APA Hotel & Resort Ryogoku Ekimae Tower — Hotel in Tokyo

Amazing Location: Located just a 5-minute walk from two stations: Ryogoku Oedo Line (E12) and Ryogoku JR Station (JB21). no matter where you come from or where you want to go, you'll have convenient access to almost every corner of the city.

The street near the JR station is full of different kind of restaurants, with some staying open late into the night. Additionally, numerous convenience stores (Konbini) are situated nearby, including one within the hotel itself, allowing you to stock up on snacks as you recover from jetlag.

Two parks are also easily reachable within minutes on foot, and if you're up for it, you can even enjoy a scenic stroll along the Sumida River.

The hotel is located slightly outside the city center, providing a peaceful environment without the noise of the iiner city.

However, if you're in search of a livelier city experience, you're only 2 stations away from Akihabara, 15 minutes from Ueno, 25 minutes from Shinjuku or the Tokyo Skytree, and 40 minutes from Shibuya and the Tokyo Tower.

The service meets Japanese expectations and standards, although the staff was swarmed during my check-in (I visited during a sumo tournament) they managed to be welcoming and helpful despite the language barrier.

The room was small but comfortable and clean. There is space to store your suitcase underneath the bed, but aside from that, don't expect to have much maneuvering space, especially if you're sharing the room with another person.

There is no closet or any substantial space to store your clothes during your trip, aside from a couple of hangers and the space inside your suitcase. This setup is suitable for a short stay of a couple of days, but for longer trips, it's something to consider and plan for accordingly.

A nice intetion was the availabily of a universal power outlet on the desk, allowing you to plug one electrical device that doesn't meet japan/us standards. And a very cute origami placed next to the bed during the first day of arrival.

Laundry facilities are available on the basement floor, although they are a bit expensive (500 yen for the washing machine and an additional 100 yen for every 30 minutes of drying). However, this cost can be seen as the price of convenience, considering the accessibility of these facilities within the hotel.

I didn't try the hotel restaurants, mainly because there were so many different choices available nearby. However, the convenience store (Konbini) inside the hotel offers a very decent selection of snacks and food, and they even have microwaves available for use. The staff there spoke English and were very welcoming.

A couple of negative points :

The room didn't seem to be soundproof, as I could hear conversations happening in the hallway outside the room. I also suspect that other guests might have been able to hear what was going on inside the room.

The upper floors appear to have openings directly to the outside, which means that the temperature inside will be similar to the temperature outside.

All of these issues wouldn't be a big deal if the waiting time for the elevators wasn't ridiculously long. It might be an energy-saving feature or simply the way elevators operate in Japan, but the current system is quite inefficient for guests.

If you want to leave the hotel at the same time the staff is cleaning the rooms, which is essentially when every guest is trying to check out, you'll find yourself waiting for 10-15 minutes or more. When you factor in the potentially high summer temperatures, you might end up drenched in sweat before even stepping outside the hotel.

Overall it was a very good experience, I will defintely book a stay in the same hotel again if...

DON'T be fooled by the positive reviews:

Incompetent staff Injuries within the hotel with no incident/accident reports Dangerous rooms

If mediocrity is what you want, then sure, I suggest staying here. The rooms are tiny, and the staff are as clueless as children. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt due to the language barrier, but foreign hotels I've stayed in previously have always been at least somewhat helpful. Here, all they seem to know is “I’m sorry, I don’t know.” You'd think for a popular hotel chain that caters primarily to foreigners, they'd at least hire people who are competent in English and capable of doing their jobs.

All the hotels I've stayed in before have been able to handle bookings, help organize bus tours, call taxi services, etc. Here, they use the excuse of “I don’t know” to avoid doing their jobs the moment it gets a little tedious. How do they not know how to book tickets to popular tourist attractions in their own country? Instead, they just Google it in front of us and point to the first site, saying “this is the best one,” when in fact it wasn’t.

