It’s been years since I last stayed at an APA Hotel in Tokyo but during my trip last week I tried two different ones as the rates were ridiculously low, but one thing that I discovered in the room and elevator struck me as hilarious.
Checkout time at these APA Business Hotels is 10:00am, and as expected, there is usually quite a rush during these hours, which the hotel uses to solicit a paid late check-out for 2000 Yen to avoid being stuck at the elevators.
The elevators at the APA Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower were indeed very slow, even during regular hours, but the APA Nishishinjuku-Gochome one was actually okay.
Nevertheless, someone came up with this “We suck, you pay” promotion that’s really out of touch. Not so much the fact that the hotel offers a late check-out for 2000 Yen for just a single hour (this used to be 1000 Yen until late last year) but to use their inadequate elevator system as a sales pitch.
I think it happened to me once (many years ago) in Japan that I indeed took a bit over 20 minutes to get down to the front desk because the elevators were always full. The front desk seriously wanted to charge me a penalty, in response to which I just laughed and walked away.
It seems to be a common sales drive across all APA hotels because the sign was in the elevators of both hotels I stayed at:
The room rate during my stay was only 6000 Yen for the entire day, so 2000 Yen for one hour sounds ridiculous to me, and quite frankly, I don’t know who would do that. I remember that online, it was possible to book a 1 pm late checkout rate for these 2000 Yen extra charge, clearly a better value proposition. On the last day, I had to leave the hotel at 6:00 am anyway to get to Haneda Airport so this didn’t apply to me.
I like these APA hotels, especially the one at the Nishishinjuku Eki Tower, it has a really grand feel to it and the beds are super comfortable.
International hotel chains have literally exploded with their rates in Japan, especially Tokyo. Staying at a Hyatt or Hilton property under 50,000 Yen/night is impossible these days. The Centric in Ginza and the Andaz both charged over 200,000 Yen per night for a standard room. Ridiculous!
Sure, you can use points to stay there, but I’m not playing these games. When there is clear value to stay at a local hotel chain instead, even the select service business hotels, then I’ll do that and spend the money on food instead.
Conclusion
Last week, I stayed at two APA hotels in Tokyo, Japan and saw an odd sign in the elevator offering a paid late check-out for 2000 Yen/1hr to keep the room until 11:00 am instead of 10:00 am.
While paid late check-out isn’t unreasonable or out of the ordinary, the sales pitch uses the fact that the elevator system is simply inadequate. The hotel, after all, creates the rush hour itself by kicking people out of their rooms by 10:00 a.m. This is really early; for example, the Tokyu Stay standard check-out time is 11:00 a.m.
I would definitely not leave my room at 9:30 to check out on time and circumvent the rush hour. If this is really an issue at any hotel, then that’s on them. Would you pay for this?
