In October, I stayed at the Conrad Tokyo for one night, during a stopover on the way home from Osaka to Singapore. On that stay, I had stayed a King Suite Bay View, which I reviewed here. On that occasion, while I had been quite impressed by the suite, some aspects of the hotel’s service and the Executive Lounge offerings were a little disappointing. The breakfast offerings were also good, and something I was looking forward to enjoying again.
For this trip in mid-November, I had booked two separate stays, both three-nights in duration, 12-15 Nov and then 17-20 Nov. The stays were broken up by a couple of days in Hakone, staying at the Hotel Indigo Hakone Gora (review coming). With a total of six nights at the Conrad Tokyo, I relished the opportunity to see how the Conrad fared on longer stays, and whether my impression of the hotel would change after these couple of stays.
Since I had reviewed most aspects of the hotel’s facilities, I’ll try to focus more on the service and rooms, particularly since the rooms for both stays, and in October, were all different. For each area of review, I’ll also cover the experience from both stays together, hopefully it won’t be too confusing to follow.
How did the Conrad Tokyo fare this time around? The good stuff was still good, and even slightly improved, but some of the disappointing aspects remained, in particular the Executive Lounge. With a longer stay duration, I was also able to observe some inconsistencies.
Read on to find out what I thought of the Conrad Tokyo!
Booking
Both stays were booked through Hotelux, on Hilton Impresario 3-for-2 rates. I had booked the base category King Room City. If you had read my October review, you might recall that I had been offered an upgrade on both stays to a King Suite Bay View, for JPY6,000 per night, plus tax and service charge. I had declined the upgrade for the first stay, while accepting the offer for the second stay. This upgrade had been reflected in the booking immediately after my agreement with the lounge staff.
The first stay had been booked in June, at rate of JPY109,930 (SGD1,090) nett for 3 nights. For the stay after Hakone, I had originally intended to book the Hilton Tokyo near Shinjuku, but had changed to the Conrad for ease of managing restaurant reservations and being able to store our larger bags while in Hakone. I only booked this stay in September, by which time the rate had increased to JPY125,111 (SGD1,240) nett for 3 nights. The upgrade charge then added JPY7,590 (SGD75) nett per night. These prices were great, particularly since a glance at the rate calendar shows rates frequently crossing JPY100,000 per night.
If redeeming Hilton Honors points, a standard award here typically starts from 95,000 points.
Since I booked an Impresario rate, I was also entitled to the following benefits:
- Daily breakfast for two at Cerise
- Room upgrade to next category, subject to availability
- USD100 hotel credit for use at all hotel F&B outlets and Mizuki Spa
- Early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability
As a Hilton Honors Diamond, I receive some of these benefits regardless, such as room upgrades and complimentary breakfast. I also find hotel credit can be hard to use if the hotel’s F&B options aren’t great. I mainly book Impresario rates to take advantage of the free night offers, as was the case with the 3-for-2 offer I took advantage of on these stays. Booking an Impresario could also be useful in jumping ahead of other Diamonds in the line for upgrades.
Check-in
After the extremely long waiting time at immigration at Haneda, I was only too glad to be back at the familiar surrounds of the Conrad Tokyo. We reached the hotel around 9.45am via the Keikyu/Toei-Asakusa line. A staff member at the ground floor desk saw us approaching and immediately rushed out to help with our bags. This was a much more promising welcome than in October. Free of bags, we headed up to the lobby on the 28th floor. Unlike my check-in experience in October, there was no queue this we time around and we were attended to immediately. With no queue, I opted to check-in at the front desk rather than the Executive Lounge.
Similarly, when we checked in again after returning from Hakone later that week, there was no queue at the front desk so we opted to check-in there. The gentleman who handled the second check-in did ask if I preferred to check-in at the lounge, which I declined.
On both occasions, my Diamond status was acknowledged, and the Impresario benefits were explained to me. The USD100 credit converted to a very generous JPY14,790, which was actually above spot rates. Oddly, only during the second chance was I actually given an Impresario welcome letter outlining the benefits. This was one of many minor inconsistencies in service delivery I observed across the stays.
