Smile Hotel Tokyo Nishikasai

The hotel is on the second floor, so it can be hard to spot. Look for the big yellow smile logo sign 😅. The staff are friendly, and there are lots of amenities, including smoking rooms. The rooms are old but quite large compared with other low-budget hotels, and even the bathtub is bigger than most. During my stay from 17-20 November 2024, the AC either wasn’t working or wasn’t turned on, so I had to open the window. Even though the weather was starting to get cold, I couldn’t sleep without AC 😅. The shower hot water is still manual too, so you have to turn the hot and cold taps to get the temperature you like. Aside from that, everything was good for me, and I’d absolutely come back 😊

The location is good, and the front desk service was good too. The room was nice and big, but dirty and outdated, with big stains on the floor and curtain. Gross. The wallpaper was peeling. It also uses a key, which is a hassle compared with a keycard, and you have to remember to lock the door every time.

The walk from Nishi-Kasai station on the Tozai Line is exceptionally short, and the hotel is easy to reach from Nishi-Funabashi with a direct transfer from the Keisei Line. That makes hauling luggage simpler than at other similarly priced places. There’s a 7-Eleven on the way, plus a Lawson across the corner. The entrance is convenient too: elevators on the ground floor go straight to the guest floors, while the lobby is on the second. For the price, I wasn’t unhappy with my booking. Service was excellent. The staff’s English wasn’t great, but they were polite and ready to help; towels were replaced often and the linens seemed well managed, with no bed bug concerns. The downside is that the whole hotel feels old and poorly maintained, from the rooms to the appliances, and there were stains all along the hall floors. The in-room coin laundry didn’t clean my clothes very well. It’s a smoking hotel, and even with smoking and non-smoking rooms, the smoke smell is throughout the building. If that bothers you, you may want to stay elsewhere. Still, the nightly price and helpful service made the drawbacks easier to accept. For a solo stay in Tokyo when you mainly need a roof and a bed, it’s not a bad deal.

The rooms were clean, and the staff were genuinely friendly and helpful. It’s only a couple of minutes on foot to the train station, too. I’d stay here for sure next time I’m back in Japan. Don’t skip it, it’s worth it.