Sunshine City Prince Hotel — Hotel in Tokyo

My partner and I visited Japan with a group tour from Australia in May 2024. During our time in Tokyo, we stayed at the Sunshine City Prince Hotel in Ikebukuro for a total of 4 nights with the group tour. We enjoyed our time at the hotel in Tokyo. The room was fairly good in terms of floor space with a well-designed configuration. The mattress and pillows were very comfortable and we enjoyed the room amenities as well as breakfast offerings every morning, with the breakfast team being consistently excellent. The added convenience of having a 24h Family Mart within the premises was a bonus and when we found the passage linking the Sunshine City precinct to Ikebukuro Station, we were overjoyed. There were also so many restaurants accessible within the building where we went for dinner on several nights. The front desk staff was also accommodating whenever we had to book and call for a taxi.| ||The fact that there were only 4 lifts that were servicing so many room floors, apart from 2 lifts that were dedicated to higher floors only, meant that waiting times were at times very long, especially during busy hours going down for breakfast or coming back to the room, with the lift unfortunately too often stopping several times. The air-conditioning temperature in the room also cannot be controlled to suit our preference but only the air flow which can be adjusted. Our room was facing west and after a hot day, we would come back to a really warm room. Then we learned the trick to close the blinds during the afternoon.|| ||As we were going to celebrate a special anniversary while in Tokyo, we decided since last year to extend for an additional 3 nights in Tokyo post-tour and we paid for the extra accommodation to our travel agent. Prior to checking in at the hotel in Tokyo, we tried to reach out directly to the hotel, enquiring about a room upgrade to a larger and more comfortable room, that we were willing to pay for to spoil ourselves as all hotel rooms are known to be smaller in size in Japan. However, the hotel denied having any room reservation in our names for the additional 3 nights after the tour would have concluded. We were confused and decided to call and try again with new reference codes. Out of misunderstanding, we were told the booking was then made.|| ||Then when we spoke to another hotel reservation employee, we were advised that our booking was cancelled. We were very upset with the situation and under such circumstances may not have been very polite to the hotel employee, which we later apologized to. Long story short, it was the travel agent who made the mistake and did not make a reservation for our extended 3 nights.|| ||When it was time for us to check-in at the hotel, we were warmly greeted. However when it was found to be us checking in, we can notice a change in demeanour and attitude of the front desk employee dealing with our check-in, who started acting very cold and unfriendly. We tried to ask for a room upgrade which we were willing to pay for but such request was promptly denied and we were advised to contact our travel agent (late at night instead of paying directly to the hotel). All other enquiries were cut short with unhelpful suggestion to contact our travel agent back in Australia instead.|| ||We were quite saddened with that check-in experience and kept wondering whether we were on some sort of black list to be refused service because we were previously not pleasant over the phone.|| ||Nonetheless, we enjoyed our stay at the Sunshine City Prince Hotel during our 7 days in total in Tokyo and were looking forward each time to come back to our second home in Tokyo after touring the city during the...

My partner and I visited Japan with a group tour from Australia in May 2024. During our time in Tokyo, we stayed at the Sunshine City Prince Hotel in Ikebukuro for a total of 4 nights with the group tour. We enjoyed our time at the hotel in Tokyo. The room was fairly good in terms of floor space with a well-designed configuration. The mattress and pillows were very comfortable and we enjoyed the room amenities as well as breakfast offerings every morning, with the breakfast team being consistently excellent. The added convenience of having a 24h Family Mart within the premises was a bonus and when we found the passage linking the Sunshine City precinct to Ikebukuro Station, we were overjoyed. There were also so many restaurants accessible within the building where we went for dinner on several nights. The front desk staff was also accommodating whenever we had to book and call for a taxi.

The fact that there were only 4 lifts that were servicing so many room floors, apart from 2 lifts that were dedicated to higher floors only, meant that waiting times were at times very long, especially during busy hours going down for breakfast or coming back to the room, with the lift unfortunately too often stopping several times. The air-conditioning temperature in the room also cannot be controlled to suit our preference but only the air flow which can be adjusted. Our room was facing west and after a hot day, we would come back to a really warm room. Then we learned the trick to close the blinds during the afternoon.

