FIRST CABIN Haneda Terminal 1 — Hotel in Tokyo

Had long layover at Haneda. I had seen You Tube videos on this particular property and decided to give it a try. I tried to book it for both in and outbound flights but my inbound date was sold out, I did manage to book a "first class cabin" for my return on Feb 18th 2023. Check in was OK, lots of paperwork, and they wanted to copy my passport, I was taken aback by that as no other place I ever stayed required that! The property is squeaky clean. The "cabin" R 12, was small as presented in the video. No room for my carryon bag, the locker was too small, so I had to place it on the foot of my bed. There is a locking cabinet on the left side of the "cabin" which held my briefcase-sized bag with room to spare. There is an A/C control near the head of the bed on the left side above the cabinet, but it was shut down. But it was cool that night so was not needed. TV was fine. WiFi was fine but my phone had trouble connecting to it. Took a long time to finally connect but it stayed connected after that. The restroom/shower/spa area is nice and clean. The hotel provides everything from soap to Q-tips for guests to use, even paper cups! Showers aren't super hot, but plenty warm enough for a comfortable shower. They have a couple of vending machines off the office area/dining area. One does take the Suica Card. As an aside, if you go to Tokyo, get a Suica card, it is a reloadable debit card that can be used for rail and some bus transportation and Lawson and 7-11 take it for payment as do some restaurants and many vending machines that take IC. Rather than buy tickets for the monorail or local trains or subways, get this card, you tap in and out at the gates and your fare is deducted. It costs 500 yen, but can be refunded at any JR office. (They sponsor the card) when you leave, they also refund any balance less 225 yen left on the card. It is good for ten years, so you might want to keep it if you plan on visiting Japan again within that time. I found it an easy, convenient way to pay for things in my two overnighters in Tokyo! You can buy them at any train ticket kiosk. Minimum load is 1000 yen, I got 10000 yen (about $80) and only spent about half in my two trips. Back to the Cabin, the bed was very firm, but comfy, the comforter and pillow were fine, I didnt use the pajamas, I have sleep sweats I use that I brought. I also brought my own flip flops I use at home, but they do provide slippers as they expect you to NOT wear your shoes in the facility, except if you go out into the terminal. I would use this property again, but try to book their larger "business" cabin as it has storage space for luggage in the cabin and has room to stand up in. I paid about $44 for my stay, tax inclusive. Business cabin is about $7 more, but sold out the date I was there. The other capsule hotel I stayed at on the north side of Tokyo was $16 but was very basic, although very clean and comfortable and near transportation. Enter at entrance from shuttle bus stop angle to your right, go past escalators and you will see property...

I gave his a low star rating as even though the hotel and its facilities are really good, my personal experience was overall very negative.

Pros: The location is great. Its just inside Terminal 1, where you get off the free shuttle bus. Even if you arrive after the doors are locked for the Terminal, there is an intercom for hotel staff to let you in. When checking out, its only a few minutes walk to the gate areas. The staff were friendly and helpful, making check in a breeze. The all the communal facilities, baths, toilets etc are very well maintained and clean, as are the rooms. I booked a First Class cabin as the others were sold out, and it had a decent amount of space, useful if you have a lot of bags etc. The set of room wear (PJs) the staff gave me were very comfortable and fit nicely.

Cons: The mattress was rock hard. I know this is personal taste, some don't mind a hard mattress. But I find them way too uncomfortable, and if I'm honest, it was unexpected. I've lived in Japan a long time, and stayed in all kinds of hotels from capsule, business, to the Park Hyatt. And this was the worst hotel mattress I've ever slept on. But by far the biggest complaint was the noise from other guests. The people in the cabins either side of me snored loudly, which didn't bother me too much. But what i did find massively irritating was a constant (way into the early hours) stream of people walking up and down the corridors, opening and closing the sliding doors, making zero effort to be quiet. While everyone followed the hotel rules of not chatting, playing music etc, they basically were as noisy as they could be in every other way. This lack of consideration about the surroundings made my blood boil.

My feeling was that most of the guest weren't there to sleep, but there to just kill time whilst waiting for a flight or to go to an early meeting (that is pretty common in Tokyo) or whatever.

Conclusion: If you can ignore high levels of background noise, or just want to spend the early hours killing time before a flight in your own space, and don't care about sleeping. Maybe this would be a good choice.

But if you want a comfortable night's sleep before an early flight, I wouldn't recommend this place.

I've stayed in plenty of capsule hotels before, and generally had a pretty good experience, but I'll never stay in this...

Unfortunately the only good thing about this pod hotel (hostel) is the location however I would much prefer to travel from the city or a hotel nearby than stay here again as the positive didn’t outweigh the negatives.

I’m writing this review from Haneda airport ready to board a 15 hour direct flight and I’m incredibly tired as I got little sleep.

We booked a first class cabin.

The beds are incredibly hard and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was like trying to sleep on a floor. My husband said the same thing about his pod so it must be the style of beds throughout the hostel. If you have back issues or need a soft bed, please don’t book this hotel.

It’s incredibly noisy as other guests don’t seem to care about other people trying to sleep. When checking in, you’re asked to be quiet whilst in the pod but people don’t seem to respect the rules. All night guests were in and out of the rooms, opening their doors loudly, plus people were sorting through their luggage into the early hours of 2am-4am, making lots of noise. This isn’t fair on other guests trying to sleep. My husband said that despite being told he was unable to talk in the dorms or make any noise, two guests proceeded to have a full blown conversation for about an hour, opening food and cans of drink.

The staff clearly don’t do enough to enforce the rules they give you when checking in. They’re very clear about it, giving you something to read too but do very little to ensure guests are ok in the dorms.

Unfortunately I won’t be recommending this or staying here ever again. If you’re looking for a restful night before a flight then I would suggest booking a...