APA Hotel Sugamo Station — Hotel in Tokyo

The location of APA Hotel Sugamo Ekimae is just steps from Sugamo station which makes access to the metro very easy. It isn't very close to the city center so keep that in mind when commuting. I didn't find that there was a lot to do nearby, but the area was certainly quiet and not overly busy. It is conveniently located across the street from a 100 yen shop (similar to a dollar store in the U.S.)

The room was bigger than I expected (though still significantly smaller compared to U.S. hotels). We had packages and luggage delivered to the hotel and that went very smoothly. The staff was very polite an accommodating.

There is coin laundry on a few floors as well as a vending machine for drinks. There is wi-fi available in each individual room and the TV shows a timer for the washers and dryers (and what floor they're on). It also lets you know wether the bath houses are busy or not. They did provide clothing and shoes to wear inside the hotel as well as a hair dryer, toothbrush, tooth paste, towels, bedding/linens, a mini fridge in the hotel (though I don't think it was cold enough to store leftovers...maybe drinks). There's a money exchange in the lobby on the first floor in case you run out of cash.

The breakfast left something to be desired (this must be paid in person). We went down around 8:30 - 9:00 and a lot of the food was gone and/or cold even though they stop serving breakfast at 10 (last admission I think they said 9:30, I could be wrong). The breakfast is buffet style. The selection didn't bother me as I knew it would be more aligned with the culture. There was plenty of variety available (when available).

They have coin laundry onsite which is fantastic. However, it is only available on a few floors. They refuse to get laundry that's done until EXACTLY 10 minutes has passed since the end of the cycle. You have to basically watch the timer (available on the tv) and head down 10-15 minutes before a cycle is finished so you can get the washer because a wash/dry cycle takes about 2 hours (because the 1st dry cycle is never enough). They should change this policy to 3 - 5 minutes because people will forget and if you're already there waiting then that just adds more time.

The bathrooms are small, that's expected, I do think given how small the bathrooms are, they need to really go in and look for mold. The shower rings and rods are plastic and prone to accumulating mildew which I noticed in my room. There are fans in the bathroom but I don't think they work very well and they say not to leave the door open when showering as it can trigger the fire alarm.

The mattresses do need to be rotated and/or flipped. I could tell that most people slept on the left side of the bed as the mattress was slanted due to where people slept.

Overall the stay wasn't bad. I appreciated having a bit more space and convenience in the last leg of a two week trip to Japan. I'd still stay again as well as recommend the hotel and the hotel chain (there are MANY locations). I would just suggest to make sure you inspect...

I had a really good stay at this hotel. First of all, it's a great location for tourists - Sugamo is a pretty quiet part of town, so the hotel is quite cheap and not busy, but because you have the Yamanote Line and the Mita Subway Line nearby (in fact, the A4 entrance to the Mita Line is almost literally on the doorstep!) you can get to all the interesting places in Tokyo very easily.

Ueno and Ikebukero are very close. Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo Station and Akihabara are all less than 30 minutes away, and Haneda Airport is reachable in just 55 minutes.

Because it's a quiet neighbourhood it's nice to come back to after a busy day/night. There's a 24-hour 7-Eleven convenience store close-by which is super handy too.

The hotel is good quality - because standards are so high in Japan, I thought this 3-star hotel was better than some 4-star hotels I've stayed in. It is very clean and, well, shiny throughout. The rooms are small, of course, but not tiny - there is room for a desk and a chair and it's quite comfortable to use a laptop at the desk. I could just about squeeze my luggage away. The bed is big and comfortable.

Coming from Europe, where even the best-rated hotels can be a bit disappointing these days, the quality of everything at APA was amazing - every amentity you could think of taken care of, from the big TV with Chromecast, to the fast and free Wi-Fi (each room has its own hotspot), to a spare toothbrush, comb, face towel, cotton buds, etc., to the mini-fridge, right down to the shoe horn neatly hung up on the side of the desk. They brought me so many fresh towels and robes that eventually I ran out of space. This might sound silly but you don't really get these small things in hotels any more and it really made my stay easier.

The other big selling point of this hotel is the onsen (hot springs bathhouse) on the top floor. It's free for guests and although it's modestly-sized, it was never too busy. In the men's baths there are two shared baths and two Japanese-style one-man wooden tub baths, which is actually something I haven't seen at other onsen and was fun to experience. Technically there is an open-air area, but because of the high walls and roof it doesn't really feel like it that much. It's also open until 2am so it's a really nice place to unwind late at night after a long day sweating around Tokyo. As is the case with some onsen now, if you have small tattoos you still can use the baths as long as you cover your tattoos with at most two patches.

I didn't really have any issues - check-in and check-out were easy. The price was also really good, I thought. Definitely...

APA Hotels are known across Japan as an affordable "New Urban Style Hotel" option for businessmen and tourists on the go, and this one did not disappoint.

The location is extremely convenient, at about a five minute walk from Sugamo Station, which allows for easy transportation to touristy areas in Tokyo such as Ikebukuro, Akihabara, Shinjuku, etc. via the Yamanote line and Mita line. There is a convenience store nearby and plenty of food options to choose from.

As with other APA Hotels I've stayed at before, the single rooms are quite small but have everything you need, including a giant flatscreen TV with free movies that I thoroughly enjoyed. There will not be much space for you to walk around, especially with your suitcase out. The room was decently clean. Do note that APA Hotel only offers room cleaning services once every two or three days from an environmental standpoint, which sometimes caused dirty towels and trash to build up quickly. The sustainability aspect might also be why the AC was not very cooling despite being at the lowest it can be constantly. I booked my room the day before so I only had the choice of booking a smoking room, which does have quite a noticeable smell, but most of the floors at the hotel are non-smoking.

The overall service is excellent. Most of the staff seemed to speak english well. Both the check-in and check-out process are automated so tourists don't have to worry about communication much. When you check-in, you enter your information on a screen, which then gives you your room number and card. Check-out is even easier as you only have to drop your card into a box and that's it. I had a few mishaps during my 5-day stay, including losing my room card and forgetting stuff in the room when I checked out. On both occasions, the staff helped me with the problems efficiently and politely.

Honorable mention: This APA Hotel comes with a surprisingly good public bath. Located on the top floor (14th floor), it consists of a regular public bath as well as an outdoors section with a hotter bath and 2 clay-pot hot tubs. All guests can access it for free with their room cards. It's open until 2AM so you can go even after a night out. I enjoyed it so much that I went every night and never used the...