BELLUSTAR TOKYO, a Pan Pacific Hotel

Found this to be a poor substitute for the premium hotels that often have good ‘3 for 2’ offers on these days in Tokyo, such as Four Seasons or MO. Also no replacement for the currently closed Park Hyatt in Shinjuku. It’s notable that the only cntraveller view on the hotel seems to be a paid advertorial. We checked out after one night of 3 as it just felt meh. The pictures of the hotel look nice but everything is a little fake in our room (the double deluxe suite) - lots of hollow chipboard masquerading as solid wood for example. The check-in was dismal through no fault of the staff as the cab drop off is in a communal basement car park with an escorted elevator ride to a really depressing 1F reception where we were forced to take a pit stop before finally getting to a front desk on the 18F. The lobby style is sparse without being stylishly minimal and felt like the ticket hall of an underused museum. Service is proficient and trying hard although given most staff seem not to be Japanese it lacks a true sense of place. The view was great up on the 41F, the TV was huge and the staff friendly so not a terrible experience by any means. If you can get a deal for an upgrade from a mid-ranked hotel then probably worth a shot but given it was similarly priced to the Mandarin, Palace, Four Seasons and Okura when we were staying you would do much better in any of these for the same price.

Omg, so expensive, but so worth it!! Our high floor view was amazing!! So much so that we didn’t get tix to Shibuya Sky & didn’t care! The room is pretty sweet!! The amenities, top notch! Room svc was great, their breakfasts - great. Location - great & the train is across the street & about a block down. Their svc - the best we’ve ever had @ ANY hotel!! Right in the heart of Shinjuku! Top notch hotel!

We chose this hotel for our stay in Tokyo specifically because of its fantastic location right in the heart of Shinjuku but also because the rooms are very high up so you do not hear any street noise which is excellent because the streets are always very busy in this neighborhood. We really appreciated the level of luxury as well, and overall I think that the quality of the hotel combined with the location makes it a worthwhile place to consider staying when in Tokyo. The views are AMAZING ... seriously unparalleled with almost any other hotel in Tokyo (see picture). The two things that come to mind for things to really be aware of if you are considering staying here are as follows: 1) Service: the service here is excellent, but dare I say it's almost too good, or almost too attentive. I think if you are the kind of person that likes to just come and go as you please and not really be noticed or not have to interact with anyone, this is NOT the hotel for you. The sheer number of people that you will see, that will greet you, and that you will interact with anytime you come or go is slightly overwhelming. This can be looked at one of two ways. If you love service and attention this is the hotel for you, but if you would rather just not interact with anyone and go about your day, it's a little too much. Especially because the hotel is not on the ground floor, you have to enter the lobby then walk to a first elevator, then when you get off that elevator you have to walk through the actual hotel lobby on the 18th floor, around the corner and then to another bank of elevators that will take you further up to your room on the much higher floors of the building. What will inevitably happen is someone will greet you at the ground floor doors as you walk in...there is always someone standing there. Then it's possible they will escort you to the elevators or there may be another person that you will see along your way or at the first elevator. Sometimes that person would ride the elevator with us. I'm not sure if this is a hospitality thing or a security thing, or maybe a little bit of both, but it was almost like we had a shadow at all times. Upon getting off the first elevator you will walk through a lobby where no less than four people will greet you. You then take elevators up to your floor where your room is, where about half the time another staff person was on our floor and greeted us again at that point. Staff are very nice and are very willing to help you with anything you need, which is great, but for me it was just a little more attention than I was used to, and some days where I wasn't really feeling like interacting with people, it was just a little much to have to interact with so many people when we came or went. But again this might be something you are looking for, in which case the service is fantastic. But if you want to keep to yourself and don't want to be seen then this is not the place for you. Literally 6 or 7 people will see you coming and going, and greet you, every time. 2) The bathroom: The overall quality of everything in the bathroom is excellent, including a beautiful tub, dual vanities, a lovely rainfall shower, and a wonderful high-tech Japanese toilet with bidet and multifunction remote on the wall as one might expect in Japan. The significant issue we had was with the design and layout. While there is one giant sliding opaque door that you can close right at the threshold of the entire bathroom to give you full privacy, once you are inside the bathroom itself there is no privacy between the shower, the toilet, the tub and the sinks. It's all one big open space and even though there is glass around the shower and around the toilet, the glass is very translucent, so you not only can see a reflection a little bit but you can also see right through it to the other side. So if you are sitting on the toilet you're not only seeing a reflection on yourself (which is weird) you are looking right into the shower. And if you're taking a shower you see a full body reflection of yourself but also stare right into the toilet. If you are a couple like we are and one person wants to shower while the other one perhaps uses the toilet, you will literally be staring at each other. See my picture for reference. Similarly, if one person wants to use the toilet and the other person wants to wash their hands or brush their teeth or get ready in front of the mirrors and the vanities, you will see (and hear) each other very plainly the entire time. So really the only way to get any privacy while using the shower or the tub or the toilet is to close the large sliding door which eliminates the other person's access to any of the bathroom completely. So anytime one person needed to use the toilet, the other person could not do anything else in the bathroom, which added a significant amount of time to our morning routine when we got ready. It's just a weird setup and there is no reason why those glass walls should be translucent. If they were completely opaque or had that functionality where the whole glass wall would go opaque with a flip of a switch, it would have been fine. But the way it is right now made it awkward or difficult if you have more than one person staying in the room. So for those two reasons I give this hotel 4 stars. While it is a very fine hotel in an excellent location it just had a couple things that made our experience a little less than stellar. But I don't hesitate to recommend it overall...just know those two things going into your consideration for staying here. If you're ok with them then the rest of your experience will be excellent.

Located in lively Shinjuku, we stayed in the 2 bedroom deluxe suite. The hotel is sleek and modern, the hallways remind me of araska tower from cyberpunk. Beds were great, bathroom is luxurious. The views from the living room is fantastic and a great way to unwind after a long day of exploring the city. Lots of great restaurants and stores nearby, would definitely stay again next time we're in Tokyo.

Amazing hotel with an amazing staff and service. One of the best service we have received worldwide; better than Four Seasons in the Americas/ Europe. Staff went beyond to help with all our needs such as arranging transportation, shipping some documents to US, picking up my daughter ftom airport, rooms cleaned meticulously, room service arriving in 15 min, luggages packed into car, bills printed ready to view before check out and all the service at both restaurants - truly incredible. Thank you for the hospitality and cleanliness and overall prompt services. Also delicious food in all restaurants w amazing views.