Toyoko-inn Tokyo-station Shin-Ohbashi-mae — Hotel in Tokyo

PROS:||-- Great price! ||-- Clean||-- Surprisingly good breakfast. While it is mostly all carbs, it's more than just a cold piece of bread or pastry. We felt like we were being served by a group of adorable grandmothers. Served buffet style, there's chirashi rice, a variety of rice balls, miso soup, potato salad, picked veggies, boiled sausages and croissants. A self-service coffee machine spits out small cups of coffee and lattes.||-- Love the free shuttle service to Tokyo station. Very convenient and on time.||-- Appreciated the nice perks: slippers, PJs, toothbrush and at the front desk in the evening, bath sponges, lotion packs, laundry room.... ||-- Great shower pressure!||-- Very quiet location||-- While there's really nothing around within a short walking distance, the vending machines in the lobby had a variety of drinks, including a much-needed selection of cold beer. ||CONS:||-- As first time visitors to Tokyo, I felt the location was not ideal. Yes, it's not far from train stations, but when you've been on your feet all day, the hotel felt FAR. It also wasn't all that easy to find. Fortunately, we had a general idea of where it was prior (kept an eye out for a small park and headed toward the river) and the gigantic neon sign at the top of the building helped. ||-- Our room smelled like smoke, but we got used to it quickly.||-- The hotel itself is older so the decor is older as well. ||-- The Wifi in our room worked best in the bathroom. ||-- We expected the room to be small and we were totally fine with that. They suggested we slide our luggage under the bed and that would have worked out nicely if our luggage was...

PROS:||-- Great price! ||-- Clean||-- Surprisingly good breakfast. While it is mostly all carbs, it's more than just a cold piece of bread or pastry. We felt like we were being served by a group of adorable grandmothers. Served buffet style, there's chirashi rice, a variety of rice balls, miso soup, potato salad, picked veggies, boiled sausages and croissants. A self-service coffee machine spits out small cups of coffee and lattes.||-- Love the free shuttle service to Tokyo station. Very convenient and on time.||-- Appreciated the nice perks: slippers, PJs, toothbrush and at the front desk in the evening, bath sponges, lotion packs, laundry room.... ||-- Great shower pressure!||-- Very quiet location||-- While there's really nothing around within a short walking distance, the vending machines in the lobby had a variety of drinks, including a much-needed selection of cold beer. ||CONS:||-- As first time visitors to Tokyo, I felt the location was not ideal. Yes, it's not far from train stations, but when you've been on your feet all day, the hotel felt FAR. It also wasn't all that easy to find. Fortunately, we had a general idea of where it was prior (kept an eye out for a small park and headed toward the river) and the gigantic neon sign at the top of the building helped. ||-- Our room smelled like smoke, but we got used to it quickly.||-- The hotel itself is older so the decor is older as well. ||-- The Wifi in our room worked best in the bathroom. ||-- We expected the room to be small and we were totally fine with that. They suggested we slide our luggage under the bed and that would have worked out nicely if our luggage was...

I stayed here 12 nights. If you're arriving in the city at TCAT from Narita on the airport bus, it's a 710 yen taxi ride to this hotel. There are closer hotels to TCAT that are in easy walking distance (that were all fully booked up this time) so this hotel was not my first choice and would not be a first choice on my next trip. ||First . . . the good points. Its clientele is generally businessmen and it was fairly quiet. The staff's English on the desk was passable and they were very efficient. Housekeeping was perfect and the room (double bed) was spotlessly clean. Unlike some Japanese hotels who advertise double rooms, the room size here was acceptable to call a double. A real plus to me was the free wifi in the room (602) was VERY fast and I could easily stream YouTube on my iPad. It's an easy walk through the adjacent park to the Hamacho station (exit 2) on the Shinjuku line and there are several choices for groceries in the neighbourhood. Also, an out of alignment toilet seat was fixed without me reporting it. It's good when housekeeping notice and report things like this because they can really make or break a stay. ||Now, the rest of the story - The bed was just about the hardest one I have ever slept on in all my travels but eventually my back got used to it. I only went to breakfast twice out of a stay of 12 days||because the hot choices were always stone cold. They would place hot items out a half an hour before breakfast opened at 7 AM so someone needs to invest in a heating table. And as usual in most hotels here, there were no English choices among the...