I mentioned earlier for the first stay, we had arrived at the hotel at 9.45am. To mu surprise, given it was a Saturday, the room was actually available, though I was advised it would be about 30mins for housekeeping to complete the cleaning. This was very welcome after the overnight flight from Singapore. We opted to wait out the 30mins, so we could freshen up before heading out for lunch.
Overall, the check-in was much more pleasant and smoother than my prior stay in October, despite the hotel being more crowded as I would discover later.
Room
King Room Bay View
On the first stay (12-15 Nov), we received only the bare minimum one-category upgrade to a King Room Bay View, from the base City View. This was a little disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. No suite upgrade was offered, complimentary or paid. Personally this didn’t bother me too much, since 1) the standard rooms at the Conrad Tokyo are pretty big, and 2) for most of the first stay we spent our full day at the two Disney parks.
The standard rooms at the Conrad Tokyo measure 48sqm, which is generous for a non-suite hotel room, and very generous by Tokyo standards.
The room layout is pretty typical of normal hotel rooms. An entryway with the wardrobe on one side, and bathroom on the other.
Once through the entryway, the room opens, showing just how spacious the room is.
The king-sized bed of course took up most of the space, and on the bed rested my favourite things about a Conrad stay – the Conrad bear and rubber duck. A daybed ran almost the full width of the window, making a comfortable spot to sit and admire the view of Hamarikyu Gardens below and Tokyo Bay beyond.
The spaciousness of the room can be seen in the amount of space on either side of the bed. Despite the presence of a daybed, there was sufficient space between that and the bed for a decent-sized low dressing table, which also doubled up as a bedside table. This is a sharp contrast to the Hilton Osaka that I also stayed at in October, where I felt the daybed encroached too much into the room creating a cramped feel.
The work desk and chair were in a corner of the room. These were identical to those in the suite I had stayed in previously. Frustratingly, as with the suite, this was the only place I could find tissues in the entire room.
The bathroom was in a contrasting glossy black and white décor, unlike the mostly woody furnishings of the room. A clear glass panel separated the room and bathroom, though blinds could be lowered to block the view. Given the overall room size, the bathroom was pretty large as well, with double sinks.
One difference between the suites and the normal rooms is the lack of underfloor heating in the bathroom.
The bathroom had a free-standing tub and a separate shower, plus a toilet. The shower and toilet were located opposite the tub, behind frosted glass panels. This unlike the suites, or even the Hilton Osaka, which have the tub co-located in the shower stall (note: different from a combination tub-shower) Interestingly unlike the suites, this bathroom has frosted glass for both the shower and the toilet. Suites only have the toilet frosted.
In many ways, the bathroom was similar to the Conrad Bangkok where I had stayed earlier this year.
Amenities were Byredo of course. I was a little surprised to see bath salts in a small packet, whereas in the suites it’s provided in nice jar.
Overall, the King Room Bay View is a pretty nice room to be in. It’s really spacious; I could open my large checked suitcase on the floor and it wasn’t in the way. The daybed is a nice addition to the room and good for lounging while in the room.
King Suite Bay Corner
For the second of our three-night stays (17-20 Nov), I had already agreed to a paid, confirmed upgrade to a King Suite Bay View. This was the same suite category I stayed in for my October stopover. Since we were booked on an Impresario rate, the hotel then applied a further one-category upgrade to a King Suite Bay Corner.
As the name suggests, the King Suite Bay Corner are located at the corners of the building, facing Tokyo Bay. While the standard Bay View suite and the Bay Corner suite have the same view, they differ in size. The Bay Corner measures 85sqm, while the standard suite is 72sqm.
Our room, 3145, was located on the 31st floor, at the furthest corner from the lifts. The walk between room and lifts – at least 4 times day given we usually came back to freshen up before evening cocktails and dinner – easily added 1,000 steps to my daily count. My other slight complaint about the room location is that it’s located next to the working and storage area for housekeeping for that floor, so occasionally some noise from there could be heard through the walls.
Immediately adjacent to the room entry, there’s a small closet. Useful for hanging outerwear.
As with the standard suite, a half-bathroom/powder room is located immediately off to the side upon entering the suite.
The similarities with the standard suite largely end there though. In the Corner suite, there’s no walk-in wardrobe. Instead the entryway opens into the living room. Within the living room, the rectangular work desk is located nearest to the entrance, while a circular dining table is set close to the window.
