SAKURA HOUSE Tokyo: Share House Check-in Counter — Local services in Tokyo

AVOID!!!

Please read this if you are about to get a house from this company.

I first contacted this house half a year ago and was surprised by the excellent German speaking staff and very good communication. After some Emails I made my reservation and suddenly I got notified, I can’t move in and I’ll have to stay in a horrible iron-bed dorm until I could move in (even though available on the website). After some arguing I got another room for a week and then had to move with all my stuff to my actual room.

I was very disappointed. Both the temporary and the actual room was old, ramped down, the AC didn’t work in my new room, stains everywhere, the cutlery in the kitchen greasy and the bathroom smelled horrible. I complained and their service was again great - for the last time. They gave me a new AC and Tatami mat and removed the moldy wallpaper (I wonder why they even have a room viewing after you move out).

After that the service turned to the worst. My AC broke down again, it was 2 degrees in my room and only after half a week working in cafes and sleeping with all my clothes in shivering cold they sent someone. Not to mention the rude replies when I had problems with payment, problems with my shower or with my flatmates.

Be aware that this company is mostly used by work and holiday workers or tourists, so I never saw any community activity in the houses. Many also just don’t really care about the cleaning schedules or being mindful to other tenants, since they’ll move out soon anyway. Their one week cleaning service they promised was worth nothing.

The most ridiculous part was at the end of my stay when I had a clearly stated question to the company about my moving out. I didn’t get any reply, just a standard sample with all the tasks I need to do for moving out. Confused I said I want to stay longer then and I didn’t hear back for a week. All of a sudden I got a email that I have to leave the next week, which made me go to their office and ask what happened. Turned out they planned to get double money from the new tenant and my penalty fee for late notice of moving out. The behavior of the staff member was extremely rude, putting all fault on me and denying all the problems I had earlier. Quote “How dare you to say that, we would never do that to our customer”. Never in Japan I felt so insulted by someone as in this conversation.

Luckily the nice guy who showed me the room in the beginning intervened and the rude staff (after trying to catch me with a wrong calculated rent which was 20,000 Yen higher than normal) provided me a horrible room in the outskirts of Tokyo with 14 other people. The house is even older, smelly and the walls now so thin, that I can’t even talk anymore after 10 P.M. The company forced me to pay even more money for this than my old room.

During earthquakes I also felt that all three houses I stayed in were very poorly built, so please be careful. In Taifun Season water was leaking into my room too, they fixed it after some time.

Sakura House even has a very bad reputation among the Expats in Tokyo, when I talked about it on Meetups, noone seemed very surprised.

If you want to make picture yourself, just look at the bad reviews for the houses directly on Google maps.

If you need a place to crash, Sakura House will welcome you. If you need an area for feeling comfortable and at home, please look for the many other offers on the market, Sakura House is not the only one.

Never again, it really ruined my...

I am a spoiled, self-indulgent American who was in Japan most of July, 2015 visiting my 13-year-old daughter, stationed there with her mother and step-father. Completely unfamiliar with the Tokyo area, I booked a Sakura House flat based primarily on budget, access to metro, and the photos I saw on their website. The flat was located in the Shin-Egota suburb, five minutes from the Oedo Line: the line that encircles the city and connects with all other lines. I had booked for two people and upon entering the flat, none of my daughter’s bedding was there. I called the company and within an hour, two men delivered her futon, mattress, sheet, comforter, and pillow. Her suitcase was heavy and placing it on the wood desk, I made some minor scratches in the wood. Fearing I would be billed for this, I checked other items that may have been pre-damaged and found a small nick on the other desk and a discoloration on the table.

