Category: Hotels

If you’re staying in a hotel with a stocked minibar, clear it out and fill it up yourself! Tokyo’s convenience stores sell alcohol and snacks at prices much cheaper than your hotel will be charging you! Convenience stores are also a great place to stock up with breakfast foods like bakery goods and yoghurt if you’re not planning to dine at the hotel.

It’s not a myth that Tokyo hotel rooms tend to be small. This is because most of the more economical hotels were originally built to service Japanese business people who only needed somewhere to rest for a night or two while travelling for work. They weren’t built for foreign tourists more used to a bit more space.

Be sure to check the square meterage of hotel rooms via the hotel or travel website you use before booking to ensure you are comfortable.  As a general rule, many of the mid-range and lower priced hotels tend to have small rooms. It’s the more expensive hotels and international chains that tend to have room sizes more common in the West. If you’re travelling solo, a room around 18m square is perfectly comfortable, without being roomy. But selecting a room that size or smaller for a couple will see you climbing over each to move around and struggling to find floor space to open your suitcases.

If your flight out of Tokyo departs in the evening, you may wish to explore getting a late check out from your hotel. This allows you to make the most of the day, do any lastminute packing and shower before departing for the airport.  Most accommodations are willing to arrange this for you if there is availability, but it’s worth noting that it comes at a cost, usually a varying percentage of a nightly tariff depending on how late you wish to stay. Let the front desk know a few days in advance and confirm with the hotel the night before that they will be able to accommodate your request.

Unless you’re staying at an expensive 5-star hotel, which tend to be more accommodating with early arrivals, beware that most accommodations are strict about their check in times. Most 4-star or less properties are completely inflexible when it comes to arriving early, so don’t expect to turn up at the front desk hours before and be shown to your room. They will however happily stow your luggage and ask you to return at the published check in time to complete the check in process. If you are going to arrive several hours before check in time, I’d recommend packing your valuables and anything else you need in a day bag so that you can go exploring until you’ll be allowed into your room.

If you’re planning on staying at a hotel that is 4-star or below, you may not find English tea or milk in your room. As many of these establishments primarily cater to the Japanese business traveller market, they will usually offer instant coffee and Japanese tea only. If you find this is the case and you can’t get by without a cup of English tea or milk for your hot drinks, simply stock up at a convenience store where they are readily available in small packs.