Super Hotel Premier Akihabara — Hotel in Tokyo

I had an extended stay in Tokyo and chose the Super Hotel Premier Akihabara mainly due to its proximity to a major transit hub (Akihabara) and its natural hot spring.||On the overall I was not disappointed with my choice.||Firstly, the access to transit is really convenient. From the hotel if you take the bridge over on the E side of the hotel, you end up on the Showa-Dori exit of Akihabara Station and next to the Chuo Line which takes you to either Chiba or to Shinjuku (transfer at Ochanomizu if you want a quicker ride). If you take the pedestrian bridge on the W side right next to the tracks on the bridge, that gets you to the central entrance where you can easily access the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku Lines.||And if you prefer the subway, the Hibiya and Toei Shinjuku lines are within blocks of the hotel, though I took more of the latter than the former.||If there is one gripe about the hotel which has been mentioned, it's that there is just 1 elevator for 13 floors. So sometimes you'll have to wait a bit.||Check in was fairly easy, though not all staff is fluent in English (though my Japanese was generally sufficient). Nevertheless all the staff was extremely helpful and accommodated all my requests (including several packages that had to be delivered to the hotel).||Also take advantage of the pillows available. The pillows in the room may not be to your liking (though I didn't mind it at all, but still got a second pillow).||I got a deluxe room and to be honest if the room I got was the deluxe room I do wonder what the regular room size is like because it was still a bit small. Not overly small by Japan hotel standards, but smaller than what I would have though a deluxe room would have been.||Nevertheless I had a bench seat plus the desk as advertised, though I used it more for storing things since I was there for over a month. There is wired internet access but the Wi-Fi was more than sufficient. There are more than enough outlets available for all my chargers, laptops and my CPAP machine.||TV was fine, no abilities for PPV to watch sports and the like which was a bit disappointing, but by no means a deal-breaker. From the main screen you can also access YouTube as well as Abema (a Japanese online TV service) so you're not in need of entertainment really. Couldn't get the screen sharing to work which probably was the biggest shame.||The bathrooms are standard Japanese size - small. For someone of my stature (6'1") the shower/tub was cramped and I almost on a daily basis banged my elbow against the wall (sorry neighbor). I'm used to it by now in Japan so it wasn't that big of a deal in the end.||They do have a welcome bar each night from 6-10 PM which has coffee, soda, and alcohol though you do have to mix your own drink and since I don't really drink it made it fairly useless. They do have instructions, but again since I'm not a drinker it didn't make much sense to me and it wasn't really that important.||The main reason why I chose this hotel was for the onsen and while I didn't utilize it as much as I would have liked, it was mostly because by the time I got back to the hotel all I could do was shower and collapse on the bed to sleep. But I made it a point to visit the onsen almost daily near the end of my trip and it was really nice. I did go during off peak hours so YMMV, but it was almost always empty and I could just take a nice soak for several minutes to melt the exhaustion away. I was always kicking myself for not taking the effort to go down the measly 2 floors to sit in the onsen earlier in the trip.||So on the overall it was a wonderful hotel as long as your expectations are adjusted accordingly (and as I've mentioned in other reviews other cities like NYC have equally if not even perceptually smaller rooms). You must make a point of using the onsen daily otherwise you're wasting your visit especially since you're in a metro city like Tokyo and not in a rural area where these are...

