My husband and I chose this hotel because it is close to subway stations, walking distance to many places, and hotel's beautiful garden. We checked in 4 days ago and will stay for another 3 nights. Our room is spacious (by Tokyo standard), clean, and quiet. Our bed is comfortable. We can see Tokyo Tower and hotel's garden from our room. I would rate this hotel "excellent" or 5 points instead of "very good" or 4 points if we were treated better at the hotel's Sky Bar (our table number is 97 at 13:00 on April 28, 2024). The lady served our table pointed to the salad bar to us when my husband asked her where we could get food. So all we had was salad for our lunch buffet at a cost of 12,000.00 Yen! We did not realize there were made-to-oder sushi and other food on the other side of the wall. The server at the Sky Bar should be better trained. Other than that, this is a great place to stay.

In my opinion in order for a hotel to call its self 5 star, EVERYTHING should be basically flawless. Of course there will be hiccups here and there but this hotel fell short by quite a bit. Our travel agent always books the hotels for our pre and post cruise trips and they are 98% spectacular. The New Hotel Otani fell very short of the 5 star hotel I expected. The last couple of years it seems to be a trend I'm seeing with hotels, stating they are 5 star, when in fact they are not. I guess it's based on reviews but I'm shocked this hotel rates that high. I have stayed in some gems however and have rated them as such in my previous reviews. We stayed in The Main Tower of the hotel. First I will start off by writing about what I did love about the hotel. The floral arrangements in the lobby and in the Garden Cafe were amazing! The one in the lobby had huge branches of cherry blossoms, with compliments of yellow and white flowers that I did not recognize. It was literally 7-8 feet tall. Gorgeous! The same can be said of the outdoor Japanese Garden. I went in the day time and at night. The night tour of the garden was all lit up with colored lights. Two different experiences and just lovely! Our dining experience at the Trader Vic's restaurant was wonderful. We started the evening in the bar having mai tai and they were delicious. The bartender was really good. It was busy but he stayed on top of everyone's drinks. He was fun and entertaining and he didn't skimp on the rum. We were seated for dinner ahead of our reservation upon our request and the evening only got better from there. Service was perfect, food was some of the best we had the entire time we were in Japan. The hotel and our room were very clean. There was always a ton of people around the lobby and common areas but I never saw any trash or dirt even though it rained and people were coming and going from the garden area. The sundry items in the bathroom in our room were plentiful and even contained a hairbrush and bath salts which I loved. Sadly, I think this is the extent of the 5 star things I can say about this hotel. The rest was just mediocre. We arrived as a group of about 20 straight from our cruise ship. We all had about 2-3 pieces of luggage. They had our room keys ready but there was all kinds of confusion about how our bags would get to our rooms. Being that this is a huge "5 Star" hotel, servicing people from all over the world, I was shocked that the staff was re-creating the wheel or completely clueless on how to service our group. We stood there for 10-15 minutes at the reservation desk with our luggage scattered about while several staff members huddled together speaking in Japanese like they were trying to solve world peace. Our guide finally told us we would have to take our own luggage to our rooms. There were 3 in our group that were older and walked with canes, this was going to be a challenge. I went to grab one of the luggage carts and one of the female staff persons came running over and grab it from me, tugging and telling me no. I told her that we were staying at the hotel and needed to get our luggage to our room. She spoke very little English and pulled the cart further away telling me "no." Bottom line, there should have been an English speaking person there to explain to us what the process was going to be. Eventually they did bring our bags to our rooms but we had to leave them sitting in the lobby for quite a while. The room was clean but dated and the mattress was hard. Try as we might we could never get our TV to play in anything but Japanese even though we hit the "English" button several times. The menu would come up in English but the news would broadcast only in Japanese. Baffling to me since the hotel supposedly caters to many Americans and people from English speaking countries. The TV provided a QR code that supposedly let you view the menu for all the hotel restaurants but that too was so confusing we gave up. By 4:30 p.m. we decided to go downstairs and have a cocktail. Not a single hotel bar was open at this time. When we asked at the front desk all they said was, "too early." This is not a Japanese thing because we had stayed at the Sheraton in Tokyo on the pre-trip and had zero trouble having an afternoon cocktail. All I can think is that New Otani wanted us to wander around going into all their over priced gift shops. We began to see that this hotel was less and less accommodating to the guests and none of the staff really seemed to care or think it was a problem. Most of the staff spoke limited English. This isn't something I would expect at most Japanese hotels but I certainly expected it at one with the 5 star rating. The entire hotel is huge and confusing to navigate and difficult to find the restaurants, etc. The staff was of little help here as well. There were a few maps on the walls but they were rather useless. The breakfast buffets were mediocre as well. This hotel could take a lesson or two from some of the hotels in Barcelona. Getting coffee was nearly impossible. There was no coffee station and you had to rely on a staff person to serve it, if you could find one. I ordered sparkling wine for lunch at the Garden Cafe and the waitress poured it so quickly the foam nearly overflowed the glass. When the bubbles settled I basically had half a glass of wine which I paid a ridiculous price for. They next time she came around I had to instruct her on how to pour my champagne without causing foam. I know I have gone on and on in this review but in my mind it's all these little details that add up to this not being a 5 start hotel. We paid 5 star prices and got 2-3 star service. I would not be complaining about all these things if we were staying at a 3 star hotel. My expectation is based on the rating. Believe me, I've stayed in 2-3 star hotels. I'm not an elitist. We work really hard for our travel dollars and expect to get exactly what we pay for. I feel really let down by the New Hotel Otani. If I'm ever back in Tokyo again I will not stay here. Instead, I will opt for the really nice Sheraton Miyako Tokyo Hotel. It is in fact, worthy of the 5 stars.

The team at the Executive House Zen lounge exceeds expectations, especially Motoshi San who is the Assistant Manager. During our stay here, Mr Tan and me are treated absolutely amazing. We have been wanting to try to stay this property and now it’s proven that we made the right choice and we were given the best experience, all in all the team members at the Lounge go above and beyond with their warm greetings and promptness. Their attention to details is definitely way beyond expectation. Moto San is very good at recommending drinks and introduced us the food carefully in order to ensure we have the best gastronomy experience in the lounge and we truly enjoyed Pierre Herme pasties selections for tea time. Will come back soon again !

We enjoyed a very comfortable visit at the New Otami Hotel. Our room was very large, clean and comfortable. I loved the cotton pajamas provided and would have liked to brought a set home! The restaurants were overpriced, but that’s to be expected. We enjoyed the beautiful garden every day of our stay.

The hotel is lovely and staff very! accommodating. We traveled in March. It was cold, and several days were rainy. Our unit was in The Main, it was comfortable and roomy. Daily service was done. Concierge is fantastic! Buffet is basic but does the job. Main has gorgeous views of the gardens. The 40th level of The Garden Tower has spectacular views of the City & Mt. Fuji. Between the 2 towers there are many dining options to choose from. Complex is near several Metro stations for directional options. Would definitely stay again.