Sequence Miyashita Park

Sequence hotels are a cheapo favorite. They are no-frills stylish and found in excellent locations — a Japanese business hotel but for hipsters if you will. Apart from a frustrating self check-in experience (if your name isn’t Japanese just ask the apologetic staff to do it for you), there’s little to fault about Sequence Miyashita Park.

The very tastefully decorated rooms are as comfortable as they are compact. Typical of Japanese interior design, there’s well thought out use of space, so even with three-star sized rooms you’ll feel like you’re in a four-star room. But the real sense of spaciousness comes from the views from the floor-to-ceiling windows in each room. Since the hotel is on top of the Miyashita Park development, even the lowest rooms are equivalent to at least the 7th floor. There’s also a large buffer of space around the building, so there aren’t any office workers staring into your room — you can comfortably leave the curtains open all night and day.

The check-in/check-out times are quite novel. Check-in is unusually late — it opens at 5pm —- but you can leave your luggage with the concierge at anytime earlier in the day, so no problem unless you’re just arriving on a red-eye flight. With late check-in comes the benefit of a luxuriously late check out time of 2pm. So handy if you’re out until the early hours enjoying the Shibuya night life, or if you just fancy a sleep-in.

The amenities are perfectly adequate, and apart from the tooth brush, which you have to collect for yourself in the hotel lobby. You could interpret this as either eco-friendly or cost cutting.

Prices vary depending on availablity and season, but if you can book for around ¥12,000 or less, you’ll be getting great value.