The Blossom Hibiya — Hotel in Tokyo

Putrid Stench of Body Odor Fills The Rooms

Despite the bad hygiene and cleanliness, these are the plus points. The location is at Ginza, 10 min walk from Shimbashi station. It’s a lively location with lots of good food and shopping nearby. Lawson is also just downstairs. Staff are very professional and polite.

You would be rolling the dice when staying here. The absolute dealbreaker for us is the pungent foul smell of body odor in the room that will not go away. It is so thick that it is choking.

We booked a double room for 5 nights and the room had a horrific smell. I thought that perhaps I was being dramatic and that I would get used to this smell because who would have thought that a 4 star hotel in Ginza could smell this bad? And I really liked this hotel’s plus points.

I forced myself to stay in the room for about 15 minutes and I ran out of the room in tears, coughing and nauseous. The putrid smell of body odor was so thick it was like vapor on my tongue and filled my lungs, it was so putrid, tears could not stop flowing out of my eyes. My husband could not stand the smell either.

This was our honeymoon trip since Covid and we paid more for this premium hotel. The receptionist was very professional and apologetic. She assigned us another room and it still had the same stench. We decided to let the room ventilate and sprayed the room using half a bottle of their deodorizer, perhaps no one was using the room for a while.

We went for dinner and came back, the stench was still there. I could not believe what I was smelling and the poor hygiene and cleanliness standards that this hotel has. This hotel needs to have proper ventilation and cleanliness standards to clear out the smell. She showed us 2 more rooms, and the last one still had the stench but lesser. It was barely bearable.

I’m currently pregnant and I could not sleep the whole night because I kept getting woken up by wafts of the putrid stench. It was so bad I started burning up a fever due to jet lag and lack of sleep.

I sent the hotel management a long appeal to refund us and thank goodness they refunded us for the remaining 4 nights. We moved out immediately and found another hotel and I was so traumatized I asked to smell the room first. Luckily our stay at another cheaper hotel was great, it was absolutely how a normal clean hotel should smell.

We saw a total of 4 rooms and all 4 of them had the putrid stench of body odor. We decided that this is a hotel-wide problem and not just an outlier case. Further reading the bad reviews for this hotel, we realized that there were also many guests who experienced the same stench. I strongly recommend to not roll the dice for your...

This hotel is perfect with excellent service, a great location, and a comfortable environment. It does have a few weaknesses but I will say it is not a very big deal. I will discuss them below.

First, the hotel is located at a great location, which is not only close to Shinbashi Station but also close to Uchisaiwaichō Station and Kasumigaseki Station. The neighborhood around it is not as busy as Shinbashi so if you like a quiet area, it will be a good Choice. However, one thing you need to know is if you want to go to airport with large and heavy luggage, the location might be a little annoying. From the Hotel to Shinbashi Station, you will find many stairs but almost no elevators, especially for Asakusa Line. In other words, you have to carry your luggage downstairs, which is absolutely inconvenient.

Second, the hotel's service is perfect. For example, if you have packages that you ordered on the internet, they will send it directly to your room. If the packages arrive before you check-in. They will send it to your room directly so that you can find it when you arrive at your room.

Third, the overall decoration of the hotel is good, and the view from the room is not bad. You might be able to see the Tokyo Tower, but some buildings might block your view as well. So if you want to see the Tokyo Tower, it's better for you to leave your message before your check-in. Also, as you know the overall room size for Tokyo's hotel is not large, so don't expect large rooms. However, from my personal point of view, I booked the most regular room and the size was acceptable.

Fourth, the hotel only has 4 washing machines, which is definitely not enough. As a result, it will be hard to find one to use.

Finally, the breakfast is good but not perfect. Well but if you think about the overall quality of Tokyo's hotel breakfast, it's not bad. I also tried the dinner once but it was lack of choice, so I would not recommend eating dinner in the hotel.

Overall, I will highly recommend this hotel for everyone except if you think you will have large and heavy luggage with you. If so, you'd better find hotels that are more close to the Shinbashi Station, which will...

The hotel is in a great location for those new to Tokyo; close to Shimbashi Station which is a fairly central, well connected station, whilst being quiet. It’s also only a 25min walk to Tokyo Station to catch trains to other regions.

The rooms have fantastic views across Tokyo; there is really no need to go to a rooftop bar or viewpoint! The beds are comfortable, the shower warm with good pressure, and the WiFi and air conditioning both work well.

A few oddities for a four star hotel charging these prices:

The layout of the lobby and bar - the view from the lobby is phenomenal, however, the bar has been designed to completely block the view….we asked if we could take our drink in the lobby and were refused, which was disappointing and feels short sighted.

The bar also charges a cover charge - of all the meals and drinks we have had in Japan, this is the only place I have been charged a cover charge/tip and I did not receive the service to warrant it.

There is no concierge service - I messaged in advance to arrange a taxi from the airport and was told they couldn’t help me?

Breakfast is 3,300 yen per person, which is pretty steep.

I wasn’t informed about breakfast times when I arrived, so on my first morning I went down for breakfast at 10am and was told they breakfast closes at 10am. The next day I arrived at 9:30am to be told that breakfast was closed…apparently last orders are 9:30am and I couldn’t join….

Sadly I had not read that my UK hairdryer would not work in Japan and was left trying to use a pretty basic hairdryer in the room. We also stayed at the Daiwa in Kanazawa and were provided with a full powered hairdryer with accessories and curling tongs!

The rooms are small (one large suitcase is difficult to open) and the closet/wardrobe tiny.

There are lights everywhere in the room at night that are difficult to switch off (behind the TV, the air conditioning, the iPad next to the bed etc) so bring an eye mask!

There were no bathroom essentials; toothbrush, shower cap, earbuds etc.

The gym is very basic and there is no spa/swimming pool.

Overall a good hotel, but pricey for...