the b shimbashi — Hotel in Tokyo

My wife and I stayed 9 nights in a 172 sq ft Superior Double with a -20% Hotel Pre Pay. ||We took the Airport Bus (1000Yen each) from NRT to Tokyo Station, then JY Line (200Yen each) to Shimbashi Station and walked 550m west to this hotel, arriving at 8 PM. A friendly English speaking receptionist checked us in and soon we took one of their 2 fast and spacious elevators to the 4th floor. ||Our compact/carpeted #404 had a comfortable queen with fluffy duvet, desk unit with refer, hot pot/tea, ample lights/outlets, chair, and an insulated window opening over a quiet back street. 4 hanger clothes pegs were across the fully outfitted bathroom with upgraded stall shower and heated Japanese toilet. The wall TV(12 channels-no English-is programmed for CNN but not on), good secure room WIFI and quiet AC. Luggage stored under the bed.||The 7 AM serviced breakfast buffet in the lobby was complete and varied daily with OJ/Apple juice, salads, Cream of Corn/Minestrone/Onion soup, scrambled eggs/mini omelets, sausage links, bacon/chicken stuffed ravioli, new potatoes, breads/rolls/croissants jams, and coffee. ||This relatively new 109 room hotel is centrally located between 3 local metro stations (walking 200-500m) that we accessed for daily outings to Tokyo attractions using our 2 loaded PASMO cards, also used at the convenient 7-11 store just 80m north. The helpful desk staff reserved our daytrip to UNESCO Fujisan and aided my wife to operate their handy wash/dryer(400Yen).||We found this well managed 14 story hotel offered good value in this expensive city, averaging...

Staying in Tokyo is about where you want to be close to. In our case we wanted to be close to Ginza and the Tokyo tower so for us location was nice, we could easily walk to Ginza, Roppongi and the palace. The area close to the hotel is nice too with loads of restaurants to choose from, and not very expensive since shimbashi is the salary-people area. Rooms are quite quiet despite busy area, hotel is clean and they have quite a lot of toiletries on offer, plus a coffee and tea machine and a big table to sit down at the entrance. As with every single housing space in Tokyo, facilities are small, very small. Even with booking a superior room we still had to engineer how to distribute our belongings, you dont get quite adjusted to it. And the lighting of the room was not very good distributed either, very small reading lamps and only one main light that is too on your face if you're lying down. A lot of small pilot lights from the TV, ventilation systems and the phone that drive you nuts if you're sensitive to those like me. Also the air conditioning of the hallway was literally on top of our room door so we had that background noise there constantly. Regular front desk staff speaks the necessary english but if you need something more specific bring a translator app or ask to speak to someone who is a bit more proficient. They say that due to their sustainability program they only clean the room every 3 days, a bit questionable but did not fight it. They still collect the trash and change towels...

I stayed here in July 2019 and had a great experience. Now in June 2024 I made the mistake of staying here again assuming it would still be a good choice in Tokyo. Massive mistake.

The beds are almost as hard as sleeping on a hardwood floor. After having to argue with the front desk about this they finally provided a small foam pad which helped a little.

The major problem is the staff here. They are simply rude and massively unhelpful. They repeatedly come into the room and turn off the air conditioning despite the note I left attached to the thermostat (written in Japanese) asking to leave it on. This wouldn't be a problem except the air conditioning is so weak that it takes hours to cool the room.

I needed a suitcase sent to my next destination and yamato transport said to arrange it with the front desk. I went there the night before I intended to drop the bag and front desk said sure come back in the morning. Today, 23 June the Man working at reception had no idea what I was asking, refused to admit it was possible, despite me showing him all the information I had saying it is. I also saw many other bags in the lobby with yamato tags on them. The employee at the desk just did not want to assist.

This is the worst experience I have ever had at any hotel in my life, having spent hundreds of nights at hundreds of hotels all over the world.

Do not stay here! There are many other choices in Tokyo. We certainly won't make this...