Lark Okubo — Hotel in Tokyo

I'd give 0 stars, if possible. We booked this place back in March 2024 via Booking.com - it had good reviews and seemed nice, clean and affordable. Perfect for our stay in Tokyo in November. Shortly before our trip we checked the reviews again and were shocked to find out that several people during the past month had posted about negative experiences regarding this place - unfriendly host, dirty rooms. We were afraid for our trip to start off badly so we contacted the host beforehand, told him about what we read online and asked for proper cleaning before our arrival. We did not get any response. It came as we had expected - on the day of our arrival (our flight landed only in the late evening, so we arrived around 10pm at the room) - we found the place being not properly cleaned, quite the contrary, actually. The floor was dirty/mouldy, the wardrobe was broken (huge hole in the ground), bathroom dirty, there were hair on the bed and we even found dead insects beneath the bed - in addition to being greeted by a rat that climbed along the wall of the building... We immediately contacted the host and reported about these issues but again did not receive a reply. Since we did not feel comfortable staying there and it was very late already, we had to book a capsule hotel for the first night and a different hotel for the rest of our stay. In total we had to pay over 1.000 € for a different place to stay at during our trip. The next morning we received a reply from the host - his only response to our claim was "What the hell, you don't get a refund!" He declared us as "no show" on Booking.com, thus blamed us and we did not get a refund for our money until this day.

I definitely do not recommend you booking this place. In all my years of traveling to Japan I have never ever experienced something like this. Japanese hospitality is not seen with this host at all. You are being ripped off and treated badly only...

Booking unfortunately did not help us with our claims either. Very disappointed in the whole interaction with the host and Booking.com...

DO NOT GO HERE!

this place made my face break out badly as i feel nothing was cleaned. towels smelled bad and honestly who uses microfiber towels to dry off after a shower??? not even showering felt clean. the sink was leaking into the stove in the kitchen and the bathroom did not even have a shower curtain, which made for a disgustingly messy bathroom every. single. time. and i dont mind wet rooms, but this was not one of them because it was supppsed to have a curtain. it never dried. and don't even get me started on the mold. it was SACKED with mold. i forgot to take photos but it was a lit behind the toilet and even on the mirror in your face. also, i want you to imagine returning from a hot day of walking 25k steps in tokyo to an apartment with NO ac. yeah.

I'll say that it was cool they provided a minifridge, vacuum, and iron/ironing board, and free wifi. the only decent thing about this place was that the location was about a 15min walk from the shinjuku station. even so, it was just a horrible...

Would give no stars tbh. The apartment looked good on booking.com. But then a few days prior we saw bad reviews and asked the tennant to clean up before our arrival. They didnt. We arrived late and searched for another hotel. They cancelled on us for 'no show' after we told them we couldnt stay because it was so dirty. We already stayed in a dirty hotel before that, so we could not stay in another dirty hotel for 10 days more. We were so tired. So much money wasted.

Don't come here! There are better cheaper options! They depend on tennants to clean, but won't do a single...