APA HOTEL ASAKUSA-KURAMAE — Attraction in Tokyo

Good location: If you come from Haneda airport staying on the Asakusa train line is convenient since it will connect directly to the airport. This hotel is located about 6-7 minute walk from Kuramae station (it is a bit of a difficult station to navigate so check signs inside for elevators). Kuramae is a nice area with many craft shops and nice cafes. The Sumida river is just behind the hotel and is a nice place to walk at night. The women's public bath has a small open-air bath with a view of the Tokyo Skytree and river as well which was a nice surprise given the price of the room. Asakusa and Senso-ji are about a 15 minute walk away. There is a bus stop right in front of the hotel which can take you directly to Tokyo Station, or across the street up to Asakusa.

Accessibility: The front entrance has a long walkway of shallow stairs. The rear entrance has no stairs. There are only 2 elevators which can become quite busy in the morning and evening. Definitely would not be able to fit a wheelchair or stroller in a single room. The shower/bath is Japanese style so it is quite deep and has high walls. If you have limited mobility you may find it difficult to enter and exit the shower. The public bath upstairs is more comfortable to use (provided you can sit on a low stool to shower) and there are handrails and steps to enter the bath.

Room: The room was quite small, there is not enough space on the floor to open a big suitcase so you will need to pack/unpack on top of the bed. There is basically no daylight from the windows but that is expected. TV was nice, though I don't recall if the model in my room had casting/screen-sharing. Convenient amenities which they replenish every day but the linens won't be changed unless you stay 4 nights or more. Non-smoking room had no odours and everything was clean and comfortable. The desk makes for a nice dressing area. This room is fine for sleeping in if you plan to spend most of the day out. The baths on the top floor are also very good for relaxing your muscles after a long day of walking around Tokyo.

Service: I did not interact with the staff at all outside of check-in and check-out. Check in process was smooth. I had accidentally booked one night more than I needed but since it was done through an external booking site they unfortunately were not able to change my booking and refund me the extra night. When I checked out I asked them to help me deliver my luggage to my next hotel which they did gladly. Housekeeping starts from 9am so if you don't plan on going out by that time make sure to put the "no housekeeping" sign on theoutside of the door, they will provide fresh towels etc in a bag on...

The APA Hotel chain has a good reputation overall, but the Asakusa – Kuramae could do more to improve. It is one of 4 APA hotels in the Asakusa area and was very busy. The entrance is set back from the main road so you have to pay attention when looking for it. The location is about mid-way between Kuramae and Asakusa stations.||||The entrance and reception are attractive enough, but down a number of steps: awkward for carrying luggage. There may be another way in but it really needs a ramp to the main road. There are only 2 lifts and one could often wait around 5 minutes for an empty lift to arrive.||||Our bedroom floor and the room itself (small as usual in these hotels) looked rather tired. All the usual APA facilities were there: bath, shower, electronic toilet etc. but the water tap was strange in that it either turned on and immediately off again so that it was not possible to wash under running water or turned on and stayed on under high pressure. The room was very warm too and the staff informed that no cooling air conditioning was available so we should open the window.||||We had a particular problem with our luggage which we'd sent on ahead. The hotel would not accept it as it had not been prepaid (we didn’t get a payment option on dispatch) so we were sent to the local post office to collect it at 11pm: not what we wanted after a full day’s travelling. The reception staff were helpful enough in explaining what needed to be done but a change in policy to add the baggage fee to the room account would have been much more...

Stayed at numerous hotels in Japan over the past decade and this room is one of the smallest. Insufficient space to even open up a 23” luggage for a single person living.

Basic toiletries are provided. There is a roof top bath but it is useless in summer as the water is way too hot. There is no cold tub.

There are only two lifts and could be a long wait during peak hours for over 100 plus rooms. The key problem is that instead of just heading down, many people also take the lift for the hot bath so it’s always crowded and long wait.

Good wifi and TV channel in the room but public wifi network is very bad as the wifi is restricted to your room connection. Lobby wifi was non existent.

Location wise, in between two metro stops, but generally not the best location as you have to change lines to get to most places.

Surrounding is abit quiet with limited choice of restaurants.

Staff has very poor command of English, worst of all the hotels I have stayed. Bed is very soft and lopsided. One of of the bed sinks badly and they could not help. They offered towels to support the mattress. Asked for recommendations and the receptionist can’t offer any. Engaged with 3 different receptionists and all struggled with English communication.

Room cleaning not offered daily, only after 3 nights or on the 4th day.

Overall, won’t be coming back. Better off with comfort hotel chains or ibis hotels. Generally much better in terms of comfort and...