As we were going to celebrate a special anniversary while in Tokyo, we decided since last year to extend for an additional 3 nights in Tokyo post-tour and we paid for the extra accommodation to our travel agent. Prior to checking in at the hotel in Tokyo, we tried to reach out directly to the hotel, enquiring about a room upgrade to a larger and more comfortable room, that we were willing to pay for to spoil ourselves as all hotel rooms are known to be smaller in size in Japan. However, the hotel denied having any room reservation in our names for the additional 3 nights after the tour would have concluded. We were confused and decided to call and try again with new reference codes. Out of misunderstanding, we were told the booking was then made.

Then when we spoke to another hotel reservation employee, we were advised that our booking was cancelled. We were very upset with the situation and under such circumstances may not have been very polite to the hotel employee, which we later apologized to. Long story short, it was the travel agent who made the mistake and did not make a reservation for our extended 3 nights.

When it was time for us to check-in at the hotel, we were warmly greeted. However when it was found to be us checking in, we can notice a change in demeanour and attitude of the front desk employee dealing with our check-in, who started acting very cold and unfriendly. We tried to ask for a room upgrade which we were willing to pay for but such request was promptly denied and we were advised to contact our travel agent (late at night instead of paying directly to the hotel). All other enquiries were cut short with unhelpful suggestion to contact our travel agent back in Australia instead.

We were quite saddened with that check-in experience and kept wondering whether we were on some sort of black list to be refused service because we were previously not pleasant over the phone.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed our stay at the Sunshine City Prince Hotel during our 7 days in total in Tokyo and were looking forward each time to come back to our second home in Tokyo after touring the city during the...

This review is based on a 1-week stay in a twin room in December 2019.

TL;DR- I'd recommend this hotel if you want to be within walking distance of lots of great places to shop and eat. If you plan to venture out farther (past Shibuya, Ueno, etc.) a lot, then other hotels in similar price ranges may be more convenient, cleaner, and/or cheaper.

Pros: Location, location, location. If this is your first time to Japan or you're not sure where to go, then this is a great place to stay. It's adjoining a great shopping mall with lots of places to eat and shop, an aquarium, planetarium, and VR amusement park. There's also a passageway leading to more great places to shop, eat, and play. There's also a 24/7 Family Mart convenience store in the lobby for quick access to food, drinks, snacks, etc. The main train station (Ikebukuro) is a good 10-15 minute walk away, however, making it not so great if you're planning to spend a lot of time away from the area. It's relatively close to Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Ueno, and far (relatively) from Asakusa, Akihabara, Ginza, and Tokyo station, so convenience is defined by where you plan to visit. Airport Limousine Bus. There are shuttle buses that go to and from Narita and Haneda airport every hour, and stop right in front of the hotel. They'll load your luggage under the bus, and you just jump in and ride to your destination without having to worry about transfers or carrying your luggage through the train stations. Time and cost is about the same as the trains, but they do only run about once an hour. No-Cleaning Service. If you stay for 2 or more consecutive nights, you can register for the "No-Cleaning Service", in which your room will only get cleaned on every 3rd day, and you can pick up a coupon for 500 yen from the front desk on each day that your room was not cleaned. The coupon is good for the restaurants or the convenience store. The aim is to reduce the environmental impact (by not having to wash as many towels/sheets, vacuum the floor, etc.), and is common in Japan, but I've only seen hotels where they give you a bottle of water (which kind of defeats the purpose of being environmentally friendly), or permission to pat yourself on the back for doing a good deed, so the 500 yen coupon each day was a nice plus. Service. Staff are very friendly and helpful as usual in Japan, and are multicultural, although English-speaking staff might be hard to find.

Cons: Cleanliness. It's not necessarily unclean, but compared to other hotels in the same price range that I've stayed at in Japan, this hotel lags behind a little. For most other places, this would be considered clean, but for Japan's standards, I expect a little more. Crowdedness. Over the years, I've seen Japan (especially Tokyo) explode with more and more tourists, so this is not an isolated problem, nor is it really a "con", but just expect to share the space with other people. Tourists, military personnel, business vendors, and students on school trips may suddenly come flooding in, causing the front desk, elevators, and convenience store to get backed up.

Neutral: ・Room size and amenities. If you've been to Japan before, you know the drill. I've been in smaller hotel rooms, so I'd say it's quite roomy. ・Free WiFi, A/C, TV, refrigerator, kettle with instant tea and coffee, bidet toilet are all standard in Japan, and are included. The A/C controls are outdated (just a simple dial), but isn't a big deal to me. ・Beds are very much on the firm side, but I didn't find them...