We booked this hotel in Shinjuku because I wanted to see Godzilla. I mean... How can you not while in Tokyo? The legendary Godzilla is located in Kabukicho in Shinjuku above a movie theatre on the balcony of Hotel Gracery.
Hotel Gracery has total of 7 properties (but only one has Godzilla) throughout Japan and its Shinjuku property is very well kept and in-room amenities are very thoughtful. Lobby sits on the 8th floor, from 9 to the 30th floor are guest rooms. My first impression of the hotel was the elevators. Because Hotel Gracery is in a multi-functional high-rise building, it has separate elevators on the back side of the building for hotel guests. You''ll need to take 2 different elevators to get to your room. The first takes you up to the guest landing on 8th from the street; then there's 2 other elevator landings at lobby: elevator landing 1 for floor 9 to 19 and elevator landing 2 for floor 20 to 30th. And oh my god, these were the most quiet elevators I had ever ridden. Unlike some hotels have loud and rocky elevators, these were smooth and quiet, I thought they were not moving.
The lobby floor was spacious, quiet, and clean. My mom thought it was a movie theatre. Lobby amenities include: a business centre, a wall of Godzilla filmography, coin laundry, public restrooms, luggage delivery service, a restaurant, and multilingual concierge.
My sister arrived a day before we did. When she checked in, the staff checked her in to a room on the "Female Only" floor (14th floor). The entire 14th floor is dedicated to single female travellers. What makes it extra special is upon check in, you get a small bag of mini beauty products with a beauty face mask and in the room, there is a facial steamer and a foot massager. All for free. I was quite jealous for the foot massager on the 14th floor rooms.
Yes, the room was small because it's Tokyo and for a single person. When we arrived the next day, my sister and I got a bigger room on the 25th floor because there were two of us but the down side was no foot massager. She asked the front desk but according to them, the special amenities were only for rooms on the 14th floor. (How sweet!) Beside those perks, slippers, bath amenities, Panasonic hairdryer (!!), tooth brushes, bath tubs, coffee/tea amenities are in all rooms.
Each room has these four magnets on the back of guest room door. Place one of these on the front of the door before leaving the hotel for the day so Housekeeping knows. I thought they were pretty cool.
If you are a hardcore Godzilla fan, Hotel Gracery does have themed rooms for that. Godzilla viewing room puts you on Godzilla's eye level. You see Godzilla's red eyes (or it sees you) when you open the curtain. Another cool room is Godzilla room with its claw coming out from above the beds and a Godzilla statue in room. Unfortunately, Godzilla room is only available on its Japanese website for booking from $500 to 600 dollars a night. There is only one Godzilla room so it's always booked. Godzilla viewing room, on the other hand, is easier to book and cheaper. There is total of 6 rooms available. One of the things my sister and I learnt about booking accommodations in Japan is that it was a pain in the ass. The websites are generally unclear, especially in English. Japanese sites are better, have much more information and even room types and promotions. My sister and I do not live in the same state so she had to constantly text me asking to translate Japanese pages. Booking process was even worse. It did take us a while to figure everything out. I was glad we did because we stayed at some really cool places!
Back to Hotel Gracery. We also used coin laundry on the lobby floor. I vaguely remembered there was a ban on wearing slippers at the lobby so we had to put shoes/boots on when going to the laundry room. It was a little inconvenient but I understood why they had the rule. It was not a ozen ryokan after all. Coin laundry did not cost much, though I can't remember the exact cost.
Luggage delivery is a very popular service in Japan, especially if you plan to visit other cities for a few days before coming back to Tokyo again. You can count on delivery service to deliver luggage to your next hotel with a charge, of course. We were leaving Tokyo for Kawakuchiko for a few days but were coming back to Tokyo after. The trip included a train ride to the mountains, it'd be a pain to have to carry everything with us so we paid to have them deliver to the next hotel in Tokyo. This service is usually provided by a third party contractor with a table and a scale setup at the lobby area. The process was very simple. Go to the person at the table, fill out information, such as your name, phone number, hotel name, arrival date, hotel confirmation code, and hotel address. Delivery charges depends on the weight and size of the luggage. It can cost between 20 to 50 dollars per luggage.
We booked the package with breakfast included and it was the best breakfast I ever had. Hotel Gracery has 2 restaurants, Cafe Terrace Bonjour on the lobby floor and Bonsalute Kabuki on the ground floor. Cafe Terrace Bonjour serves western breakfast in the morning, that means your traditional continental eggs and bacon. Normally, I would say "fuck yeah!" to bacon, but not in Japan. Bonsalute Kabuki on the ground floor is an Italian restaurant that serves traditional Japanese breakfast only from 6:30am to 10:30am. The food was so good, we did not take any photos or videos. We forgot. We simply forgot. Because we were busy devouring anything we could get. So, upon check in, you get ticket vouchers for breakfast each morning. One voucher per person. You can choose either one of the restaurant but only till 10:30am. When arrive at the restaurant, server collects them and you are free to choose a table. Basically the selections are traditional Japanese breakfast, like pickled vegetables, rice, natto, miso soup, grilled fish, sukiyaki, curry, etc. I loved it so much. I wish I could have it everyday.
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