Not In The Rate
Acc. Tax 200.0 Usd Per Person Per Night Not In The Rate

Why is this so hard to get right? Its like my points award at another property which has a $20,000 USD cancellation penalty listed in the T&C.

Tak

<<Acc. Tax 200.0 Usd Per Person Per Night Not In The Rate>>

This supposeｓ to be 200 Yen (about $2) in stead of $200。

remus889

Got in last night, the room is comfortable and very quiet. The food in the hotel from what I've tasted thus far is generally excellent, especially the breakfast buffet. The toilet is nice with control panel in it and love the high quality sound music that pumps out while taking a shower. All in all the experience thus far is great, the only knock I have against this place is I could not seem to get a straight answer as to whether there were any suites available for upgrade as a plat. member. I've never had a problem at any other hotels that I've visited and of course if it is not available then I can understand, it would just be nice if I could be told that. Oh well, not a huge deal, just a small complaint.

thebkguy

I spent a couple weeks in the Westin Tokyo earlier this year. While I consider the property excellent, I can see why it's not right for everybody.

1. Distance from train station - it's a decent hike, although half of the hike is on moving walkways. Personally, this doesn't bother me at all. But that's me.

2. Suite upgrades - less common than other properties. This is a real sticking point for some people. Again not a huge deal for me as their normal room is quite sufficient, but again that's me.

3. Price of food/services - borderline outrageous even by Tokyo standards ($24 Cheeseburger at the bar when it was ~90 JPY/1USD in Feb), but with good reason. You're paying for service from a staff that truly, genuinely desires to provide you with an excellent experience.

For me, I have to say that while the property is beautiful and well appointed, it's nothing you'd really write home about. It's "very nice", but that's about it.

The thing about this property that makes it stand out for me is that the service is, in my experience, truly exceptional.

Besides being truly courteous and exceptionally polite and helpful 100% of the time, there were several occasions where the staff went out of their way to help us.

For example, I was attempting to buy tickets to Cirque de Soleil, with little success, due to the nearby ticket machine not having an English option. The concierge desk also was having some difficulty booking the ticket online.

So what did they do? When the agent realized she was having trouble, instead of making us stand there and wait she told us to go relax for a few minutes while she "worked it out."

I later discovered that "working it out" meant they literally sent a hotel employee off-property to a ticket reseller, bought us the best tickets they could find, and then delivered them to us in a white envelope with a very sincere and unnecessary apology for taking so long (30 minutes). There was no markup or service charge on the tickets, they just billed the face value of the tickets to our room.

Exceptional! ^

While I'm sure there are occasional issues like any hotel, overall the property is clearly among the most well-managed Starwood properties out there, and the staff is sincere in their desire to provide excellent service.

Because Tokyo is so spread out, I can't globally advise everyone to blindly stay at this property. But if Ebisu (the area the hotel is located in) is a good match geographically for your needs, you're not adverse to a little walking, not dead-set on a suite, and you're comfortable paying a premium in exchange for exceptional service, I would highly recommend this property.

Then again if you're adverse a little walking, I'd advise staying out of Tokyo altogether. But that's another story.

LTN Phobia

I agree with the above poster about Westin Tokyo.

The property itself is not outstanding (it's nice, but nothing too special, although I found the room to be quite spacious for Tokyo), but the service there is very good.

I will be booking this property again for my next visit.

ZackVLion

i'm at this hotel right now...fyi, i upgraded from a regular room to club level for about 50 bucks/night which seemed like a decent enough deal since the (amazing) breakfast buffet (while overpriced) that is included is around 40 dollars anyways.
i was at the conrad tokyo last week...i'd say this hotel is comparable, maybe a tiny step down, but still very good. also, location of this hotel is much better, imho. and being a few steps from the beer museum (with samples) is good

jjbc

Will be staying for a couple of weeks in September and will be with my family. I tried searching other sites, to no avail. If anyone can provide this information, will be grateful as it will save me a small fortune.