I mentioned earlier that the Corner suite is 13sqm larger than the standard suite (85 vs 72sqm). It appeared to me that most of that 13sqm had gone into dead space in the living. This is based on the vast amount of empty space around the dining table, and between the TV console and the coffee table. There’s even space for a large round chair between the coffee table and TV console. I typically don’t spent much time lounging around a suite’s living room, so a lot of this extra space here was wasted to me.
Moving into the bedroom, it’s definitely smaller than in the standard suite.
The only advantage this bedroom has over the standard suite is the bedroom bench, and that the bed directly faces the windows, and thus view of Tokyo Bay.
The wardrobe is located in the bedroom. There’s no walk-in wardrobe in this corner suite, which is rather disappointing for a full suite. Naturally, it’s smaller than the walk-in of the standard suite.
The bathroom is configured in a longish manner, with the windows along one length, facing Tokyo Bay. Great for guests who enjoy having a view while brushing their teeth.
In contrast to the normal bay view room we had for the first stay on 12-15 Nov, this suite has the tub co-located with the shower, in that they share a large shower stall. The shower itself and tub are separate, and is not a tub-shower combi. This is similar to the standard suite I had in October. A nice jar of bath salts was available here, not just a small packet.
I also want to briefly mention housekeeping. While the rooms were always clean and immaculately made up, I did notice some inconsistencies in the level of details. On one occasion, I found the housekeeper had removed half drunk water bottles, which I found annoying because I like to have an abundant supply of water. However on a different day, the housekeeper left similarly half consumed bottles in the room.
There was also some inconsistency in the level of amenities. The Conrad Tokyo provides sleepwear, which are quite comfortable. We both used these once during each stay. Somehow, despite dumping two used pieces of the sleepwear into the used linen bin, only one new piece was subsequently provided. I’m not sure where the missing one went. When we stayed in the suite, a welcome chocolate was provided in the room. Given we only got it when staying in the suite, I assumed it’s a suite benefit. That’s fine, I can accept that. However, confusingly shortly after we got to the suite, a staff member subsequently delivered a second box of chocolate, mentioning it’s an Impresario welcome amenity or something along those lines. This was impossible to fathom and inconsistent: if it’s an Impresario amenity surely we should have gotten one during the first stay? If it’s a suite-only amenity, then why did we receive two?
The above issues are all absolutely trivial, but it grates on me to encounter service inconsistencies that have no logical reasoning behind them.
My thoughts on the rooms
In terms of size and comfort, the Conrad Tokyo’s rooms are highly impressive. The normal rooms, like the King Room Bay View we had, are spacious for Tokyo. Sure, it’s not a suite and is missing some frills of a suite, but honestly it’s a room I’d be very happy to have. I’ve made my feelings clear about the contrasting décor of the bedroom and living space versus the bathroom previously. While it’s the same story with the rooms we had during these stays, the rooms were once again still very well-maintained and clean.
My girlfriend was so impressed by the size of the normal room that she felt the corner suite was a bit of a letdown. As far as the King Suite Bay Corner goes, I have to agree with her that it was a bit of disappointment. Between the corner and standard King Suite Bay View, I’d actually rather have the King Suite Bay View. Despite it’s smaller size, it manages to have a walk-in wardrobe and a bigger bathroom. Those are far more important to me than a dining table, larger living room or a direct bay view from the bed. Furthermore, my impression from the hotel’s floor plan is that the standard suite are located towards the middle of the floor, thus a shorter walk to the lifts.
This puts me in a bit of potential dilemma for my stay here during Sakura season next year. The ideal scenario is of course a complimentary upgrade to the standard King Suite Bay View. However failing that, I’m keeping my fingers crossed the hotel will still be offering suite upgrades at a reasonable price. Some guests have reported upgrade costs for less than the JPY6,000 I paid. My dilemma is that if I agree to pay for an upgrade, how do I stop the hotel upgrading me further to the corner suite again once the Impresario upgrade is applied? While at the same time feeling like I actually got some upgrade benefit from my Diamond status and Impresario benefit?
Of course, the above may be all moot if the hotel sells out of suites anyway. In that case I’ll expect to still get a bay view room, and that’s still not a bad place to be stuck in at all.
