Temple Hotel Shoden-ji

The people working here are lovely and do a great job. The rooms are comfortable, though they feel dated, and the whole place comes across as an older take on a five-star hotel. The food, though, wasn't very good. I'd rather have better meals than someone opening the elevator for me or paid massages available in my room.

Service was great, and the location is quiet and convenient, though a little far from major stations and other amenities. Still, the price made the stay feel like poor value. The lobby cafe charged over ¥1,000 for coffee, and the whole hotel felt like somewhere much cheaper than its rates suggested. I left feeling a bit ripped off. The rooms are tiny, barely leaving space to open a suitcase, and the hotel looks dated throughout. The shower-bathtubs, frustratingly slow Wi-Fi that sometimes felt unreliable, and general wear added to that impression. It wasn't outright bad, but I’d look around for a more modern hotel at a fairer price.

The hotel sits between three stations and several train lines, so it made a really useful base for exploring Tokyo and nearby areas. The streets right around it were also fairly quiet at night, a nice change after our time in Shinjuku. Staff were friendly and attentive, and the rooms stayed in great condition during our visit. They were practical and well suited to people traveling to Tokyo from abroad. A lovely stay.

The best part was the Tokyo Bay view from our clean room. Beyond that, the service, room quality, and value fell well short of a five-star hotel, and we won't return. For more than $300 a night, our room was among the smallest we saw, lacked the advertised Tokyo Tower view, and came with very few amenities. Breakfast cost 3,300 yen per person and was mediocre. The hotel is near Tokyo Tower, but far from the convenient Yamanote Line. If you're carrying large bags, be aware that the nearby subway entrances have only stairs; finding an escalator or elevator means walking quite a distance. The way the staff handled my mother also left a terrible impression. She was staying at another hotel and wanted to briefly bring her luggage to our room after our long flight. A Japanese man with glasses at the concierge stopped her, firmly citing a no-visitors rule. We accepted that. She waited in the lobby and chatted with two foreign guests, who offered her their leftover pizza after they'd finished eating. The same concierge then told her she couldn't eat there, even though those guests had just eaten pizza in the lobby without being stopped. That inconsistency made it seem very strongly that guests weren't being treated equally, and felt discriminatory. We chose Celestine to start our Japan trip because it presents itself as five-star, but this was our most disappointing stay. We also didn't get the basic courtesy of anyone offering to bring our luggage to the room, something we'd received even at three-star hotels in Japan.