I had an extended stay in Tokyo and chose the Super Hotel Premier Akihabara mainly due to its proximity to a major transit hub (Akihabara) and its natural hot spring.||On the overall I was not disappointed with my choice.||Firstly, the access to transit is really convenient. From the hotel if you take the bridge over on the E side of the hotel, you end up on the Showa-Dori exit of Akihabara Station and next to the Chuo Line which takes you to either Chiba or to Shinjuku (transfer at Ochanomizu if you want a quicker ride). If you take the pedestrian bridge on the W side right next to the tracks on the bridge, that gets you to the central entrance where you can easily access the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku Lines.||And if you prefer the subway, the Hibiya and Toei Shinjuku lines are within blocks of the hotel, though I took more of the latter than the former.||If there is one gripe about the hotel which has been mentioned, it's that there is just 1 elevator for 13 floors. So sometimes you'll have to wait a bit.||Check in was fairly easy, though not all staff is fluent in English (though my Japanese was generally sufficient). Nevertheless all the staff was extremely helpful and accommodated all my requests (including several packages that had to be delivered to the hotel).||Also take advantage of the pillows available. The pillows in the room may not be to your liking (though I didn't mind it at all, but still got a second pillow).||I got a deluxe room and to be honest if the room I got was the deluxe room I do wonder what the regular room size is like because it was still a bit small. Not overly small by Japan hotel standards, but smaller than what I would have though a deluxe room would have been.||Nevertheless I had a bench seat plus the desk as advertised, though I used it more for storing things since I was there for over a month. There is wired internet access but the Wi-Fi was more than sufficient. There are more than enough outlets available for all my chargers, laptops and my CPAP machine.||TV was fine, no abilities for PPV to watch sports and the like which was a bit disappointing, but by no means a deal-breaker. From the main screen you can also access YouTube as well as Abema (a Japanese online TV service) so you're not in need of entertainment really. Couldn't get the screen sharing to work which probably was the biggest shame.||The bathrooms are standard Japanese size - small. For someone of my stature (6'1") the shower/tub was cramped and I almost on a daily basis banged my elbow against the wall (sorry neighbor). I'm used to it by now in Japan so it wasn't that big of a deal in the end.||They do have a welcome bar each night from 6-10 PM which has coffee, soda, and alcohol though you do have to mix your own drink and since I don't really drink it made it fairly useless. They do have instructions, but again since I'm not a drinker it didn't make much sense to me and it wasn't really that important.||The main reason why I chose this hotel was for the onsen and while I didn't utilize it as much as I would have liked, it was mostly because by the time I got back to the hotel all I could do was shower and collapse on the bed to sleep. But I made it a point to visit the onsen almost daily near the end of my trip and it was really nice. I did go during off peak hours so YMMV, but it was almost always empty and I could just take a nice soak for several minutes to melt the exhaustion away. I was always kicking myself for not taking the effort to go down the measly 2 floors to sit in the onsen earlier in the trip.||So on the overall it was a wonderful hotel as long as your expectations are adjusted accordingly (and as I've mentioned in other reviews other cities like NYC have equally if not even perceptually smaller rooms). You must make a point of using the onsen daily otherwise you're wasting your visit especially since you're in a metro city like Tokyo and not in a rural area where these are...

Finally got the chance to return to Japan after over two years of waiting and the Super Hotel Premier Akihabara made my 10-day trip even better. The hotel was well located with just a five minute walk to Akihabara's main street and train station. Combined with Iwamotocho subway station being just a minute's walk away in the other direction it was super easy to get anywhere I wanted to in Tokyo. Despite the convenient location the hotel itself was nice and quiet since it was on a side street and the back faced the Kanda River.

Service was great with the usual Japanese politeness and efficiency. The lobby had a cozy seating area with a balcony facing the river. Breakfast was served there every morning starting at 7 although I opted out, preferring instead to grab some bento from the nearby convenience stores since sometimes I had to leave early. If the delicious smells in the elevator were anything to go by though then the hotel breakfast was probably quite tasty.

The room was small, as is the usual with Tokyo hotels, but it packed a lot of things in efficiently - a big soft bed, a small desk with chair, a small shelf area with a mini-fridge, a clothes rack, and a great AC unit. The main pillow was oddly quite hard but I still slept soundly every night aided by the great soundproofing and the general quietness of the hotel. I got a theater room with a nice projector TV but got little use out of it since I opted to be out and about as much as possible except to rest up at night. The bathroom was tiny - again fairly par for the course in Tokyo - but made very efficient use of the space.

Rather than using the room's shower or tub it was far more relaxing to use the hotel's onsen - a key reason I chose this hotel. A dip in the hot spring water was the perfect relief after long days cruising Tokyo Auto Salon, Akihabara, or various other parts of the Kanto area. Since it was open until 3 am it was easy to partake even after a night on the town.

Free beverage dispensers and a laundry room were also nice amenities to have. Toiletry essentials were also readily available in the lobby if you needed them. One con I could mention was the single elevator - with the lobby on the second floor and the hotel having over a dozen floors in total the wait could get a little tedious at times.

When it came time to leave the front desk staff gladly kept my sizable bags until my shuttle came to take me to the airport around 1 pm. It was bittersweet since I was saying goodbye again to Japan - one of my favorite places on Earth - and also closing out one of the most enjoyable hotel stays...