The hotel uses the excuse of not knowing to get away with doing the bare minimum, telling us to do the jobs ourselves when they should be able to do it. For example, when I was sending off my luggage using THEIR delivery service in collaboration with another company, they didn’t even know the basics of the company they work with and struggled to answer questions about the service THEY provide.

When you ask them to call the company or airport, they use the “you call them” excuse as if they are avoiding doing their job. They’ll lie to your face, saying they can’t, but if you stay firm, in the end, they’ll magically be able to call the company.

For a country that prides itself on customer service, they sure don’t seem to want to provide any.

My next complaint is how sketchy the hotel is. During this trip, I fractured my ankle stepping out of THEIR bathroom, thanks to the dangerous floor plans and architecture with elevated platforms reaching up to my calves. I’m not someone who’s going to sue the hotel over something like this, but I wanted to report the incident since it happened within the hotel. I wanted to inform them of the dangers and have them file an accident report so I could take it to my insurance. Their response was, “we don’t do that here.” Apparently, it’s common in Japan, but if a hotel refuses to file an accident report, this is already sketchy and reflects poorly on the staff, who seem clueless and unwilling to perform the basics of their job.

Additionally, I want to expand on the dangers of their rooms. The elevated floors are a safety hazard and not accessible for disabled clients. The deep bathtub could lead to accidents, and the small ledge/bump in the bathroom is a tripping hazard, especially with the limited room space. They had the brilliant idea to stuff the toilet and sink inside this box they call a bathroom.

This hotel is cheap, and I understand it aims to save space and money, but the rooms are cramped with barely any room to move. The set temperature for the AC and the locked windows practically turn it into a sauna and makes it so musty…

The ONLY positive I can give isn’t even towards the hotel itself but to the Lawson on the second floor as the workers are much helpful, which is why I give the hotel one star. Otherwise, I would give it zero if I could.

Also, the breakfast buffet is the same every day, and you’ll eventually get tired of it. The lack of variety and options quickly...

Mid November 23 stay. Our experience started off on the wrong foot with a complicated check-in process. Upon our 3 PM arrival, we were directed to automated check-in machines. Unfortunately, we encountered issues when the system failed to recognise my details correctly. Despite the staff's slow response to our request for assistance, the entire ordeal took about 45 minutes to resolve. It turned out that my name and surname had been entered in reverse in their system, contributing to the confusion and delay.

We opted for the 'sky floor room', which was 140 sq ft in size. However, the room's level of cleanliness did not align with the high standards typically expected in Japan. An additional issue was the heating system, which constantly emitted hot air, making the room uncomfortably warm at approximately 25°C. This was particularly problematic given the warm weather in Tokyo during our stay in November. Upon inquiring for a solution, we were informed that the system was set to warm air for the winter season and could not be switched back to cooling. Ultimately, the only option presented to us was to turn off the air conditioning, which resulted in a small and rather stuffy room environment.

An additional issue was the bedding, which my wife found to have an unpleasant smell, reminiscent of sweat. I couldn't verify this myself due to a recent illness, but it certainly added to our discomfort.

Due to these unsatisfactory conditions, we made the decision to cut our stay short and leave the hotel after two nights. The lack of effective solutions from the hotel staff only added to our decision to depart early. I had left a bag at the hotel, planning to pick it up later. I returned for it two days after our early checkout, When I did the checkout was informed about a refund for the remaining nights from Expedia. This partial refund was processed the following day. If I knew about this I’d have checked out on the day we left for the other hotel.

While the staff members were polite, their inability to effectively address our concerns, such as the heating issue and the room's overall condition, was a significant letdown. We didn't bother to complain about the bedding odour, considering the already inadequate responses to our previous complaints.

An aspect that stood out was the TV start screen, which played videos about Japanese customs directed at foreign guests. The content, featuring people dressed as Ninjas and advising on etiquette like not taking items from restaurants or queue-jumping, came across as somewhat condescending.

Overall, our intended seven-night stay turned into a challenging two-night experience, marred by room maintenance issues, ineffective staff assistance, and a questionably executed cultural awareness program. This experience fell short of the standards we anticipated for our...