Aloft Tokyo Ginza — Hotel in Tokyo

I booked a guest room as a Platinum member. No upgrade but was able to get late checkout. I elected daily breakfast at The Warehouse restaurant on the 2nd floor.||The room itself was nice, clean, and modern. As I expected, much more roomy than a business hotel and a bit more than a Moxy but definitely not the level of something like the Westin. I like the design of the rooms, the size is good, and the overall hotel is nice so I’ve really come to appreciate the Aloft brand.||The hotel itself is located right in Ginza close to Higashi-Ginza Station. While this is technically the closest station, you may find yourself using Ginza Station much more as there are more useful lines servicing that station such as the Ginza Line. As you may be able to infer, JR does not service the direct area and you will be utilizing the Metro Subway system if taking transit. The location is honestly a pretty great place and I find it to be one of Marriott’s more convenient locations in Tokyo. ||The hotel has a really nice, lifestyle, nightclub type of design. It’s something typical of this brand and is more upscale than something like a Moxy. While a younger and more active clientele will likely enjoy this the most, I think most anyone can enjoy the experience. The left elevator provides access to the roof where there an interesting small food “van” if you will called Roof Dogs that specializes in hot dogs. The ground floor has Aloft’s signature W XYZ bar where you can have drinks and small appetizers. Elite members are able to enjoy one complimentary drink from a small selection. As mentioned earlier, The Warehouse is the hotel buffet-style restaurant on the second floor. I enjoyed breakfast here on a daily basis. While I think it was a bit smaller than a standard Marriott or Westin, I still think it was substantial and worth the time. It had the usual Japanese options as well as some western options such as crispy bacon, made-to-order eggs, and omelettes.||Overall I had a nice stay and I think that the price paid was pretty well-warranted for this level of accommodation in this area of Tokyo. I think that if you can score a good rate this is one of the most valuable in Marriott’s...

This Marriott spin off is exactly what it should be, boutique and chic, so chic that you can't see where you dropped your room key in the elevator cause it is so dark in there. The ambient is very different from the typical hotels in the area, it has a night club vibe with a small and cramped gathering area by the lobby where you can order some snacks (known for their hot dogs) and play some pool. This should attract a lot of foreigners who want their Marriott points, Western style services and rooms, and who doesn't care about having a full service restaurant on site. The location is perfect, or is it? It is right next to the Higashi-Ginza subway station and within 5min walk to the center of Ginza and everything else. If you go to bed late and wake up early, you probably cannot tell but I stayed in 512, a corner room and since I checked in late I didn't realize much but at 5am I was woken up by the rumbling subway service just beneathe. There is no actual sound but the vibration was hitting the resonance, the head board and even the decors on the wall would go off every 3 mins as the trains go by. It was not an earthquake. I am not sure if this affects every one on the same floor or lower, and it could be the resonance for the corner room but I didn't get much sleep because of that. So I had to moved to the 11th floor and it was ok. Someone made a big mistake designing this building. It just rendered a handful of the rooms useless because of this. I stayed in a lot of the hotels a top of Tokyo station in the past but never had this issue. The room I had was savvy King and it was quite spacious, whoever thought the rooms is like a business hotel has obviously never stayed in a business hotel in Japan. One weird thing, some of the rooms with large windows facing the street, has the big TV next to the bed rather than infront of it. How do you expect people to watch TV? Another design flaw. Overall, I think the hotel is good for the price but only if I can stay on the upper floors, otherwise I won't be back unless I am not planning...

We stayed at this hotel simply for its location, we travelled to Tokyo during Sakura season so unfortunately, the prices for hotels overall were skyrocketing. Ginza is a more posh area and quieter in general compared to Shinjuku and Shibuya, Ginza is known to be the home of luxury shopping and upscale hotels. ||The hotel itself was fine, the service was good, rooms were a bit small but it is expected for a city hotel in Tokyo. This hotel has a gym, a rooftop bar, and another bar area next to the lobby equipped with a pool table, which was fun. During our stay, we were also offered free drinks over happy hour every night of our stay, which was also a nice touch. The breakfast buffet was fine, they did not have the greatest selection of food, but they did have really fresh salads and soup. ||One thing we did not quite like about breakfast was I guess you could call "very timely" closing of the buffet. There was just one morning that we woke up slightly later, we were informed roughly 15 - 20 mins before the buffet closing and sure enough, perhaps 1 minute prior to closing, we saw a swamp of staff going around taking away all serving utensils, essentially stopping guests from taking any more. Furthermore, the staff came to clean our table while we were still eating and essentially rushed us out the door, we were still chewing with mouths full of food while we were leaving the area. ||Now, I'm never the " last minute to grab more food " or " staying till the very last second " type of person but even then, this action rubbed me the wrong way, I understand Japanese are very timely and follow instructions TO A TEE, which are nice qualities but when they applied it to hospitality, which in most cases require some flexibility and fluidity to enhance customers' experience, what we experienced at the buffet was unfortunately not the greatest. This is probably not an Aloft issue but I presume happens across Japan, however, I would also assume this might not necessarily happen at...