This review is for the ShinYokohama Prince Hotel in Yokohama, Japan.
Overall assessment: A fine place to spend a few days at a reasonably priced room for this region. The hotel staff were friendly and helpful. The rooms cleaned nicely. One glaring blemish is the in-room carpeting; it is has a million stains in it. Kept very clean by housekeeping but in urgent need of replacement; it’s that off-putting that I even mention it. If that doesn’t affect you then this hotel is an excellent choice. Room was $210 per night for 2 adults (each in a twin bed.) One small couch (can’t fold it out) could fit a child up to 10 sleeping on it.
The hotel itself is a cool looking round building that towers over the main train station serving the city. Our room was on the 36th floor and the view was spectacular! The amenities, customer and maid service are more or less comparable to any other hotel. The Bell Captain’s desk is staffed with friendly, helpful folks with maps, recommendations and pretty decent English speaking capabilities.
Inside the room, the two people sharing it each had a twin bed, slippers and robe. There was a also small couch, TV, kettle and small closet in the room. TV was only in Japanese but you could rent a small computer chip from a vending machine that expanded it to an English language movie channel and a couple of Japanese "adult" channels (which were hilarious BTW.) It cost $5 per night to rent and we only got it for the first night. Moving on, the beds were medium hard and okay to sleep on. The pillows were ubiquitous Japanese and filled with both foam and beans (in some hotels they are only filled with beans.) You may wish to purchase and inflatable pillow to bring with you when traveling to Japan.
The bathroom offered tons of complimentary toiletries, usually a toothbrush with toothpaste, razor, packet of Woolite for rinse and hang articles, hairbrush, comb and more. Both the shower, toilet and bidet rocked! The shower was adjustable in a variety of ways and had amazing water pressure. The toilet was typical Japanese. The seat was heated (choose from low, medium and high) and had a built in bidet (for a ladies rinse) or “shower” for a backside cleanse using a rear (pun intended) stream of water. Americans don’t use these type of toilets so it’s always novel to hear about a new person’s experience which normally ends with “I love it” or “it’s just so clean and refreshing.”
They have a restaurant downstairs, vending machines which sold sodas, fruit drinks, beers, hot foods like fried rice and ramen, random toiletries, and a coin operated laundry room.
The hotel is attached to the Prince Pepe shopping building – something akin to a small vertical mall. You’ll find restaurants, clothes stores, personal services like back and foot massage (awesome after a day of walking around). Be sure to let the merchants know you are staying in the hotel and they may offer you a discount. I saved $14 on a 60 minute foot massage because I happened to comment I was staying there.
The jewel of the hotel is the Sky of Yokohama bar at the top of the hotel. Naturally the view is phenomenal at night but it was the drinks that made my visit there so wonderful. Have the China Blue. Made with Lychee liquer and curacao, it will knock your socks off.
The ShinYokohama Prince was a good value when compared to other hotels in Yokohama, Japan. This author paid $210 per night in late October, 2012, and feels it hit the “reasonable” mark. The stay was purchased through Expedia.com. When compared to American hotels and what you get, I would have rated this experience “below expectations” though. For $125 in America, I can get a larger room with two double beds and reasonably 4 people could comfortably stay there. You simply can’t do that in Japan. There is no room. This room could fit 2 adults and perhaps a small child of 10 or younger sleeping on the couch (not a pull out, the room is too small.) To fit more people, you have to rent another room. This will be true of nearly all hotels in Japan. For roomier options, my research led me to www.roomarama.com where I could look at apartments which were vacation rentals.
The glaring pimple on this hotel stay was this. The carpet in this hotel is very old and very stained. Once a soft powdery baby blue, it now has splotches and blotches and looks very unattractive. That doesn’t mean it’s dirty though. This hotel is meticulously attended to and extraordinarily clean. You can tell they’ve probably had it professionally treated and refurbished but it’s a lost cause. My guess is the cost is just so prohibitive right now in this recession that there is no money available for an expensive carpet replacement. The stains are extremely noticeable in the rooms though and if this was an American hotel, I would not walk on the carpet as much as possible because I would think it gross. Watching the diligence with which the rooms were cleaned each day though, you understand the floor is perfectly clean (and, of course, you are provided with complimentary slippers while staying there.)
Room Tip: Ask for a room on as high a floor as possible facing the train station for the best view!
See more room tips
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
