The Nagoya Tokyu Hotel is a 1987-opened, 564-room 4.5-star hotel located in Sakae, Nagoya. As suggested by its name, the hotel is operated by the Japanese chain, Tokyu Hotels, which in turn is the hospitality subsidiary of the Japanese railway conglomerate, Tokyu Corporation. Unlike many railway hotels, Tokyu Hotels appears to compete with a more upmarket feel; It operates 14 hotels throughout Japan, primarily competing in the 4-star and 5-star hotels

Booking Nagoya Tokyu Hotel

Since I’ve stayed at a few Japanese hotel chains like Nikko, Prince, and Royal Park, I decided to finally try Tokyu. I booked my stay at the Nagoya Tokyu Hotel via Agoda.com for a nightly rate of JPY19280 (~USD135, GBP105), which I thought was a decent price for an upmarket city hotel. This rate is in around the same range as others like Prince and Mitsui. However, for this rate, I was booked into a Superior Floor room, which are slightly nicer rooms on higher floors

Location

The Nagoya Tokyu Hotel is located in the energetic Sakae district in the Central (Naka) Ward of Nagoya. Being the city’s main downtown retail and entertainment district, it is no surprise that the road outside the hotel is littered with various shops and karaoke centres, alongside restaurants and bars. Also conveniently located 8 minutes away on foot is the Nagoya Mitsukoshi shopping centre, with a large food hall featuring many local delights. Near Mitsukoshi is Sakae Station, which is connected by the Meitetsu Line to Nagoya Station.

Arrival and Check-in

After taking a great ride on the Shinkansen Green Car, I made my way to the hotel with a painless taxi ride from Nagoya Station. We arrived at the Tokyu’s deep porte-cochère at 13.30, finding the entrance to be completely devoid of any staff members. After dragging our bags in, a porter apologetically took our bags are directed us to the reception desks.

Following a quick wait in line, we were helped by a friendly check-in agent, who processed our check-in. After presenting my passport, the staff spoke decent English. Surprisingly, she told us that our room is ready and immediately presented us with our room keys. To be frank, I don’t think getting an early check-in would ever have been possible in a Japanese hotel before the pandemic, so this was a nice change!

With our keycards in hand, our porter graciously took our bags and escorted us to the lifts and up to our Superior Twin Room A on the 11th floor. I’d have to say, I did find the lift interiors to look really quite nice!

Superior Floor Twin Room A

As we entered our room, we were met with an expansive view of the Nagoya skyline. Staying on the Superior Floors of the hotel, it is no surprise that we were assigned a room with a clear view on a high floor. Yet, I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is a great view, as you’d find if you were to face towards the direction of Nagoya Station, for example – let alone, the grand views from Yokohama Royal Park Hotel.

Bedroom

Our Superior Floor Twin Room A is advertised to be 29.7 sqm (320 sqft), which is a decent size for our short weekday stay. Whilst supposedly last renovated in 2001, the furniture looked modern enough, especially with the large flat screen television. However, I can’t help but feel that the room feels a tinge bit barren… Across the bed is a television console and desk combination, with a mirror. Very effective in terms of spatial use – if the room was much smaller. Interesting…

As advertised, the room is equipped with two oversized single beds along with a small loveseat in the far corner, complemented by a table. Having said that, had there been an extra sofa chair by the window, I feel that the room would be a lot nicer! Regardless, the bed was comfortable if not rather firm, although I disliked how small the pillows were. I’d say the disproportionately small pillows was the main detraction from a good night’s sleep (at least for me!). 😛

Interestingly, the complimentary bottles of water came in aluminium cans, which I have never seen before! To make things even more interesting, they are Ito En-branded, which is most famous for its bottles of tea!

Bathroom

Located next to the entrance foyer is the dim and slightly dingy-looking bathroom. Despite that, it is very clean and well-kept. The bathroom features a shower-bathtub and a washlet toilet as is standard in Japan. Whilst water pressure from the taps was fine, I personally found that the wallpaper and vinyl flooring, combined with the humidity and lighting, made the space quite uninviting. So this was a negative for me.

The bath amenities came in large dispensers from the major Japanese cosmetics brand, POLA, which you could find at Sapporo Prince Hotel. Whilst nothing special, it was relatively high-quality. Also provided was a pair of facial cleansing kits, in addition to a facial cleansing and handwash foam by the sink.

Amenities

Shopping Arcade

Located next to the lobby is a relatively sizeable shopping arcade, featuring various local fashion and jewellery retail shops. Whilst I wouldn’t see myself shopping in a hotel arcade, let alone for clothes, I guess this is a nice and convenient amenity(?)

Fitness Centre

The Nagoya Tokyu Hotel features a membership-only Fitness Centre and Pool. However, like most Japanese hotels in Japan, guests are not automatically afforded entry to this facility. At Nagoya Tokyu Hotel, accessing the gymnasium and pool would cost JPY3300 (~USD23, GBP18). With my busy schedule in Nagoya, I saw no point in paying this fee, so I will not be reviewing this facility.

Service

Mimicking my experiences at any upmarket Japanese, Hotel, I found that the service is fine and the staff doing their jobs well. What I mean by that is how I always came back to find my room tidy and cleaned on time. With a mix of foreign and Japanese staff members, it is no surprise that they spoke varying levels of English. However, they were all polite, courteous, and happy to help (even if they aren’t necessarily proactive). As such, I felt that the service is good but also nothing unexpected.

Overall

Overall, I found the Nagoya Tokyu Hotel to be an adequately nice city hotel within the downtown area of Nagoya. Whilst the room and location were both decent, nothing really stood out in favour of this hotel. In such a sense, the hotel is nice, but I wouldn’t proactively seek out to stay here again unless the price is right. Having said that, I’m happy to have tried the Nagoya Tokyu Hotel and wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again given how mediocre the hotel is overall.

Read more from this trip here!