End of the Year Trip: Tokyo Hilton, Where I Expected to Meet Don Draper

Introduction
Tale of Two Lounges - Dulles Airport
Onward to Tokyo - First Class United & ANA Dreamliner
Castle in the Clouds - Park Hyatt Tokyo
Day Trip to Kamakura
Tokyo Hilton
A Blast From the Past - American First Class
Tale of Two Lounges - Narita Airport
The Joan Rivers Hotel - W Chicago Lakeside
Wrap-Up of Trip

When I was planning for the trip, I wanted to limit my cash out of pocket. Therefore, I knew that I needed to use points to pay for some of the last three nights in Tokyo. The Hilton was two blocks away for the Hilton and I was sitting on about 75,000 points, so I was pretty sure I was going to stay here for the last three nights in Tokyo.

The majority of my 75,000 points came from applying for the American Express Hilton, a great card. At that time, the card had a 50,000 sign-up bonus, but more importantly, no annual fee - making it a great credit card to get and keep to strength my credit score.

At that time, rooms were going for 40,000 points a night. My goal was to pay for 1 night in cash and use points for 2 nights. To earn the last 5,000 points, I decided to transfer 4,500 points from my eRewards account. For the last 500, I paid cash, which is an option that Hilton allows you to do when booking award stays.  Initially, I was going to pay $300 for the last night. I shuddered at the thought about paying that much, but could justify since it was the only night on the trip that would cost me money. However, as I wrote here, Hilton had a 50% sale for stays in December 2012 on participating hotels. Luckily, the Tokyo Hilton was participating and the cost of my night dropped to $154 USD, SCORE! Three nights for $165 USD + 80,000 points.

Back to the trip report....

The Tokyo Hilton is located two blocks away from the Hyatt. I decided to take a cab, because of the size and number of my bags I had. The cost $12 for 2-3 blocks.

The hotel lobby is massive. The check-in desk is deep back in a corner.

Check-in was not smooth. My goal was to get a room on the club level. Prior to my trip, I called the customer service number to request a room on the club level. The representative told me that as a Gold my request would be granted. When I arrived at 5:30 pm, the check-in representative told me my non-smoking room on the fifth floor was ready. I asked for an upgrade to club level and was told there was nothing available. A little pushing and 20 minutes later, I was on my way to a smoking room on the club level.

                                 

The room had a distinct 50s feel.  The wood paneling, weird carpeting, and red chair made me feel like I was going to see Don Draper at the bar.

The bathroom was typical hotel size. No Park Hyatt, but good enough:

What I didn't under stand was this glass partion in the shower. It served very little purpose, because it only covered some of the tub. Also, one part of the partion swung out a little, but nothing to a massive degree in one direction or another.

The other strange thing about the bathroom was the mirror. It never completely fogged over:

How does this happen? It was super helpful for shaving directly after showering.

My room had decent views:

The reason why I pushed for Club access was for a place to go and relax and get food.

I was provided this letter at check-in about the club:

As you can see, the club offers food/snacks throughout the day. What I did't expect was the quality of the food. My first night, I went down for Cocktails and appetizers:

 Look at this breakfast spread:

And afternoon tea:

Having access to the lounge was helpful. I saved a ton of money on not having to eat out for breakfast. Given as a Gold member of Hilton, I would have been given free breakfast at the restaurant downstairs. But the access to the lounge was more than just breakfast, it was access to a place to relax and have a drink or snack. 

The hotel has a gym and pool. One must sign in to use either as I learned the hard way:

             

                          

                                  

                                 

 The hotel's closest metro stop is M7 - Nishi-Shinjuku.

The hotel actually has its own exit into the tunnel leads toward the subway ie no having to walk outside. From the hotel, the exit to the subway is near the Hiltopia Shopping Arcade.

The second floor of the hotel had many sit-down restaurants. They were all a little out of my price range:

Overall, the stay was good. After staying with the Park Hyatt, my expectations of what a hotel should be were pretty high. If I just stayed at the Hilton, I would have thought the stay was amazing. My only complaint was check-out. It was a cluster fuck. They demanded everyone out at noon, but then did not have the staff to check-out people. The line, as seen below, was 30 to 40 people deep.

The hotel had a 1950s feel, which is cool. However, the hotel was trying to stray away from it and become modern. The 1950s, Mad Men, is hip now. I would play up that old school hotel, you would be surprised how many people would probably dig it.

In the end, I never met Don Draper at the hotel bar, but had a good stay. I would come back.

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Hilton: Stamford Conference Center

In February, I had to go to a conference in Stamford, Connecticut.  I wrote here that I would be staying at the Stamford Hilton.

If you are driving, I don't recommend driving up to the front of hotel (pictured); instead drive down to the garage and park first. The entrance has a very tiny driveway and one can be stuck in their car waiting for someone else to move their car.

I used the conference rate and got my rooms for $115 a night. 

The lobby is large, spacious and full of light:

The lobby also provides many places to sit:

My room was on the 9th floor or the executive floor:

I was given a spacious corner two bed room:

The first thing you see when you open the door is a long hallway.

And the hallway continues:

To the right in the hallway is the bathroom. The bathroom was typical:

My luck with hotel bathrooms is not great. This one was disgusting:

                                        

 

When I arrived, I only had 15 minutes to change before a meeting. Needless to say, I stopped by the front desk and asked them to send someone up to clean.

The rest of the room was standard:

My room rate was only good for double beds, but I could have up to four people in the room at no extra charge. Why is this important? Well, my gold status with Hilton gives me free breakfast benefit and since I put down that there was three people staying in my room, I got to treat two friends with me at the conference to breakfast:

The hotel has club, but it is only open Sunday through Thursday's. The other days of the week, members with Gold Status get complementary breakfast (the buffet) in the restaurant downstairs:

There were both cold and hot options for breakfast plus an omelet station:

 

The hotel has a small gym and a pool. The gym is open 24/7, but the pool is open only from 6am to 11pm:

The gym has treadmills, elliptical, and some free weights.

 One needs to go through the gym to get to the pool:

The entire hotel had amazing photographs in the hallways:

Overall, the stay was great. This is the second time I have stayed at this hotel and each time has been great. Why would someone stay here? First, there are a ton of businesses in the area. Second, Stamford is not far from New York City via MetroNorth. Also, the Jerry Springer Show is taped down the road.

The hotel was spacious, the room was somewhat clean and my status was recognized...overall, a great stay!

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