Akihabara Bay Hotel (Female Only)

Akiba’s a great base, close to pretty much everything. The shared room for eating and relaxing is downstairs in the basement, and it was so quiet. Toilets are on every floor, while the showers are on the first floor. There are mirror stations, but they were always full, so I did my makeup on my own floor. My cubicle was fine, and everyone was quiet, so noise wasn’t an issue. I got back late every day and had no trouble sleeping. It did get stuffy and hot in the enclosed capsule, so I used a handheld fan at night. The locker fits a small backpack nicely, and there’s a hanger. The shower room had everything I needed, with fresh towels and pajamas each day.

It was pretty clean, cheap, and in a great location. The capsule was hot, though, and maybe my fan was broken. The place felt packed, perhaps because it was summer, with hardly any space to move around. The lockers were small and I could barely fit my carry-on. If crowds and traveling light aren’t a problem, it could work for a night or two.

For 5,000 yen a night through trip.com, this was a really good deal for a woman traveling alone. I stayed three nights and would come back. There’s a mirror inside the capsule, which I liked, especially since the other capsule I’m in now has no mirror in either the shower capsule or bed capsule. Staff were okay; using my phone and a translation app made communication easy, and some staff were kind. I liked how quiet the capsule area was meant to be, with no luggage there to make noise. My tip for a multi-night stay: around 5 PM, take out what you need for the night and morning, put it in your locker, and leave your luggage at the front office. Then you only have to open your bag once a day. People looking for cheap places in Japan should expect things to be cramped, especially near a station. Even regular homes aren’t large, so expecting a cheap hotel to be spacious doesn’t make sense to me. Capsule hotels also expect guests to leave during cleaning time. You can’t expect the place to be clean and then complain when they clean it. I understand some tourists might try to negotiate because of medical conditions, but I think Japanese culture tends to prioritize the group over individual needs. You adjust if it doesn’t suit you, I guess. If you need to rest all day, I suggest skipping capsule hotels, or you could go to a sentō. The photo is from after I used the room. It’s the only one I took to show my family.

I’ve stayed in a number of capsule hotels in Japan, and this one was by far the worst. A capsule hotel can still be decent, so this isn’t just what you get for booking somewhere cheap. Here, the place feels run down, the staff were unhelpful and made me feel like a bother, and the atmosphere was bad. I had a request related to a disability or medical condition, and they made no attempt to accommodate it. The capsule room gets extremely hot and humid overnight, with poor air, especially when full. The AC seems old or broken and makes a pulsing motor noise. Other guests were loud, talking in the capsule room, rustling through luggage and slamming doors. People seem not to care about the rules in that kind of environment. The bathroom is only okay if you’re first in. After that it’s hot, humid, and a bit smelly, with ventilation that badly needs improvement. At least one sink drains so slowly that toothpaste foam just sits there. The second-floor locker room I used smelled a bit, like there were lots of women who didn’t wash often. Floors, carpets, and walls are worn and dirty, with stains, and the carpet seems much thinner than it used to be. Major maintenance or even rebuilding feels overdue, and nothing works quite right. 1/10, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you can sleep anywhere and don’t mind a tropical jungle bathroom.