Hotel New Otani Tokyo The Main — Hotel in Tokyo

I was in Japan for the first time on a tour for my first 12 days, and then ended the last three days off the tour solo staying at the New Otani Executive House Zen. I had been in 3-4 star hotels for my tour, and wanted to end the trip in a nice place, something a little pampered. I saw a good deal on Amex travel's portal - with $200 off my stay, $100 food and beverage credit, free breakfast, early check in and late check out. I think it averaged out to 4 or 500 hundred a night. I was really looking for a special place with which to end my trip, and I could not have been happier. I had read the reviews and was a little apprehensive, but the property and service and quality of the room was everything I was looking for.||I can understand that if you are a super high roller multi-millionaire international traveler then maybe this property might not live up to a Ritz or Aman, but for someone like me who is used to maybe a Montage or or a good deal on something that costs $700-$1000 a night, this was one of the best properties I have ever stayed in.||Check in on the 11th level is a nice touch, it feels very exclusive and you're immediately presented with a delicious welcome drink. They explain all your benefits to you, bring you to your room, where a concierge and bellman both showed me around and got me situated. I felt an overwhelming American need to tip, but I was politely refused. I then explored my very nicely appointed room (I was upgraded to a Jr. Suite), with a nicely set up closet/dressing-valet area with nice drawers for watches and valuable and shoes, plenty of room to set up my clothes, and clear instruction on how to send stuff out for cleaning (which I needed after two weeks on the road).||Slippers, robes, Japanese style pajamas were all laid out very nicely, and were very enjoyable to wear around the room. The towels were plentiful and full of life and fluff. The Ferragamo toiletries smelled great. There were a ton of necessities like razors and skin care and pretty much everything you could want. And then the shower. OMG. I had noticed all along that Japan hotels all had great water pressure, but this was next level. A wonderfully soothing rainfall shower, and a regular adjustable height handheld that could both be on at the same time without sacrificing pressure. It was fantastic. The separate tub filled up quickly and was nice and deep - overall a superior bathing experience. And of course the toilet had a standard Japanese bidet system. All this on clean marble flooring that lent a high end feel to the whole experience. Loved the bathroom.||The room had great touches - good controls for lights and blinds, an appreciated Bose bluetooth speaker, a nice size TV that could swivel out to many angles, a decent sized table at which to work or eat, and a separate small seating area. Great view of the grounds and the city beyond, though I suspect the rooms with the Mt. Fuji view were spectacular. Delicious cakes left in the room everyone night, soft drinks included for free along with at least four bottle of water a day. It was an appreciated oasis to come home to at the end of several very long days of sightseeing and shopping.||Spa/gym credit was included with the package - I never made it over. Breakfast for two each morning...only made it there once. There were four spots to choose from, plus room service. We ate overlooking the beautiful zen garden. Atmosphere was nice, food was nothing special. Orange juice was not fresh squeezed. I typically save my bites for food outside the hotel anyway, so I was neither impressed nor disappointed. ||There was a $100 food credit included with my package to use on site at the properties many venues, or room service. I had no desire to eat at the hotel so was hoping to be able to use that credit at the spa for a massage - unfortunately that was not the case. Ended up using it on room service one desperate night. It was fine but a bit of a waste of a perk. Also, the Executive Lounge served food almost all day, from small bites to desserts, mini sandwiches, pastries etc. Some of the pastries were exquisite, and some of the sandwiches were quite good as well. Worth checking out if you're headed to the room for a refresh between activities. They don't want you taking the food back to your room, you're meant to eat in the lounge with the Mt. Fuji view...but if you ask nicely you might just be able to sneak out a decadent Pierre Hermes raspberry croissant. ||I did not expect this size and scope of property in Tokyo - it's truly a resort on par with Las Vegas or elsewhere. It covers acres of land with multiple entrances and exits very far from each other, and several floors of high end shopping (there's a Rolls Royce dealership). Some exits put you in direct access with subway stations right outside the various ground floor levels that you don't even realize are connected - Google Maps will tell you it's a 12 minute walk to the station - 10 of those minutes are inside the hotel. Then walking to another line might take 10 minutes walking a nicely green tree filled path outside to an obove ground rail station. It's fairly easy to navigate, and like most things in Tokyo everything is 30 minutes away by a combo of trains/subways/walking. But the time you get to the stations, the exits you want are only 2-4 stops away, without changing trains. And if that's too much, you can always catch a cab outside the main entrance.||Overall I was very impressed with the New Otani Executive Zen floors within the hotel - there was always an express elevator right to the Zen floors. Staff was welcoming and polite and happy to help. The shower pressure alone was worth the price of admission. I'd stay here again in a heartbeat, and would recommend to anyone looking for a little refuge in the heart of a massive city. Yes, it's not right in the center of the action of Shibuya or Ginza, but it's all easily accessible and a nice calm retreat to come home to after your 20,000...

