JR-EAST HOTEL METS KAWASAKI — Hotel in Kawasaki

After having stayed at Hotel METS Kawasaki for a total of 30 nights and in various rooms, overall I would say this is an excellent place to stay if you need to be in central Kawasaki.||||It is literally a few hundred meters from the station and is situated right beside the tracks. In other words, it's effortless to reach from Kawasaki station.The outside doesn't look flash (I got the first impression that it looked kinda run-down with dirty tiles on the exterior), but inside the rooms and public areas are tidy and well-presented.||||During my stay I had three different rooms, all on the 8th (top) floor. Even the ones that faced the rail station were quiet. All rooms on this floor were smoke-free, but other floors are smoking floors - it pays to ask. On the lower floors do be aware there is a major elevated walkway (town side) that goes past the guest room windows if you like getting up close and personal with strangers :)||My first room was a single, and it was very small especially considering I had my road bike with me and luggage for a month. The room didn't have a proper wardrobe, rather just an area to hang a few shirts. Yes, this room (814), while functional and perfect for the overnight business traveler, is not great for someone staying for a longer time.||So, I managed to upgrade (for an increased cost) to 806, a double room (one bed, but more space, and MUCH more practical).||||All the rooms have a flat screen TV, comfortable bed, reading lights, desk, small fridge (huge plus), kettle and the standard japanese shirt press. The bathrooms are a decent size with ample amenities and fancy toilet (seat warmer, bidet, spray). A nice touch is that the mirrors have a "patch" of heating element behind the glass which means that there is always a section which doesn't fog over. Fortunately (or unfortunately?!) I am not super tall like my colleague who was also staying at this hotel and apparently every morning looked into the light above the mirror (the bathroom isn't suited to very tall people)||||Cleaning was performed daily, and always to a high standard. Note, it may be a Japanese thing, but the hotel is very particular about liquid left in glasses. If you leave, for example, water in a glass, you will return to find a piece of glad-wrap over the glass and your original water still there ... Despite no safety box, I had no (nor did I expect) problems with stuff going missing. The hotel's laundry service is expensive, however there is a coin-operated laundromat a few hundred meters away.||||I found most of the staff to be fantastic and went out of their way to help. English level varied greatly, but the majority were fine to communicate with. Special mention to Okabe-san who gave up at least 20 minutes of his time to help me find a location on a cycling map. The hotel stored my bike box, they moved my luggage when I moved rooms, they were very accommodating with my request for a high floor, non-smoking room... overall I am thrilled with the staff of this hotel.||||Breakfast .. well. This was probably the biggest disappointment. There are two choices: you can eat at the hotel restaurant ("Tsubame grill") or there is a bakery a few meters from the hotel. You are given a voucher for each night you stay which can be used freely at the bakery or the restaurant. To be frank, neither options are overly great. The bakery smells like smoke, has a pretty unappealing selection of bake goods and a Ben&Jerrys commercial on perpetual repeat .. I don't know how the staff keep from going crazy! The good thing is, the bakery is open to 21.30 each day, and the vouchers can be used at any time during business hours. If the purchase total is less than the value, then no change is given. Otherwise, it is fine to pay just the difference.||||For the first 15 (give or take) days I stayed, the restaurant had two choices: an "American" breakfast consisting (see picture) or a Japanese box that sometimes was quite good. The American breakfast was the same, every single day.||From the 1st July 2017 the hotel renovated the restaurant and at the same time changed the menu (and increased the value of the vouchers at the bakery from 750 to 1000yen). Menu-wise, now the Japanese option is gone, to be replaced with one option which alternates each day between some beef stew and and seafood stew - and table service. Before the menu change, one could self-serve miso, bread and corn soup .. actually to be honest, the menu was better before! They had taken the EXACT same ingredients and changed them around a bit. The coffee was consistently bad throughout my stay, I was missing Swedish coffee so much that I went and bought a coffee press for the room and borrowed some coffee from my mother-in-law who is staying in Yokohama! Needless to say, it didn't take long to be totally sick of both the bakery and the restaurant, although my colleague preferred the bakery.||||Breakfast aside, there were relatively few annoyances, but here are a handful that I encountered:||||1) The WiFi will ask you to agree to the terms, once per device, EVERY 24 hours! The idea is that visiting any page will redirect you to the "Agreement" page automatically. No registration, just a button to accept the terms. But the redirect for HTTPS pages (which is the default for many websites) was broken, so one is forced to manually type an explicit http address. Also, I had several devices (laptops, an iPod on a dock, iphone) so this became a PITA.||I hate with a passion when hotels require their guests to "re-agree" to the terms every 24 hours. If I agreed once, I am not going to change my mind every 24 hours.||||2) The shower head swings wildly to the side because the mounting bracket is too loose/a poor fit. It happened in all the rooms I stayed in, and could sometimes by solved by jamming the hose behind the tap.||||4) A minor but annoying thing: The telephone didn't have any sign/sticker/button to quickly ring reception. Instead one had to hunt for the telephone card to look up the obscure number to reception (90 or something, already forgotten). This card, in my case, was often buried under a computer or papers.||||5) A safety box is a missing feature. I have stayed in cheaper (and far less comfortable) hotels than METS that have had safety boxes.||||The review has become a novel - but the summary is, I would recommend this hotel and a special thanks to the staff for looking after me...

Location : from Haneda by cab will cost you 3800Yen. Best for carrying luggage. Next to the Kawasaki Station ( you can literally walk on to the tracks ) - and a big Lazona Kawasaki Plaza Mall . Mc Donalds outside , 7/11 - just the perfect location . Cost - about 120$ a night . Rooms - small but functional - you will need to only sleep here at night ! very clean well maintained and no nonsense. No frills . There is a kettle so get your own tea bags , coffee satchets. There is an ice vending machine on floors 4 and 8. Better buy bottled water from 7/11 - 2litres will be 90Yen. Food: they have a restuarant attached serves Japanese and English set breakfast if you have taken the package. Also breakfast coupons can be used in the bakery outside if you need a change ! in the night they serve western fare like steak and chips good option if youre tired and need some home food- else there is Mcdonalds or even the underground foodcourt at the mall . Staff - friendly , non intrusive and will help whereever they can . I stayed 5 nights so very comfortable . Bathrooms - have basic stuff but enough of shampoo conditioner and body soap lotion. love the heated commodes and the electronic wash - clean hygenic and why cant western countries adopt this ! so much better than paper ! The best i can say in the world ! Any room is good - you can hear the PA system for trains stopping in Kawasaki but not loud enough to disturb you. I was on the 7th floor facing the station . You cannot beat this site for sheer convenience. rail , cab...

I have stayed at this hotel for over 2 weeks in 2019 for a business trip. This hotel is located at a very convenient location (Kawasaki Station and bus stop just behind the hotel, Lazona mall just one minute walk, taxis right in front of the hotel).

The room was a bit small, but somehow they managed to make it comfortable enough. You won't heard noises coming from the train station as the sound isolation is very very good. Cleanliness is a typical japan standard (super clean and neat!).

Breakfast have 2 options, a meal at the restaurant (rice with beef stew or pork sausage, depending on the day) or a coupon to be redeemed with various type of breads at the bread store right beside the hotel.

I was greeted and served by the receptionist with a japanese language, but they are trying their best to understand our needs (they understand english but seems a bit confused on how to reply it...