The Screen

I truly don't understand how this hotel seems to have such a high average rating. My partner and I had booked 3 nights in an executive suite at a rate of over $700 AUD per night. Upon arrival we were told that two rooms were available and as such we could have our pick of either seeing as they are designed quite differently. Both the rooms had a strangely strong odour of pepper and one was seemingly decorated with the theme of a sex dungeon in mind. The room we ultimately chose was still incredibly dark, each corner of the room had its own weird smell, the mattress was yellow, sheets torn, water smelled of chlorine and the wifi was too poor for my partner to attend a zoom meeting. Within minutes of the employee leaving us in our room we both had come to the same opinion that we didn't want to stay in the hotel. Though, tired of travelling we decided to stay one night before trying to get a refund for the remaining nights. The next morning at around 8am I went to the reception and with the help of google translate informed the receptionist that we weren't happy with the room and wanted to sort something out. The man assisting me translated that he couldn't assist me but the manager would be in at 9:30 to help. 9:30 came around and behind the counter was the same woman who had greeted us the night prior, though strangely her English was suddenly much worse. She informed me that the manager was in fact in a meeting and wouldn't be able to come out and talk to me (which I think is a lie considering I could see her continually texting someone whenever I spoke to her). Ultimately the offer I was given was to forfeit 90% of the cost of the second night and 60% of the third night, an outcome that I think is near criminal considering the state of the hotel and room. The experience put an incredibly sour mood on what was meant to be a surprise to my partner for our anniversary.

I really loved this hotel. It set a high bar for subsequent hotels mainly because of the size of the room, and the size of the bathroom, which was like having a small personal spa; the shower, in particular, was fantastic, and can either be open to the whole bathroom or you can draw a curtain around yourself to contain water splash and/or have privacy from someone who may be sharing with you. There is a box of toiletries provided if you forgot anything (i.e. toothbrush, razor, etc). The toilet is a WC next to the bathroom; toilet lid opens when you walk in! What service! The room also had a very generous walk-in closet. Upon arriving, the very kind woman at the front desk took us up to the room to get us acquainted, and then brought our luggage up along with complimentary drinks and pastries. What a pleasant welcome, especially after 28 hours of travel. The comfortable “pajamas” and slippers they leave for you are actually really comfortable. Unfortunately, we never tried the restaurant, though the lounge area is quite comfy with free coffee and tea. There’s even a small computer area on the first floor with iMacs to use. The area of the hotel isn’t too bad for finding restaurants or breakfast places (we opted to go out for breakfast). The only issue, if you care, would be that the area has a large amount of French, and French inspired restaurants and cafes, which actually works well for breakfast (there are some decent places for a more typical western breakfast), but not ideal outside of that if you want truly Japanese cuisine, though there are choices, of course. Speaking of the area, it’s great for catching taxis, but definitely not super ideal for metro access, unless you’re willing to walk 10 minutes or so. Keep in mind, at this hotel, the rooms get cleaned everyday whether or not you’ve asked, so you must be out of your room for a certain duration of time. Maybe not ideal, but we managed to plan around it since there were days where we knew we’d want to go back and rest a bit. My only complaints of the hotel would be the extremely loud Nespresso coffee machine in the room. Not an issue, I guess, if you’re alone in the room, but not ideal if you’re with someone. Also, would’ve been nice to have access to a microwave. There were a couple of nights where we just went to Family Mart, the Japanese version of 7/11 of which there are many too. The prepared meals are rather good, and they can heat stuff up for you, but would’ve been nice to be able to heat stuff up the next day in our room or somewhere in the hotel. The room does have safe for valuables, but I don’t remember seeing an iron and ironing board. I certainly wouldn’t let these things stand in the way of going back. It was a lovely stay, and I’d certainly go back without hesitation.