Executive Lounge
During my last stay in October, I found the Executive Lounge offerings rather underwhelming. Sadly, that feeling remained even after these two stays. In fairness, of the six nights in total this trip, we only made it to evening cocktails 4/6 nights, and afternoon tea only once. Still, somehow I managed to see the same pot-au-feu, baby anago escabeche and jambon slaw twice during evening cocktails, making a total of 3 times out of 5 evening cocktails across 3 stays in two separate months. That hit rate is far to high for my liking. The cheese offering is very poor as well, only a couple of rather sad cheeses to choose from.
The quality of the offerings were decent. though nothing to shout about. There was a nice Chinese braised beef one evening, a quiche that was thankfully different from what is occasionally served at breakfast, and a passable salmon fricassee.
For more info on the lounge and evening cocktail offerings, do refer back to my earlier review of the Conrad Tokyo from my prior stay in October.
Afternoon tea was rather poor. A couple of sandwiches and cakes, and scones that didn’t really resemble any scones I know. The scones felt like they were flattered, and were a mess trying to cut down open to spread jam and cream. I wished they would serve the same scones as at TwentyEight, which we tried once and found not bad (more on that later).
While the staff were generally good, there was some inconsistencies. On most evenings, we were shown to a table and then left on our own to self service. That’s no problem in itself, but inexplicably one evening the staff showed us to our table and then offered to bring us drinks. That’s is nice service, though yet another example of inconsistency.
The lounge felt more crowded than in October, with a louder crowd. A number of guests were larger groups of friends or colleagues. Reservations for evening cocktails were also required on weekends, with a choice of 1h slots: 5.50pm-6.50pm o 7-8pm.
The Conrad Tokyo’s Executive Lounge isn’t a place I’d make a point of making time in my day for. In our case, on most of the days we did return for evening cocktails, we did that because we had a full day out and usually had shopping to deposit, and also to freshen up before dinner.
Food & Beverage
During these two stays, we had breakfast at the all-day restaurant Cerise daily, and also expended the Impresario credits at TwentyEight, once for afternoon tea and another time for a nightcap.
Cerise breakfast
In my opinion, breakfast is one of the strong points of the Conrad Tokyo. In particular, I’m quite fond of the ala carte menu. Admittedly it was disappointing to find the menu had not changed since my October stay, but with a longer stay and two persons this time, we were able to try most of the items on the menu (and everything that we actually wanted to try).
During our stays, we had the Mont Blanc pancake, truffle eggs benedict, lobster omelet, penne carbonara and the smorrebrod lobster. Some dishes we even had twice. All the items were well-executed and tasted good. The truffle eggs ben and lobster omelet were standouts. The carbonara was more of Japanese-style, and the salmon was a little too fishy, but it was a surprisingly tasty and satisfying dish as well. The portion sizes were just right, leaving us plenty of space to fill up with more food while out and about.
Besides the ala carte, there’s a decent buffet selection too. While the buffet choices didn’t vary too much day to day, with just a couple of the hot Western dishes being rotated, the quality was good. The buffet was a good complement to the ala carte menu. One item I didn’t notice on my prior stay was a taco bar. It seemed an odd choice for a breakfast buffet to be honest.
As with everything else around the hotel, breakfast was a lot busier than a month prior. We typically went for breakfast around 9.30-10am, except the days we went to Disneyland/Disneysea, when we had breakfast around 8am. Most mornings there was a short queue waiting for a table, though on weekends unsurprisingly the queue tended to be longer. Oddly, whenever we were eventually shown to a table inside Cerise, there seemed to be a number of empty tables around. I can only surmise the staff just weren’t able to clear tables fast enough as guests finish.
Service was a little improved compared to my prior experience. The ala carte dishes were a lot faster to come out, usually within 10-15min, unlike the 30min wait I had previously. When we ordered the carbonara the first time, the staff member even warned us it would take 15-20min, which was helpful, though it eventually took a shade under 15min.
Minor inconsistencies did pop up again though. For example, I ordered early grey tea one morning, and the entire pot of tea was served at our table. The next morning, I ordered early grey tea again, but was only given a single cup of tea, though I could and did ask for a refill later on. Again, I find these inconsistencies trivial, but perplexing enough that they tend to stick in the memory.
