Hotel Villa Fontaine Tokyo - Shinjuku

I was comfortable here as a solo traveler. The room was small, but perfectly functional, and I enjoyed having a bath and access to the amenities. The staff were incredibly friendly and polite throughout my stay. I also liked that useful things were easy to get, including fresh pajamas each night and sekkisei skincare. They brought two bottles of water and fresh towels every day, and there’s a coin laundry conveniently nearby. The hotel is in an area known for nighttime entertainment, so you may run into some undesirable behavior outside. The touts in the neighborhood can be quite aggressive and sometimes followed me for several blocks. I recommend avoiding the blocks immediately east of the hotel and sticking to the main streets when you can.

The hotel is in a great spot, a few blocks behind Godzilla head. It’s a five-to-fifteen-minute walk to the busy Korea town, Kabukicho Street, the Godzilla head, the 3D cat billboard, Megan Don Quiote, and Shin-Okubo train station. Staff were polite and very helpful. We arrived early and left our luggage with them, secured with a wire cable. Our clean, pleasant room had two single beds on the 10th floor and a nice view of Tokyo Metropolitan Gov Bldg. The bedding and both pillows were comfortable. There was also a small table and two chairs, but they used up valuable floor space. We had nowhere to lay out our two suitcases. The shower room was spacious, with a Japanese-style shower separate from the bathtub. The layout was odd, though: the toilet faces one bed directly, and the other bed is right beside the mini-fridge, which we could hear running at night. The room was small, and there wasn’t enough space for luggage. The lobby had coffee, tea, toothbrush and paste, a razor, hairbrush, soap, pajamas, and other amenities, plus a vending machine and free ice dispenser. We couldn’t give it five stars because of the toilet placement, fridge beside the bed, and lack of luggage space, but we’d stay again and hope for a different room.

We’ve stayed at plenty of other VF hotels and have always been happy, so we expected this one to be an easy choice. We were wrong. The staff and surrounding area were fine, but the room was so cramped we could barely fit two rollaboards, let alone walk around. The bathroom smelled so bad we had to keep its door shut the whole time. Staff couldn’t fix the problem, so we were stuck with it.

The hotel was good value, clean, and tidy. It’s just a short walk from the heart of Shinjuku, but the area was still relatively quiet at night. I was visiting Japan for the first time and stayed for 11 days. The staff were friendly, helpful, and professional throughout. I had a great time and would use the hotel again. Special thanks to the front desk and cleaning staff for making the visit so positive.