Park Hyatt Tokyo review

TL;DR – This may be the best hotel I’ve stayed in

Introduction

We visited the Park Hyatt Tokyo in early December 2015.  We used 30K points per night.  I was Diamond at the time, and I’m actually not sure if we got an upgraded room or not.  We were on floor 47 out of 52(?)  I think this hotel may be one of the best hotels I’ve stayed at – at least on the service side.  The reason for that is because Japan is one of the most friendly, service-centric countries in the world.  They apologize to YOU for upgrading you to first class.  Thus, you’re staying in one of the best points hotel in the best services-oriented country in the world, and you just can’t beat that combo

 

Getting to the hotel

I know some people take the train into the city and then transfer or take the free shuttle to the hotel.  Because we had bags – I didn’t want to do anything with that.  I wanted convenience, and so we took the ‘limousine’ bus to the hotel.  It cost about 3,000 JPY per person one-way.  The bus takes about 90 minutes.  We didn’t reserve it beforehand; we bought it when we exited the airport.  You can’t miss the booths.

When we bought the tickets, there was a bus that was departing in 45 minutes that literally drops you off at the door of the PHT.  The girl then suggested we take an earlier bus (only 15 minutes out) that drops us off in front of the Shinjuku Washington hotel, and then we’d literally walk 5 minutes to the PHT.  So if your PHT bus is too far out, ask for a closer departure bus that gets you close to the PHT and then just walk it.

If you do want to train into Shinjuki and take the free shuttle, here is the map and the exact spot you should stand.  Look in the upper right for the shuttle bus stop.  Now let me say that you CAN walk from the station to the hotel, but that’ll be a 15-20 minute walk in case you don’t want to take the shuttle.  And you do have the free Tmobile data roaming right?

Stand here:

 

Check-In

 

When we arrived to the hotel, the bellman grabbed our bags and asked for our name.  He then looked on a sheet of paper and escorted us up to the lobby area, which is an area of 3-4 desks.  There isn’t a lobby area like most hotels; you sit down at a desk and someone guides you through the checkin process.  Anyway, once the bellman handed us off to someone in the lobby area, they then escorted us directly to our room, where we did the full checkin process (you know, credit card for incidentals, etc).

Quick note – the hotel lobby is on something like the 41st floor and the rooms go up from there.  Thus, you have to take the elevator from the ground floor to floor 41 and then from floor 41 to whatever floor your room is in.

Park Hyatt keys.  I liked the old school key vs the key card.

 

The room

Champagne

Because it was our anniversary, they dropped us off a bottle of champagne, chocolates, and flowers.  One funny thing – we had drank 95% of the bottle and by day 3, they still hadn’t picked it up yet.  I guess they thought we cared about the last 5% and left it as is.  It was only when we drank all of it did they finally remove the bottle and ice bucket (not shown).

I forgot what I chose as the Diamond amenity because I know we got a separate box of chocolates, so maybe I chose the sweets vs the 1,000 points.

Something else not shown – because it was our anniversary, they gave us a photo ‘session’ in the lobby of the hotel, printed out the picture, and then put it into a picture frame.  I thought it was very nice and it’ll be a great gift for my mom.  Or maybe I’ll remove that pic and put the photo with Jiro in it instead.  See, it’s these small little details that shows how a hotel can go above-and-beyond.  We got similar treatment in Bora Bora and the Maldives and even the IHG Singapore.  Not so much at the Park Hyatt Sydney.  This is actually how I gauge hotels these days – which hotels will spend the extra effort to make your stay feel one-of-a-kind vs being just another hotel guest.

 

Concierge

I’ve already written about how the concierge was awesome enough to secure us reservations at Jiro’s.  They also did minor things here and there that make you feel good:

• One day, we were walking into the hotel with an empty bottle of water.  The bellhop asked if he could throw it away.  Sure!
• One day, it was raining.  They saw that we were going to walk, and grabbed 2 nice umbrellas for us.
• When you are walking into the hotel, one of the 4-5 bellmen will go and open the automatic door that would have opened anyway, but you know, that extra millisecond saved…
• One day, I asked them to call 3 places for possible reservations. By the time I got down to the front door, one of the bellmen asked if I was Vinh and handed me the phone, which was the concierge telling me he the restaurant was full.  Most restaurants would have left a note or a message in my room.  I was shocked at how fast they were.

Not just the concierge, but the waiters, the hostesses, etc are all the most friendly people.  No, they aren’t going to chit-chat with you about your day.  They will smile and greet you each time you walk by.

One note though – the concierge will recommend a ramen place between the PHT and Shinjuku.  DO NOT GO THERE!  It’s printed on a map, so I’m sure all of them will recommend the same one.  Don’t go there!

 

Breakfast

Sorry, I don’t have a picture of breakfast.  As Diamond, you can order off the ala carte menu as well as get the breakfast buffet.  No omelette station, but you can order an omelette.  I thought the spread was way better then the PH Sydney if that helps.

 

Conclusion

While I haven’t Vendome’d yet, I’m pretty sure it won’t top this stay, at least for the service part of the stay.  There are other places that have better views, but no other hotel that I’ve been to has better service.