Nishitetsu Inn Shinjuku

Front desk staff helpful. Rooms are on the small side but clean. It is only a few minutes walk from the main areas of Shijuku. Metro is on a parallel road in front of the hotel. Will return to Tokyo and stay here this year.

I stayed for 3 nights in the standard room. The room is typical for Japan – small size but very efficient use of space. I stayed by myself and had enough space. The room was clean and quiet. It was the 6th floor, if I remember correctly. It was an easy 10-15 min walk to Shinjuku train station, with or without luggage. I didn’t interact much with the front desk (only on check in, the checkout is self-service), everyone looked and behaved very attentively and friendly (a typical Japan hospitality at its finest). My rate included breakfast, which was served at the café on the main floor. You have a choice of pastry (croissant), a breakfast sandwich and a beverage (coffee). Of course it was not a breakfast buffet but it was good enough for me to start a day. It tasted good and fresh, no complaints. The reason for rating the hotel as average is Wi-Fi. It didn’t work in my room. It wasn’t like it was slow, I could not get any signal at all. I had to go down to the reception floor to use Wi-Fi. It wasn’t my first trip to Japan and I was very surprised to find that something is not working properly. I think this is unacceptable in this day and age. Therefore 3 stars rating.

First the positives: The location is good. Although just a short ten minute walk from the craziness around Shinjuku station and Kabukicho, the area surrounding the hotel was dead quiet at night. At a first glance the bed looked promising, having a foam pillow top mattress on top of the usual box spring mattress. The negatives: Having stayed in more than a dozen hotels in Japan, this has without a doubt the most uncomfortable bed. And that in a country not exactly renowned for comfortable beds. The bed is hard as a rock. It doesn't even feel like there's a box spring mattress, but more like you're sleeping directly on wooden bed slats. The bathroom reeked of sewage. It's as if the plumbing had a faulty trap allowing sewage air to seep out. It probably didn't help that the ventilation in the bathroom was completely clogged up with dust. How on earth housekeeping and hotel maintenance couldn't catch this issue speaks volumes about this hotel. The windows don't have blackout curtains. Instead you slide some wooden shutters in front of the windows. Of course the shutters are too small, allowing for light to leak through. Parting words: I had made a reservation for eight nights, but already on the first night I made reservations at another hotel in Shinjuku Gyoemmae. Unfortunately there were no rooms available immediately, so I had to stay at Nishitetsu Inn for two nights. I don't think I was able to sleep even for a minute. When checking out six nights prematurely no one at the front desk seemed interested in why I chose to leave so early. But then again, my reservation was non-refundable (as they pointed out to me), so they already had my money. Why would they care? But at that point I regarded it as a sunk cost, I just wanted to get out of there and go to a proper hotel. I can't understand the good reviews for this place. It has the quality of a poor hostel with a fancy front desk.