That is when I began checking online reviews for Sakura House. There were complaints about noisy neighbors. We had no one living above or beside us, and anyone living below failed to complain about any noise we had made. There were complaints about washers but no dryers. We had to hang our clothes out on the porch to dry (but everyone in Japan does that). There were complaints about sorting and disposal of our garbage (but everyone in Japan has to do that as well). Paranoid about being overbilled at checkout, I spent the day cleaning the place spotless. I washed and dried the sheets and pillowcases, and aired out the comforters (fearing a wash would damage the down). I had paid $300.00 as a damage deposit and was promised $150.00-$200.00 in return if everything was fine. Checkout lasted 15 minutes.

They didn’t see the scratch or mention the nick or discoloration left previously. But if they did, they would have charged my deposit $50.00 for each desk (so what) and maybe $20.00 for the unwashed comforters (again, so what). I was also concerned about any over usage of electricity being billed to my deposit. We used the air conditioning every night, the washer frequently, and kept charged four devices, including the Wi-Fi for this computer, possibly another $25.00 to the bill (finally, so what).

With our flat as a base, we visited Kyoto, Yokohama, Kasamatsu, Kamakura, Odaiba, Nagano and Nara. We climbed Mount Fuji, hiked the trails of Chichibu-Tama National Park, and visited the snow monkeys of Jigokudani. We visited almost every point of interest in Tokyo, including neighborhoods like Shinjuku and Rappongi. A neighborhood grocery store and a Gusto’s Family restaurant were conveniently located between the metro and our flat. Both establishments took credit cards in a cash only/yen friendly country. The flat cost $1166.00 for 28 days or $42.00 per day, cheaper and cleaner than any Motel 6 off...

OBS: CHECK REDDIT BEFORE YOU BOOK. THESE GOOGLE REVIEWS CAN’T BE TRUSTED.

Avoid Sakura House – A Serious Warning

Sakura House turned what should have been the best time of my life into an absolute nightmare. For two months, I lived in Room 102 of their Hiro Sharehouse—a property plagued by filth and neglect. The house was dirty, trash overflowed, and the bathrooms were unsanitary. Despite their claims of regular cleaning, I never saw anyone clean. But the real horror was the rats.

Every night, I was jolted awake by the sound of rats scratching, running through the walls, and chewing the ceiling above me. The noise was so unbearable that I often had to leave my room, sleeping at hotels or friends’ places out of fear they would gnaw their way inside. I saw rats outside my window and heard them during the day, yet Sakura House refused to take the problem seriously.

After weeks of complaints—more than 75 emails, phone calls, and even a three-hour meeting at their office—they finally offered to relocate me, but only for one night. When I arrived at the new location, I was told my original room was now “fixed” and that I should move back. Of course, nothing had been resolved. Sakura House’s handling of the situation was appalling. They gaslit me, claiming, “Sometimes people see and hear things that aren’t there,” insinuating I was mentally ill and imagining the rats???? This, despite having video evidence and knowing they had already caught one in a trap (the ONLY trap they sat up, after weeks of complaints). They also ignored receipts for the hotel stays I was forced to book and outright refused to reimburse me. Their attempts to “resolve” the problem were laughable. After weeks of inaction, they sprayed poison in my room without warning. The chemical smell was so overpowering I couldn’t enter for days, and my belongings reeked of it. My clothes and bedding still smell like it today. When I asked if the poison was harmful to humans, they ignored me. Even after this, the rats remained.

This wasn’t the first time I experienced Sakura House’s negligence. At their Sendagaya property, I had to leave because of a persistent sewer stench. Despite my complaints, their only response was to send someone with drain cleaner months later—something I had already tried.

Sakura House is not only incompetent but also unethical. They ignored complaints, spread false rumors about me to other tenants, painted a picture of me as “crazy” to my housemates, and lied directly to my face. Their behavior was dehumanizing and traumatizing. I don't get how the staff has the morals to carry out this job.

If you’re considering staying with them, don’t. There are far better alternatives like Oak House or Dash Living. And if you end up in Room 102 at Hiro Sharehouse, know that you’re not imagining the rats—they’re very real, and Sakura House simply...