After my domestic hop from Osaka Itami Airport to Tokyo Haneda, I had a one-night stopover in Tokyo before heading home to Singapore. For this one night, I opted to stay at the Conrad Tokyo. While I had already planned two separate stays at the Conrad Tokyo for November, this last-minute trip gave me the opportunity to check out the hotel in advance. Since my November trip would be with my girlfriend and with bigger, bulkier luggage, it also allowed me to figure out the best routes to and from Haneda, and between the train station and the hotel itself. I had also hoped to be able to sort out a few items with the hotel’s concierge for November, though eventually this couldn’t be accomplished.
The Conrad Tokyo is one of the more highly-regarded hotels in Tokyo. In fact, it recently ranked #6 in Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2022 of Top 10 Hotels in Japan. With its reputation, I was looking forward to staying there for the first time. Disappointingly, while the hotel did well in some areas on this visit, some aspects of the service were a little lacking and fell short of my admittedly high expectations. The stay did have one positive outcome for my upcoming stays, which I’ll mention later.
Booking
For this one-night stay, I booked a King Room Bay View for JPY47,025 (~SGD450) plus 15% service charge and 10% tax and JPY200 city (per person per night). A little extravagant for a quick overnight, but it is Tokyo after all. Top hotels are expensive here. When I booked, the King Room Bay View was cheaper than the lead-in King Room City category. It appeared this was due to the King Room City selling at a fully flexible rate, while I was able to book the King Room Bay View at the Honors Prepay and Save rate, which allowed cancellation and changes up to 3 days before anyway.
Standard Room Rewards nights appear to go for 95,000 points per night almost year-round. Hilton occasionally runs sales offering 100% bonus points, which would out to 0.5 cents USD per point. Using that cost, a standard night reward would cost USD475 (~SGD672). In this instance, it definitely made more sense for me to pay cash rather redeem a free night.
Conrad Tokyo Location
The Conrad Tokyo is located in Shiodome, with mostly offices surrounding it. It’s still a pretty convenient location however. It’s just 10mins walk to Shimbashi, which is a nightlife area for Japanese salarymen and has loads of dining. Ginza is maybe a 15 to 20min walk away, as is Tsukiji Outer Market. Being close to Shimbashi means it’s also well-served by several train lines, and it just one stop away from Hamamatsucho for the Tokyo Monorail to Haneda Airport.
Shimbashi is served by Toei Asakusa subway line amongst others, with through service to the Keikyu Airport Line to Haneda Airport. This was my choice of transportation to the Conrad on this occasion. It’s possibly slightly slower than the fastest combination of monorail + JR line, but it’s direct without changes. Unfortunately limousine buses to the Shiodome and Ginza area hotels have yet to resume at time of writing. The walk from Shimbashi indeed took about 10min, but thankfully was sheltered and mostly flat, with grade changes served by escalators or lifts. The Conrad Tokyo occupies the 28th to 37th floors of the Tokyo Shiodome Building, and opened on 1 July 2005.
Check-in
I reached the hotel just before 7pm. The reception desk is located on the 28th floor, together with all the F&B outlets. Upon reaching the 28th floor, I reached the lobby only to be greeted by a short queue. It appeared there were only two reception staff on duty, while there were several concierge staff milling about who were only interested in ensuring the queue didn’t encroach into their space.
Though there only three or four groups ahead of me, the queue was not moving at all. From what I could overhear, it seemed the guests being served were asking very concierge-type questions of reception (how do I get to this place, where is this place sort of things). There’s a bunch of concierge staff doing nothing, couldn’t these guests have been redirected to concierge instead? Then reception could actually do their job of checking guests in.
At this point, after nearly 10min of waiting, I’ll admit I got impatient and pulled what Flyertalkers would call a DWKIA move. I went up to the concierge desk to ask them if there was anywhere else I could check-in, knowing full well as a Diamond with lounge access, I could do it at the Executive Lounge. The conversation went like this:
Me: Is there anywhere else I can check-in? This is taking too long
Concierge: Uh, you have to wait for the next available
Me (a lot more firmly): Can I check-in at the lounge?
Concierge: Are you Diamond member?
