Soho Asakusa — Hotel in Tokyo

This is absolutely not a hotel ! ||First of all, the name says this "hotel" is in Asakusa. That's totally wrong ! It's located in Senzoku and very far away from any subway station, 20 minutes from Iriya (Hibiya line). To go there with all our luggages was awful. Hopefuly we had wifi with us because I really thought my boyfriend was mistaken as we took very small streets.||When you arrive at the Soho, you see the reception is on the 2nd floor... without elevator ! Good luck. And nobody is at the reception, no staff visible. In fact they're all in a room behind the reception and you have to bell if you want to see someone. We wanted to let our luggages at the reception, used then as locket. They don't give you a ticket to get your luggages back unlike normal hotels. You really have to trust them.||You can keep the key with you when you go outside to visit Tokyo. At the beginning we didn't understand why they decided to do this way. But it was very logical as the reception is open from 8:00am to 11:00pm (cross the fingers if you need help between 11:00pm and 8:00am !). And you are very lucky if you see someone at the frontdesk when the reception is still open. Everybody seems to prefer staying in the other room behind their screens.||The staff is not very professionnal but tries to give the impression he is, with his now famous "hello sir, madam".||No breakfast, so they found a solution : putting in every room a noisy fridge that you'll probably want to throw out from the room, directly in the street. We had to disconnect it as we couldn't sleep.||The room has a correct size but is very badly disposed. The bathroom is small and badly disposed as well. The furniture is very tired. All is absolutely not functional and very dusty. There is mold in the bathroom.||Talking about sleeping... our night were awful. The bed was way to small for two, and so was the blanket of course. The one next to the ground has to pray not to fall down during the night.||There was a laundry in the hotel : we had to go out, go around the building, and the laundry was there. No clear explanation there so it's not really easy to use it.||The first day we discovered that the Soho was really not far from "hot district", with clubs. ||The second day, 11:00pm, our bed cracked. Quickly and praying, we went to the reception where, luckily, there was still someone. We explained the situation. "We send you the staff." What a staff ! Three men with one hammer, two electric screwdrivers and some wood boards. 11:15pm, the screwdrivers worked in the room and they were fixing the bed. After that, we were always afraid that the bed cracked once again, especially where the bed was moving a lot when we were in.||||So as a resume : no services, the room is not comfortable and not functional at all, no presence of the staff unlike the other hotels. The name Soho Asakusa Hotel isn't reflecting the type housing and the district it is located. Reserving in this hotel was an awful mistake that cost us our trip in Tokyo : as we were not rested at all it was very difficult to visit the city.||||And I forgot to tell : the air conditioning didn't work as well : when we wanted 30°C, it was cold getting...

I wouldn't call this a hotel in the strictest sense of the word. More like an apartment or a mid-range condominium.||||The location is far from Minowa station and it took us a kilometer of walking just to reach the place. And that is just what we did everytime we took to the streets of Tokyo. Although at the tail end of our trip we discovered that it was more convenient but expensive to get off at Asakusa Station and take a taxi to the hotel.||||The lobby is at the second floor and can be accessed through the stairs so you need to lug your luggage up. The elevator starts at the second floor. The staff can speak English fairly well and very accommodating. The downside is the front desk is closed from 11:00pm to 8:30am. It would be a pity if you would want something from them at that time. ||||The hotel has no restaurant but has a vending machine in the lobby that sells various drinks. A do-it-yourself laundry room is located at the back. A Lawson convenience store is just around the corner. The hotel is far from the busy section of Tokyo and quiet at all times. ||||The room is small compared to normal hotel standards. It has a double bed which is small for two people. A dresser, a small table for a flat TV, a microwave, small refrigerator, hair dryer, kettle, two glasses and a chair are also in the hotel. A wardrobe is placed beside the toilet but can used only by one person. You put your luggage in one corner of the room where you take your clothes directly from it. As we were three in the room, we used the comforters of the two other rooms where our companions were staying as an extra bed. ||||The microwave does not work. The aircon remote is in Japanese, you have to guess the right button, thus controlling the temperature is impossible. The TV was all Japanese shows making the devise useless for us.||||Our room was on the fourth floor, with balcony and had a fairly good view of the area.||||The small bathroom has cold and hot water with the usual complimentary toiletries. The bathtub takes up most of the space in the bathroom so you have to take a shower in it. After flushing the toilet, you can hear the refilling of the tank and can be disturbing if used at night.||||Cleaning of the room and changing of the sheets is done only if requested. ||||The entire room was clean and the toilet does not smell even after use.||||Wifi is fast and can connect fairly quick.||||Overall, it was a pleasant stay, although I would not personally want to...

The Soho Asakusa was funky and fantastic! It's not actually in a redlight district, as other reviewers have stated--it's about a block away from a very quiet street with neon signs advertising massages and the like. The establishments are patrolled by well-mannered Yakuza.||||The hotel--really a short-term apartment, as others have said--is 10 minutes/1 km--from Minawa station (two stops from Ueno) in a quaint neighbourhood of small and many vintage houses. It's a couple of zigs, a zag and a long straight line to the Asakusa (which is 2 km from Asakusa Shrine or a 20-minute ride on the 43 bus if you can find the stop, which we couldn't, so we took the subway). Don't be fooled by Google Earth. Local folks escorted us with their GPS-equipped Iphones each time we got lost.||||We had a 15 m2 room for three on the seventh floor with a balcony and stunning view of downtown for under $100 a night. The room was equipped with 1 double bed (NOT queen), 1 foldout sofa for two (tight fit), hotplate, microwave, kitchen sink, medium-sized fridge, table and desk chair, high-speed (1 Megabit/s) Internet (cable and WiFi), flat-screen low-res cable Japanese-language TV, a huge deep bathtub (with plenty of hot water any time of day) and a separate toilet.||||As someone else mentioned, make sure to go straight through the ground-floor door marked "Private" to the elevator, so you don't have to schlep your luggage up to the 2nd-floor reception desk.||||Our room was tight for three, but we were cozy. There are few restaurants of interest in the hood, but we went out to Ueno Market most evenings where the food is just so good and cheap (really hard to spend more than $7 on a huge keitan sushi or soba feast). ||||There is no housekeeping unless you ask for it, but you will get it if you do. We needed a minor repair and the guy was up in a jiffy, working his heart out.||||We were vacationing, but I'd brought work and got a lot done in this serene environment. ||||If you want a beautiful hotel at this price, stay in Yokohama. But in central Tokyo, we could have paid $300 a night and not gotten a room this practical. This is not a gorgeous room. It is basic. But it works, the staff was great, the environment...