Thanks.

pelapela

I had my stay at westin tokyo last month. I was always wondering why there is no swimming pool in that hotel. And, a rollaway is 8000yan per day. I notice the breakfast is excellent, but, so does sheraton miyako tokyo. Anyway, for the c/p value, sheraton is a lot better. Great services, too. You get free drinks, about 50 different selections, throughout the day at the bamboo lounge. As for laundromat, I can't remember of any next to both sheraton and westin. But, both properties are very close to communities. You should not have any problem finding a laundromat close by.
Anyway, I will recommend writing emails to both sheraton and westin. The hotel staffs know the local area a lot better than any of us.

eefor jfp

We stayed four nights on cash and points in mid July. I have to echo the comments by most posters about the staff--they were friendly, responsive, gracious, and willing to help with just about anything. We used extra points (2500 per ngiht) to upgrade to the exec club level and really enjoyed the breakfasts in the main restaurant on the first floor (especially the fresh squeezed juices and fresh fruits). The bathrooms were also very nice (I really liked the small sloped channels next to the tub and in the shower that funnelled water into the drain and my wife loved the washlet). We bought two yukatas (kimono/bathrobes) to take home because the pattern was the nicest we saw in Japan. All in all my best Starwood stay ever (but I'm not platinum so I don't get suites and have lower expectations).

SkyTeam777

This thread is quite long so I hope Im not repeating anything, but it appears that at the beginning people were allowed free spa access (plunge pools/saunas, etc) and now the only free access is the fitness center. Is the free access for the hotel spa or the spa across the street or both?

Also, it seems a bit unclear as to the afternoon and evening snacks in the exec lounge. Some people say they are sparse while other accounts indicate they are more substantial. Any comments?

Thinking about using my free night here that I earned during the summer promo? Is this hotel convenient to the airport (I know NRT is very far, but do shuttle buses to the airport stop here?).

sink

What I have done in the past was to take the NEX train from NRT and get off at Shinagawa, then take Yamanote line (green) to Ebisu, walk 5 to 10 minutes south to the hotel. With a foreign passport you can buy the NEX/Suica package.

http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/index.html

Here's the limo bus info:

http://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/tim...a_ebisu_h.html

drron

Well this is being posted from the Westin Exec lounge 10 minutes after the evening snacks have commenced.Our 4th night out of 5 here-3 using the free weekend nights.Both Friday and saturday the lounge has been packed with Japanese guests-they have opened up the meeting room for the overflow.As soon as the food was put out about 40 people descended on it.Already after 10 minutes the first 2 servings have gone and nothing else appearing yet.All 4 nights have been the same food-breads with ridiculous small cheese packets,3 types of potato crisps,1 bowl of nuts,2 of japanese snacks,a plate of sandwiches-smoked salmon and orange,pumpkin,and raspberry jam,a bowl of various lettuce leaves and pumpkin soup-which is missing tonight.Not the place that you can substitute for dinner.
Afternoons are better with nice cakes and pastries-though this afternoon you had to be quick.2 large cakes dissappeared in 2 minutes.
Breakfast though is outstanding-as a plat you can have this in the restaurant downstairs or in the lounge.The lounge offering is good-far better than the breakfast at the Miyako but the restaurant is outstanding-normally 3600Yen.
Will link later to a full report plus photos(my pics dont stick on FT anymore).
As to the airport bus it only goes every hour so if you just miss one then spend 2 hours getting here as we did on wednesday you can feel quite fragile.

SkyTeam777

Thanks so much for sharing...any updates on the spa access across the street for Plats or do we have to pay for access now to the in-house spa?

drron

I presume you are talking of the gym facilities which are free to plats on the 4th floor.Also discounted access to the club in the Yebisu centre.
The Spa is now the massage etc services-no discount there.
Yesterday there was a 30 minute wait for breakfast in the restaurant so we ate in the lounge.There were at least 60 plats on the list for breakfast,today about 30-another reason why suite upgrades dont always happen here I would presume.
Added link to report on AFF with pics-
http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/comm...tml#post261038