Yuen Shinjuku — Hotel in Tokyo

We stayed at a 25㎡ double room with city view for five nights. Despite paying a premium price, the room was dirty, too warm, and smaller than we had anticipated. The high price seems to be primarily for access to the rooftop onsen.

The location was okay, situated in a quieter part of Shinjuku and about a 6 minute walk to the nearest subway station. There’s a decent-sized 7/11 right in front of the hotel.

Check-in was via computer, even though staff were present, and I received no information about the hotel. I didn’t realize I needed to tap my room card at the elevator, so I stood there quite a while, wondering why no elevator was coming. The hotel has only 2 elevators, no stair case, during busy hours you could easily wait 5 minutes until one arrives.

The living area space of the room was almost comfortable, with just enough space to walk around with two open suitcases. The washbasin area was incredibly small—I kept bumping into the wall or door frame, even though I'm quite small myself. The entry area was also very small, making it impossible to fully open the door without rearranging our shoes. The bed was comfortable and very large, but the pillow was uncomfortable, very thin with hard beads on one side. A second pillow would have been nice for added comfort.

The room definitely needs a deep clean. When I peeked behind the mirror, I was shocked by the amount of dust and dirt. The washbasin had numerous dirty spots. Vents were also was full of dust. We ended up buying cleaning wipes from 7/11 to clean the room ourselves.

The hair dryer was almost useless, which was disappointing considering its an onsen hotel. The hot option provided minimal airflow, and the fast option was only slightly warm. If you have thick or long hair, drying it will take a while.

The refrigerator was equally disappointing, fitting only three items and barely cooling them. Our drinks were almost room temperature, and it emitted a lot of hot air into the room.

No single-use slippers, not even for the toilet. At a hotel, communal toilet slippers, that had been used by countless other guests, seems unhygienic to me.

The room was consistently too warm. The thermostat only allowed for adjusting the fan speed, which was too loud when turned on. We had to leave the door open briefly to let in some cooler air from the corridor. Woke up multiple times during nights because it was too warm. In contrast, the corridors and washer rooms were so cold that I kept getting chills.

The lighting at the mirror was very disappointing, applying makeup or shaving was not possible. The room lights could only be controlled from the bed, which meant crawling over it due to the limited space around the bed. Additionally, one side of the bed missed buttons to adjust...

I visited this hotel during July of 2023. As a couple, we stayed at the Small Double Room, thinking that it would be sufficient given that most accommodations in Tokyo are tiny and expensive. But tiny would be an understatement of the size of the rooms for this hotel. We booked via Agoda and truth be told, they did a great job in the photos, depicting the rooms to be larger than expected. However, when we arrived, it is to our horror that it quickly became non-functional. There is no cupboard and lack hanging hooks/space. The only hanging rack is located right at the entrance with 4 hangers that when occupied, covered up the full length mirror. There is also hardly any corridor or walking space when someone is standing or going about their business such as unpacking packing their luggage or ironing their clothes. On that note, you got to be very strategic on how you place your luggage else it would be a nuisance/hinderance - the size of it matters as well. Just like everything else in Japan, smaller is better but not in the case of the accommodations here.

Speaking of accommodations, the rooms have no filters, in fact the corridors as well, making the air stale. It is truly upsetting that there were dust everywhere and even at the edges of the (reachable) air vents. This led to us having a terrible experience as we were hypoallergenic to dust - sneezing and scratching during our 4 nights here. Which makes you want to leave the room/hotel more often which is fine since we spent most of our time enjoying Tokyo instead. However, they could not have made it anymore difficult given that there are only 2 lifts serving 18 stories. What's worst is that they encourage you to visit the levels; 5, 10 and 15, with designated washing machines, dryers, vending machines and water coolers for your accommodation needs. This in turn adds a whopping 5 - 10 mins whenever you're transiting from one level to another. They can consider repurposing one of fire escape as as easy access from one level to another in case the lifts get jammed up - especially when you're intending to go up and down just a single level. Side note, this can help circulate the stagnant air in the hotel.

Among all that, the hotel design looks good overall and the service given by the staff is great. The view from the public Onsen at the top level is stunning at night but good luck finding a time that suits you as there will be many others who are looking forward to such experience. All in all, I would not come back here nor would I recommend it to others as if the aforementioned details did not sum up my unpleasant experience there, the journey to the hotel was arduous, as it is pretty far from any major public transport system...

This hotel is located within Skinjuku, not far from the heart of Tokyo. It is located on a side street, meaning there is no noise from the street.

Directly across there is a 7-Eleven, for quick access to various necessities. There is also a Family Mart a little bit further down, and a Lawson just before you enter the side street.

The hotel does have some flaws, there are only two lifts for everyone to lifts, and there are around 15 floors. Meaning you can be waiting a long time for access to the lifts.

Secondly, the noise from between the rooms and the corridor. This was particularly an issue early in the morning. Some people like to wake up early, whether than being due to jet lag or wanting to get a head start to the day. My room was located directly in front of the lifts unfortunately, and I could hear loud tourists talking outside my room and the lifts. Meaning I was constantly being woken up.

The third issue is the coin laundry machines. They’re top loading washing machines, which is unfamiliar to Europeans, but not so much of an issue. My issue was the lack of instructions, I had to rely on using Google Translate to find out how to use the machines. One of the machines stated that laundry detergent is dispensed automatically, so I took that as I don’t need to provide me own, which I should’ve had done. After finishing a wash and my clothes not smelling any fresher, I just popped to 7-Eleven and got myself some laundry detergent. The dryers are extremely weak and I had to do 5 coin cycles to get them to a hanging on a hanger level of dry. The price of the machines were ¥100/¥300 with no change machines or change provided if over inserted, so make sure you have ¥100 coins. If you don’t, there is a coin laundrette not far, that has a change machine (might be worth washing there). The coin laundrette machines are located on particular floors, so if you aren’t on those floors, you’ll have a lot of walking backwards and forwards and waiting for your lifts.

The rooms are small, there is WiFi but it is awfully slow when everyone is on it at the same time. There also is a TV but you only get Japanese channels, and the UI is all in Japanese, no chromecast / airplay support. The bathroom has a Japanese toilet which is nice, as well as a shower with a good amount of pressure and shower gel, shampoo and conditioner provided.

There is an Onsen, however, no real clear institutions are provided for people who have never used one before, and it always seemed crowded, therefore I felt uncomfortable going to the onsen.

For the price it isn’t a bad option, but there are things the hotel could do to improve, its location is its main...