We (family of 5, including teenager and two children) stayed at Dai-Ichi Hotel for 5 nights in late December 2007. Bottomline is that this is a nice hotel to use as a base for exploring Tokyo, with its very convenient location next to the Tokyo Metro Shimbashi station and a stone's throw away from the Ginza area, but the hotel is not without its faults.
Folllowing is a summary of our experience):
1) Arrival: We arrived late at night from Narita, but unfortunately, the Airport Limousine bus that directly stops in front of the Dai-Ichi leaves at ~7 pm, which meant that we had to take another bus to another hotel (the Park Hotel Shiodome) and then take a taxi (two in our case) to the Dai-Ichi.
2) First Impressions: The lobby is an attempt at a French style décor, with the usual paintings and ornaments, but it seemed a bit out of place. The front desk also seemed a bit worn-out and in need of being refurbished. The front desk staff was helpful, but our attempt at explaining to them that we requested connecting rooms were not useful, as they insisted they had no connecting rooms. They did not mention to us that our rooms, which were on the premier floor, and therefore that continental breakfast was included. That came as a pleasant surprise to us and especially the kids..
2) Rooms: Apart from the connecting room mini-debacle, the rooms themselves are quite nice. They are definitely on the smaller side (good size for Japan), but are extremely clean. The bathrooms are also on the small side. This is to be expected in Tokyo and Japan in general. We found the beds to be very comfortable, and each bed was provided with two types of pillows (the regular fluffy type and the “spongy” tempurpedic type. The bed itself was firm and really nice as we like firm to extra-firm type beds.
3) Location: As I mentioned, we liked the location a lot, as it was very convenient for exploring Tokyo. If you’re into the nightlife and clubs in Roppongi or Shibuya, this is probably not your best choice for location, even though access to those areas is quite easy. The Imperial Gardens are within 10-15 mins walking distance, and Ginza is a few minutes away. Also, there are lots of shops both at street level outside the hotel as well as in the station (including a nice bakery that’s close to the Asakusa line exit). The subway station can also be accessed directly under the hotel.
4) Staff: The staff was very helpful, and we found them to be very accommodating, especially the concierge and bell captain staff. The front desk was fine, with the exception of the connecting room issue, which we’re not sure if it was a result of language problems or something else. Also, we were a bit puzzled why the front desk did not tell us of the free breakfast included in our rate.
5) Food: While the continental breakfast buffet was very minimal (compared to other breakfast buffets), it was sufficient. The location of the breakfast, in a lounge on the 20th floor was quite small, and could be easily overwhelmed by 3-4 families have breakfast at the same time, but it was cozy and, in a way, almost made us feel “at home”. We had the dinner buffet in the restaurant “L’Etoile”, which was nice, but again compared to buffets at other major Asia hotels (e.g., at the Shangri-La in Singapore and Hong Kong, where we later stayed) it was tiny.
6) Facilities: Dai-Ichi is not a hotel with tons of facilities (gym, swimming pool, shopping etc). It does have a number of restaurants (Japanese, Chinese), but they are quite pricey.
Summary: Overall, we liked our stay at Dai-Ichi. It was money-well spent, especially when looking at the rates for other hotels in Tokyo and what is included. However, we probably would stay somewhere else next time we visit. This is more to experience a different part of Tokyo than a statement against Dai-Ichi.







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