tokyo hotel..
 

I have been researching hotels in Tokyo and can't make up my mind on which to stay at, during the last week of Oct. I am considering the New Otani. I am looking for a great location for a solo woman traveller. I am not interested in budget accomodations but cannot quite afford the Park Hyatt either! Any ideas? (also looking at the Dai-Ichi Hotel?)

Hi, sara2007!

Last year I stayed in Tokyo at the Hotel Dai-Ichi Annex. It was just a block-front away from the Hotel Dai-Ichi. The Annex was running about US$150; the Hotel about US$225.

The Annex is a businessperson's hotel; the Hotel was a more higher end tourist hotel.

I particularly enjoyed the convenient location: just a quick, and always safe, walk under the overhead rail track pillars into the Ginza area.

The two hotels are about 10 blocks from the Tokyo Rail Road Station, about 3 minutes by taxi.

I stayed at the Century Southern Tower Hotel by the Shinjuku station. It's a 4*hotel, but I think it's better than many 5* hotels in the US. It also offers a million-$ view that Park Hyatt offers for more than 2x the price. It has plenty of great reviews in tripadvisor.com

Another rec is the Strings Hotel by the Shinagawa station. It's quite new and very close the station.

Many other places, if not all places, are also safe for solo woman travelers.

We spent 2 nights at the Hotel Marunouchi and thought it was great. Relatively new hotel, very contemporary, nice size rooms. I think we paid $200/night. It is within walking distance to the Imperial Palace and gardens and right on top of Tokyo's Central Train Station so easy to get subway or longer distance trains from here. Also lots of inexpensive places for breakfast/lunch or dinner right in the same building. A real bargain.

As a solo woman traveller I recommend staying at Shinjuku or Shibuya as these are vibrant shopping areas at night. I have stayed at Keio Plaza, big hotel but okay, Southern Century, a beautiful hotel around same price as Keio but expensive for 1 person. Shinjuku New City Hotel is just down the road from Park Hyatt, I got a single deluxe "park view" room - rates are very reasonable - it has a free shuttle from Shinjuku Train Station to hotel which is about 15 minutes walk.

If your looking for a relatively inexpensive hotel in Tokyo, I highly recommend the Shinjuku New City Hotel. I stayed there for 5 days back in 2005 and it was a really comfortable stay. The rooms are clean and when I booked it off AsiaRooms.com, I also got a free buffet breakfast every morning....All for about $70 bucks a night. Plus, the hotel has a free shuttle that will take you back and forth to Shinjuku station which is the hub of getting around Tokyo. There is also an AM/PM mini market about 1 block away if you need any water, late night snacks etc.

Be very careful using any booking site for Japan hotels, including the hotel's own site in English. With the exception of a few large chains and international hotels (which offer local special rates that are very reasonable and are not available on the online booking system), the rates in Japanese are much better than in English.

I just checked the Shinjuku New City hotel rates for a stay August 15.
Hotel's site in English - standard room for 1 person ¥8925 no breakfast
Hotel's site in Japanese - standard room for 1 person, many plans available, starting at ¥3900 no breakfast and ¥5900 with breakfast
Asiarooms - standard room for 1 person ¥9399 with breakfast.
All rates include tax already.

Clearly, the hotel's own site in Japanese is the winner, which I've found to be the case almost all the time. I've never found that asiarooms.com has had good prices for Japan hotels...they are always very high, sometimes as much as 4x the rate available directly from the hotel.

Even if you don't speak Japanese, with the translating websites available now, anyone can take the time to go through the booking process in Japanese, which is pretty intuitive anyway, and often doesn't even require that you give your credit card detail. I'd recommend this method over any booking site, and if it's too difficult, an e-mail to the hotel might get you the same rates if you tell them you can't manage the reservation system.

Also you may want to inquire the actual room space by sq m. Some hotels do have inexpensive fare for single rooms, but IMHO being squeezed in sub-20 sqm room for more than an overnight would not be enjoyable.

New Otani is quite good for location, Akasaka Mitsuki served by 3-4 subway lines. I don't know how recently the rooms are renovated, and I belive there are two wings of the building, one better than the other.