Sorapia Tokyo

There was no balcony, despite the listing saying there would be. The room had no ventilation, no air-conditioning control, and a lift right outside it. We were left sitting in the heat for over an hour with children after traveling, without instructions for entering the property or information on arrival. Messages through Agoda and the property went unanswered, and neither provided adequate help.

Three hours after booking at 3pm, I still didn't know which apartment was mine or how to get in. I'd also recently been sexually assaulted by a Japanese man and was badly shaken, with broken bones around my eye socket. The police and hospitals here seemed not to care. I used to love this country, but I'm getting pretty sick of this horrible treatment and service. No wonder it feels like the country is going down the gutter.

We'd spent over a month traveling around Japan and stayed in more than ten budget hotels across several cities. This was the only one we gave up on, left, and replaced with somewhere else. It felt like a total waste of money, especially after how they handled the mattress problem. They sold the tatami room for three, but there wasn't enough floor space for three mattresses. One was supposedly not missing, they said, but was actually a blanket, even though it was thinner than the other mattresses and blankets. So if that was meant to be the mattress, we were short a blanket instead. Either way, there wasn't room to lay out three mattresses properly: two would have to go partly under the cabinet, which seemed uncomfortable and a bit gross, or one would stick partly off the tatami at a different level. They had another room with beds available but wouldn't move us there. The room was much smaller than the wide-angle photos suggested, even by Japanese standards. It might work for two, but not three. It was also dusty and cold even with the heater on, and the low sleeping setup in the traditional tatami room didn't help. The price is the only thing going for the place, and even then, we didn't get what we'd paid for.

I enjoyed the Japanese-style room. It was clean and came well equipped. I accidentally locked myself out, but the owner helped quickly and was very pleasant. 5/5.