Me (very emphatically): Yes
At this, his expression and tone changed, and he quickly offered to escort me to the Executive Lounge. Since I was already at concierge, I decided to try and resolve some dining reservations for my upcoming stays, but they took too long to pull out the email history and booking records so I gave up and just asked to be escorted to the lounge.
I’ll admit I could have handled the situation with more grace and patience. However one of my greatest pet peeves when it comes to customer service, is having to wait while there’s loads of staff just hanging about doing nothing. Sure, it’s not the concierge staff’s job to handle check-in, but don’t just stand at a distance asking people to queue in another direction, and only talking to the head of the queue expecting everyone else to move accordingly. If I had been approached and asked to move, then I would have politely asked to check-in at the lounge, instead of having to walk up to the desk and metaphorically bang the table.
At the lounge
After all the frustration at the lobby, I was quickly escorted to the Executive Lounge. I was handed off to the lounge team, the concierge staff only too happy to quickly retreat back to the 28th I suspect. Since evening cocktails was going on, I was invited to have a drink while they processed my check-in.
Once I had settled in with a drink, the lounge staff came over to run through my booking and the hotel information. She confirmed I had been upgraded to a King Bay View Suite as reflected in the Hilton app earlier that morning. She also informed me I could have breakfast in either the lounge or the main restaurant Cerise on the 28th floor.
A while after the formalities were completed, the same staff came over again to surreptitiously discuss an upsell for my November stays. She informed me she could upgrade those stays from the King Room City to King Bay View Suites for JPY6,000 plus service charge and tax. Now, as I mentioned in my review of the Hilton Osaka where I had just stayed, I usually ignore upselling. However, on this occasion I have to admit my eyes nearly popped out of my head upon seeing the price. JPY6,000 is a ridiculously low top up from the lowest category to a suite. Considering my November stays were booked well in advance and are Impresario 3-for-2 offers, I was already paying a relatively low rate for this hotel. Now factor in that the King Bay View Suite was going for anywhere from JPY80,000 to 120,000 on the same dates, it was a no-brainer. After a quick consultation with the girlfriend in Singapore, we decided to just upgrade for the second stay.
Some may disagree on paying for a suite upgrade that I would potentially get anyway, and indeed arguably am entitled to. But space-available upgrades are always a lottery. An additional JPY6,000 to guarantee a suite that’s selling for, on average, 100,000 per night, in a very popular hotel ? It’s an easy decision in my opinion. Would I have taken a different decision if it was for another solo trip? Possibly. On the balance of factors here though, I have no doubt it was the right decision.
I was told that this pricing was not normally offered in advance. Assuming that’s true, that would explain the hushed tones and stealthy movement. The staff even tore up the paper each time she wrote the price down. Of course, it was advertised to me as a “special price” for Diamond members. Regardless of the spin, I actually had to triple check with the staff on the price before committing to the upgrade, because I couldn’t believe how low the top up was. I would assume the top-up rates vary demanding on various factors, such as the current level of bookings for the stay dates and the projected levels. I would be very surprised to see that rate consistently offered. So if anyone is planning a stay there and hoping for a cheap upgrade, I wouldn’t necessarily expect that rate, but I’d say to grab it if offered.
The Room (King Suite Bay View)
At this point, I should admit I accepted the hotel’s upsell blind, without even seeing my room first (since this was the same category I was paying to upgrade to). Thankfully, the room didn’t disappoint.
The King Suite Bay View measures 72sqm/775sqft. As the name suggests, it is on the side of the hotel facing Tokyo Bay and overlooking the Hamarikyu Gardens between the hotel and the bay. While it’s the smallest category of suite in the hotel – together with its city facing equivalent, it’s a proper suite with a separate living room huge walk-in wardrobe.
A powder room is the first feature upon entering the room. Of course, this toilet is equipped with a bidet.
Next to the powder room, is one of the access to the walk-in wardrobe. The other end of the walk-in wardrobe opens up to the bathroom.
A cupboard beside the luggage rack contained the safe. Because of the narrow space, the safe was tall and narrow, rather than the wide and short nature of most hotel safes.
The other cupboard at the opposite of the luggage rack held a few shelves, with slippers and laundry bag placed here.
