Hotel New Otani Tokyo, Executive House Zen

Lovely traditional hotel - very Japanese and elegant. Wonderful service. Complimentary food and cocktails in the club lounge. This was the perfect hotel for us as we did not want to stay in a global chain hotel. We wanted something authentic and Japanese. We could not have been more pleased with the ambience and service.

I originally was hesitant on booking Executive House Zen because it seems more remote than where I usually stay. I was surprised how accessible it is by taxi that for just a short ride I can reach anywhere worth visiting in Tokyo. Our room decor was Zen, albeit smaller than what I’m used to because the rooms were fully booked and there was no room for upgrades, but the staff at the executive lounge made up for the room’s shortcomings and more. I want to thank Mr. Motoshi for assisting us finding a very rare toy for my daughter that is not available in the U.S. and had it delivered to our room, and thank Wu and Daniel, who provided exceptional service and gave great suggestions on places to dine. We were very impressed by the level of service provided. We dined at several restaurants within the hotel, including daily breakfast at Satuki, and drinks and snacks in the Executive Lounge ~ all were very good. I highly recommend Executive House Zen and thank everyone at Hotel New Ontani for such a memorable experience.

It's important to understand that the "Executive House Zen" are two executive floors (11th and 12th) in the New Otani Hotel, which opened in 1964 and has been refurbished a bit more than 10 years ago. While there is a dedicated check-in area (or you just go up to the lounge, where they can check you in as well), everything else is shared with the rather large 5* and attached 4* hotel. The hotel has no direct access to subways, but stations can be reached by just a few minutes on foot. Our King room was large enough (separate sitting area and a large table) and nicely designed with very functional layout, it does not offer as much space as recently built hotels. Worth to mentioned that soft drinks are included in the rate and daily replenished. While I visit Japan regularly over the last 25 years, it still puzzles me that the concept of having a decent after dinner cocktail combined with a view is unheard of in traditional upscale hotels: the sky bar closes at 9 p.m. (last order 30 minutes before), so does the splendid Zen lounge, which is worth visiting. The only place left open is the windowless lobby bar. It's really a pity having to go to another, more modern hotel's bar to get a glimpse of Tokyo's impressive nighttime skyline after dinner. That said, I can recommend the Zen as a luxurious base to explore Tokyo!