HOTEL LiVEMAX Nihonbashi Koamicho

The location is far from any metro or bus, and I found the whole place poorly managed. My last morning, at 9:00 AM, housekeeping walked into my room while I was still asleep, an hour before checkout. I hadn’t blocked the door, but that still wasn’t okay. The room was dusty, badly cleaned, musty, and noisy from street traffic. The stained, filthy hallways didn’t help, and I could hear people walking around and making noise all night. Staff were rude and always seemed rushed. I paid extra for breakfast and got a cheap bottle of green tea and a packaged convenience store rice box. To me, that’s a poor lunch, not breakfast. I don’t remember the exact add-on price, but it wasn’t worth even €3. They let guests leave luggage before check-in or after checkout, but there was nobody at the front desk watching it. Bags were left right by the elevators, where anyone could take one or bring it to their room. There’s also a sign saying not to leave valuables in the room, so I was left wondering where I was supposed to put my work laptop and equipment while out in Tokyo. Save your money and stay somewhere else. I’d avoid this chain and this branch completely.

There are great restaurants and coffee shops around this nice hotel near the Japan stock exchange bldg. Some rooms have a funky, slightly humid smell, maybe because it’s near a river. Tokyo station and Ginza are a bit of a long walk. With big luggage, I’d take a taxi from Tokyo station; traveling light, walking to Ginza or Tokyo station is no problem.

The room’s small but clean and decent for sleeping. It’s a simple place in a quiet area near work offices and convenience stores, about a 7-10 min walk from several train stations.

The room was the usual size for a budget hotel in Japan, so two people with luggage felt cramped. The interior and amenities are pretty dated, though we didn’t spend much time there and it wasn’t a major issue. What bothered me more was getting no reply to either of my two Booking messages asking about early check-in. Our flight landed at 7AM, as EU-JP flights do, and we would have paid extra. They did keep our luggage, but after nearly 24 hours of travel, wandering around Tokyo for seven hours wasn’t fun. It feels like they’ll take Booking reservations without providing customer service through it. Trash collection was inconsistent too. On some days they didn’t take it out, which made the small room harder to move around in with a trashbag on the floor. If there are rules about which bags to use, I wish they’d told us. I wasn’t sure where to put wrappers and tags from my purchases.