Moving back out into the living room, a single armchair and an open-end sofa surrounded the low coffee table. A round desk was located by the window.
The big cupboards beneath the TV held the minibar, Nespresso machine, and a nice Japanese tea set.
The desk had a piece of welcome chocolate, an adapter and a box of tissues. Oddly enough, I couldn’t find tissues anywhere else in the room. I’m not if I just didn’t look hard enough, or someone forgot to put one in the bathroom. Surely there ought to be tissues in the bathroom right? The adapter was useful since the room didn’t have universal power outlets.
The welcome chocolate was quite cute. It was an image of the hotel with Hamarikyu Gardens in the foreground, with the chocolate cut up like a puzzle. It tasted and looked like a mix of white chocolate with strawberry, and was too sweet for my liking.
Into the bedroom, on the bed were my favourite things about staying in a Conrad. A stuffed bear and rubber duck were placed here. Many Conrads have their own stuffed animal ‘mascot’, and I love collecting these from every Conrad I stay at. The size of the bear was smaller than I had thought it would be though. It was more a keychain, and indeed appeared designed as such with a little chain attached. A yukata was also placed on the bed, which I carefully set aside since I wasn’t planning to use it. The bed itself was great, and the pillows were more to my liking than those at the Hilton Osaka. Nothing beats the buckwheat pillow at the Conrad Koh Samui though.
A chaise longue was set by the window. To be frank, this particular one reminded me of a therapist chair more than anything else. The hotel thoughtfully placed a small side table, for guests who want to lounge by the window with a drink/ snack/ book.
The bedside table had a Bose Soundlink Revolve (or Revolve II?). Since my room had been turned down by the time I checked-in, a bottle of water and a glass had been placed here. I always appreciate a turndown service that does this. A control panel for the lights and electronically-controlled window blinds and curtains was above the bedside table. Funnily enough, when I hit the master switch to turn off all the lights, it seemed to turn off the Bose as well.
The bathroom décor was quite a contrast to the rest of the suite. While the room used a lot of wood and greyish/off-white tones, the bathroom was mostly glossy black and white. One of the great features of the bathroom was the heated floor. Perfect for a cold winter day.
The design of the sinks were a bit annoying. The height of the tap, combined with the relatively shallow and concave sink, resulted in a fair bit of water ending up outside the sink. A nice assortment of bathroom amenities were provided, including a bottle of signature scent I believe.
The hairdryer, bathrobe and a weighing scale were set in a corner. I don’t think I dare step on a weighing scale after a holiday in Japan.
The toilet, like to the powder room, is of course equipped with a bidet. It would be good if the hotel had fixed a small shelf in here, for books or whatever it is people bring into the toilet with them.
While the toilet door was frosted, the bathing area was not. The only way for privacy in the shower would be to close the bathroom doors. The bathtub and shower were enclosed in the same area, though there is a distinct space for showering without having to get into the tub. Bath salts are provided for use in the bathtub.
The toiletries are the now-standard-for-Conrad Byredo Mojave Ghost range. These are provided in large pump bottles. I’m a fan of the old Shanghai Tang Mandarin Tea toiletries, but I have to admit the Byredo is starting to grow on me.
Overall Thoughts
The King Suite Bay View may be the lowest category of suite in the hotel (not counting the city-facing equivalent). but it doesn’t skimp on luxuries. It’s a proper suite, and a great place for lounging around and recovering after a busy day in Tokyo. The bay view is nice, though nothing spectacular. Most of the view is still high-rise buildings, rather than an open bay. I did read that Hamarikyu Gardens gets quite colourful during autumn, so I’m looking forward to seeing that during my upcoming stay.
If I have one criticism, the room décor is beginning to look a little old-school. The veneer furniture, in my opinion, looks neither modern nor Japanese. Everything was still very well-maintained, I didn’t notice and particular scratches or knocks on the furniture. I don’t think particular like the bathroom sinks either, but then I’m not a fan of free-standing sinks. I much prefer sunken sinks, these tend to result in less splash around the sink.
After this one night in the room, I definitely didn’t regret agreeing to the top-up for my stay in November. In fact, I now feel a tinge of regret not taking it up for both stays. Fingers crossed the hotel gives a Diamond suite upgrade for the first stay.