Overall, breakfast remains one of the strongest points of the Conrad Tokyo, and something I look forward to having again on future stays.
TwentyEight
We had Impresario hotel credits to burn during each stay, and ended using the credits at the hotel’s lobby lounge, TwentyEight, for both stays. As I mentioned at the start, the Impresario rate gives USD100 credit for use at F&B and spa, and this converted to JPY14,790 for our stays.
On the first stay, we opted to have afternoon tea at TwentyEight on the day we checked-in. We figured we would be too tired to do much exploring after the overnight from SIN, so leisurely afternoon tea and some rest in the hotel sounded like a good idea. The Conrad Tokyo was also having an afternoon tea collab with Swarovski, including the option for champagne in Swarovski glasses with the deluxe afternoon, or a Conrad Tokyo bear with Swarovski crystal charm. We opted for one set of the standard menu with Swarovski bear, and one standard set without the bear. The total bill for afternoon tea was JPY18,000, so we paid the difference on top of the credit.
Sadly, the quality of food was rather disappointing. Both the savoury and sweet items felt over-complicated but flat in terms of execution. The scones were perhaps the one food item that tasted good, though the serving of clotted cream was miserly. The one item that sounded conventional and should have been hard to fail – the pink salmon schnitzel slider – was dry and mostly bun. The drinks were hit and miss as well, so just as well it was free flow. While their Conrad Tokyo Original Tea in iced form was fairly refreshing, my girlfriend had a royal milk tea and it tasted very watery and lacking full-bodied milkiness.
Given the disappointing experience with afternoon tea, and having full daily meal plans set, we opted to just have drinks at TwentyEight one night after returning from dinner. I had a couple of glasses of the Spicy Ginger Cooler cocktail, which was a little light on the vodka but otherwise a pleasant, easy drink.
While the cocktail prices seemed fairly reasonable for this sort of establishment – around JPY3,000 to 4,000, the non-alcoholic drink prices seemed pretty obscene. The Conrad Tokyo Original Tea I had with afternoon tea? JPY1,900. A fresh orange juice? JPY2,300. Those oranges better have just come off the tree for that price. My advice would be to stick to the alcohol, with prices that seem more sane. You can find the menu for TwentyEight here.
Facilities
I talked about the facilities in my earlier review, and since obviously nothing has changed in one month, I won’t go into it again other than a brief comment about the pool. The pool area looks nice, and the pool itself is useful for getting in some laps, but I felt the poolside isn’t a great place to chill out. This not a criticism of the hotel, but the heated pool results in a very warm and humid atmosphere in the pool area. We went to the pool for a bit of a swim and to relax before evening cocktails one day, but after the swim it felt a little too warm and uncomfortable to hang around for long. I’d personally recommend to only hang about the pool area if you’re planning to get some laps in.
Conclusion
I like the Conrad Tokyo, but I don’t love it. There’s many things I like about the hotel: the rooms are large and comfortable, the location is fairly convenient, and the service for the most part is quite good. It looks, feels and delivers like a city Conrad.
However, there’s just something about the hotel that falls flat. There were a few too many odd little inconsistencies in my opinion. From the one-in-two chance of getting the Impresario welcome letter, to the missing sleeping robe, The Executive Lounge was also a little underwhelming, or was I just unlucky to see pot-au-feu and baby anago escabeche so often? Was it also that it always felt a little crowded while we were there? Or perhaps I’m just a little jaded after several stays in quick succession?
For the price I paid, I would have no qualms going back. However, I feel it’s impossible to justify the crazy rates it’s asking going forward. I’m heading back there again for Sakura season in 2023, and while I have no regrets booking it, I don’t feel excited to be staying there again. For this and any future stays though, my preferred room of choice would definitely be the standard King Suite Bay View. The corner suite was just underwhelming, and felt like there was too much wasted space. Key features such as the wardrobe and bathroom in the corner suite were also poorer compared to standard suite in my opinion.
Overall, it’s a good hotel, but falls slightly short of great, in my opinion. It’s a solid option in a city full of luxury hotels and one I’m happy, but not overly excited, to return to.
Have you stayed at the Conrad Tokyo? How was your experience there? Let me know in the comments!