Dishonesty & Lack of Intergrity of Hotel Staff

My wife and I had a terrible experience with the staff of this hotel. We checked out at around 9:30 am on 20/5/2023. I asked a female hotel staff standing in front of the checkout counter for taxi service to the airport, the Haneda Airport. She just repeated my word HANEDA and then bring our baggage very quickly to the hotel entrance where a yellow taxi was waiting there. We went straight into the taxi and so could not hear what the staff spoke to the driver about our destination outside the taxi. As such, I told the driver to go to the Haneda Airport after he got in.

The travelling time from the hotel to the airport should be at most 30 minutes. However, about half an hour time, the taxi seemed not to going in the direction of the Haneda Airport. I then open the google map of my phone to check our location and noted that the driver drove us in a direction far away from the airport. We immediately told him to turn back to the Haneda Airport. But he hesitated to our request and continued to drive in the wrong direction for another 15 minutes before returning back to the direction of the airport. Finally, we arrived at the Haneda Airport with travelling time of at least 70 minutes. The driver then required us to pay 22,000 yen as shown on the meter reading. We were only willing to pay 7000 yen which was the normal price for uber taxi from the hotel to the Haneda Airport (as shown in the uber app).

We reported immediately the dispute to a police station at the International Terminal 3 of the airport. The police officer made a phone call to the hotel to ascertain with the female staff what was the exact destination I had spoken to her. The officer told me the staff replied that I had told her NARITA airport, not Haneda airport. She had also asked and confirmed with me 3 times it was Narita airport before she went outside the hotel and told the driver to Narita airport. It is really unbelievable (it is obvious that a normal hotel staff will not ask again and again to confirm 3 times with her guests about which airports they shall go). The driver also insisted that I told him to go to the Narita airport. He might intend to pay tricks on us in a bid to let us pay more! It’s really frustrating. On the other hands, the English pronunciation of HANEDA & NARITA are completely different. How could they mix up the 2 words! The English listening standard of the staff could be so poor for such a large and traditional Japanese hotel? Or, the staff did not willing to take any responsibility for her mistake and to shoulder the blame? Instead, they just told lies to cheat the police in order to avoid any responsibility and put all the burdens to the hotel guests.

The police officer told me both the staff and the driver claimed that I told them the destination was Narita. The driver required me to pay the whole bill of 22000 yen. I insisted that I really spoke HANEDA to both of them and would only willing to pay 8000 yen. The check-in time for our flight was approaching after prolonged argument inside the police station. We could only settle the dispute unwillingly by paying 10000 yen to the diver. It caused us to have an extra travelling time of 40 minutes inside the taxi and over 1 hour standing inside the police station explaining what was happening to the officer. It was definitely a disgusting experience. It ruined our good mood at the end of the journey.

As a large and renowned traditional Japanese hotel, how can its staff management be so poor and low-quality, tolerating its staff to tell lies and make false statements to the police in a bid to escape from responsibility?? During my stay at the hotel, I noticed that over 70 percent of the hotel guests were foreign travellers. I hope that the hotel should try their best to improve staff management and the staff English communication skill so that its guests, especially foreign travellers, will not encounter with any...

This hotel is so amazing. Every second we were there was perfect and lovely. We were exhausted when we arrived after our long flight from Chicago to Tokyo, but they immediately started pampering us. We got to sit in the lobby for check in, they escorted us to our room and put our luggage away for us, and even tipped us off on what our view was in our floor-to-ceiling windows (Shinjuku) and where to look in the morning to see Mt Fuji if it was a clear day. The bottled water in the room was complementary, and the fully modern bathroom (yes with those lovely Japanese toilets) was stocked full with every amenity you could think of and then some - shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothbrush and toothpaste, hairbrush, razor, men's shaving kit, bath salts, you name it and they were all in sets of 2. There was a large soaking tub, and Japanese style yukata bathrobes as well as western bathrobes and slippers. They provide a cell phone that is free for you to use and take with you as long as you're checked in to the hotel which provides unlimited international and local calls, speed dial hotel services and data for using things like google maps while you're out and about. We woke up to seeing Mt Fuji in all it's glory and watched the sunrise over the mountain, the imperial palace across the street, and the high rises of Shinjuku. The sakura were in full bloom and they really are all over Japan almost like weeds, so there were gorgeous old cherry trees every where we looked in full bloom. We had quite a few of them directly below our room. The staff were extra helpful and would come up to us to ask us what we were looking for or needed when we were checking maps, and the concierge helped us with ordering taxis and everything else we wanted and needed while we were there. We went to the garden cafe for breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed our pink eggs! (They feed their chickens some kind of special diet that increases the nutrients in the eggs.) We toured through the 300 year old garden right there at the hotel and it was all sort of peace and tranquility. We even checked out the tea house up top, took pictures of the koi and walked all the way down and around to the waterfall. The garden is free to enjoy, and it was so lovely. All I know is, next time I'm in Tokyo, (and no doubt about it, I will go there again, it was the coolest city I've ever been to and I can't wait to visit it again,) I won't even think of staying somewhere else, I can't imagine a better hotel existing...