Executive Lounge
I checked in at the Executive Lounge, which ended up being the only time I spent in the lounge, as I opted for breakfast in the restaurant the next day.
The Conrad Tokyo’s Executive Lounge is located on the 37th floor. It’s split into two areas, separated by the main corridor. It’s not the biggest EL I’ve been to, seating only 77 guests. There’s only one buffet area though, so all guests had to come to the main room for food and drink. The main room also has an electric fireplace to add some flair and mood. Am the only one who finds the seating around it a little awkward though?
When I arrived at 7pm, it was pretty crowded, though there were still some spare tables. On the hotel’s Japanese website, they do advise that guests may be limited to one hour for afternoon tea and cocktails if the lounge is crowded.
At the time of my stay, the lounge’s opening hours were 7am-9pm. The following meal presentations were servved:
- Breakfast: 7am-1030am
- Afternoon Tea: 3pm-5pm
- Evening Cocktails: 6pm-8pm
For evening cocktails, the hotel claims the food is a “selected” by the chefs of the hotel’s restaurants. I’m going to be brutally honest and say if the lounge offerings that day were anything like what the hotel’s restaurants offer, I see no reason to ever bother eating there. Perhaps that day’s selection of food were just not to my taste, but I found most of it uninteresting and unappealing. Amongst the items on offer was a pot-au-feu that looked nothing like one. The rest of the food were Chinese tofu dish, an Escabache, slaw and a few small canapes.
The alcohol selection was little small, with just two types of each wine available, and one of various Japanese liquors. The usual Western spirits were available as well. A couple of beers were available as well, though these were almost wiped out by the time I was at the lounge.
Soft drinks selection wasn’t too great either. Just Coke, Coke Zero and ginger ale. Coffee and tea were self-serve, with the same Segafredo coffee machine as the Hilton Osaka. The tea was Ronnefeldt.
Other than check-in, I didn’t really have any interaction with the staff in the lounge. Empty plates and glasses were generally cleared quite quickly so that’s good. Unlike the Hilton Osaka, there was no enforcement of gloves at the buffet, though they were available for guests if desired.
Overall, my experience of the lounge from just this evening cocktails was a little underwhelming. Perhaps I was just unlucky that day, but the food didn’t look great. I’ve got another six nights coming up, so I’ll get an opportunity to see if this experience was a one-off.
Food & Beverage
The Conrad Tokyo has a number of food and beverage venues, offering a wide range of cuisines.
- Cerise: All-day dining offering semi-buffet breakfast, a la carte or buffet lunch, a la carte or set dinner. A dessert buffet is also available on weekends. Menu here.
- Collage: Modern French, dinner only. Details here.
- Kzahana: Japanese restaurant, offering kaiseki, teppanyaki and sushi. Open for lunch and dinner. Details here.
- China Blue: Chinese restaurant with set menus and a la carte. Open for lunch and dinner. Details here.
- Twenty Eight: The Conrad Tokyo’s lobby bar and lounge. Afternoon tea is also served here.
During this stay, I only dined at Cerise for breakfast. Breakfast is served from 6.30am on weekdays, and 7am on weekends, until 1030am. I went down early at 6.40am and found five or six tables were already occupied, and most tables were taken by 7am.
For breakfast, Cerise has a small a la carte from which guests could order one item, as well as a buffet. This full breakfast was complimentary for me as Diamond, as well as one registered guest in the same room. The a la carte menu was quite good, featuring a couple of seasonal specials and seven regular items.
I’ve heard the lobster omelet is a favourite here, but on this occasion I opted for the Mont Blanc pancake. Technically a Mont Blanc refers to the chestnut puree, but the Conrad’s version uses sweet potato instead. So calling it a Mont Blanc is perhaps a little misleading.
Technicalities aside, this was quite delicious. The sweet potato puree was sweet, smooth with a touch of potato graininess. The pancake was fairly airy and fluffy. Visually it was gorgeous as well, and I heard the couple at the next table ask the staff what this was when it was brought to my table. My only complaint was the amount of time it took to be served. Despite ordering it almost immediately upon sitting down at 6.40am, it didn’t appear until 7.10am. That’s a 30min wait, which is far too long, especially for a weekday breakfast. I felt it shouldn’t have taken that long given it was still fairly early into the start of breakfast service. I don’t think the corporate guest crowd would have 30min to wait for breakfast.
Furthermore, after waiting 20-25min, I asked a staff member to check on the status of my dish. I saw him say something to another – I’m guessing more junior – staff member, who then scurried off to the kitchen. However no one came back to tell me how long more it would take. In customer service, it’s important to ‘close the loop’ with customers, and they failed to do that here.
The buffet was pretty standard breakfast fare. There were a few more unusual items, such as so-called Mushroom Tikka, and a quiche. There was also a nice bonito tataki in the Japanese section. I only took a few items from the buffet, as I was planning to make an early morning sushi run before my flight back to Singapore. Generally all tasted fine, nothing really stood out.
I also ordered a latte to drink. Thankfully, finally a hotel venue that serves hot drinks to the table instead of self-serve. It would have been pretty shocking for a Conrad to not do it at breakfast though.
I felt breakfast at Cerise was quite good. The a la carte menu looked good, and I’m itching to head back there for try the lobster omelet. It’s good they do change it up occasionally so regular guests won’t get bored. While the buffet variety was not the biggest, I felt the quality was decent, and anyway the a la carte menu should have enough to keep guests satisfied during a stay. I’m interested to see if the buffet items vary from day to day though. I’ll be sure to report back after my stays in November.
Facilities
Mizuki Spa & Fitness
Besides the Executive Lounge, the other main facility in the Conrad Tokyo is Mizuki Spa & Fitness. As the name suggests, it contains a full service spa as well as fitness facilities i.e. a pool and gym. The gym is 24h, while pool is open from 6am to 10pm. Spa treatments are also available from 9am to 10pm.
The spa staff insisted on escorting me on my tour of the fitness areas. Once past the reception area, no shoes are allowed and all guests have to change into provided slippers. Not sure if the staff genuinely wanted to show me the facilities, or just didn’t want me venturing somewhere I shouldn’t, in the wrong attire.
I stopped by for a quick visit just past 8pm, and both the gym and pool had a few guests getting their exercise in. With the amount of eating I tend to do in Japan, I guess I ought to visit these facilities more often too…Interestingly, the hotel has set up screens between individual machines.
Various spa treatments are available. Naturally for this city and this standard of hotel, they don’t come cheap. The spa’s brochure can be found here, and the price list here.
Business Centre
A small business centre was tucked behind the reception desk. Just a couple of desktops, and photocopier. As tends to be the case as most big hotels in Japan, there was a currency exchange machine as well.
Concierge
I thought I would add a word about the hotel’s concierge here. While I did bash them earlier in my review, I think it would only be fair to talk about how they’ve been handling my restaurant reservation requests for November. Firstly, I have to say they are very responsive. I’ve always gotten a response from them within 24h. For one particular restaurant, they mentioned it only takes reservations 30 days in advance, so they said they will call the restaurant again at that mark. They did, though somehow they still failed to secure a spot. Still, at least they promised to KIV it and they did act on it at the appropriate time. To be honest they failed to secure either of my first two requests (separate places and separate date/time), so I’m still a little unconvinced how good they are, but at least they managed to secure my secondary choices and were quick to make the requests and respond to me.
I’ve got my concierge-type matters to discuss with them for my trip in Sakura season, so I’ll see how well they manage then.
Conclusion
This stay was a little hit and miss for me. The hotel is somewhat convenient, if you don’t mind a longish walk to public transport, but it’s also a little further from most of the tourist areas. The hard product is nice, but there’s aspects of service that could be improved. Reception could be more efficient, particularly for a hotel of this stature, and breakfast needs to be sped up. The Executive Lounge offerings were a little disappointing too, but I’ll reserve further judgement on that till after my upcoming stays.
Overall, I would say the Conrad Tokyo delivered the minimum I expect of a Conrad. Nice, luxurious rooms and (mostly) good service. It wasn’t outstanding, and I’m not quite convinced yet it deserves its lofty standing amongst its competitors in a city crowded with luxury hotels.