APA Hotel Asakusa Tawaramachi Ekimae in Tokyo

I am burnt to death. The Aircon is like sauna and you can't adjust at all. It's 3 degree outside but it's 30 degree inside the room. This is ridiculous! Talking about saving resources, but turning the heater so high.... This is torturing. Never say in this hotel again.

Ive been staying at this specific APA for my tokyo leg of my japan trips for the past three years. With that being said, i’ve noticed the dust issue within every room that ive had, get worse and worse. Not sure if its them not maintaining the cleanliness of the vents between guests, or the lack of deep vacuuming of the carpets, but more so than likely a combination of both. You can literally see a layer of dust accumulate within an hour and by the end of the day, its a white layer on their desks as well as everything else within the room. I rarely ever get congested and sneeze but my lord everytime i would return back to the room, boom, visual dust as well as my respiratory system responding to said immense amount of dust. Moment i step out, my congestion fully clears and i am no longer sneezing. Also the fact that you cannot control whether the heat is on or ac is on is ridiculous. The staff are great and so is the location (if you want to be situated in east tokyo predominantly) but my final grip are the housekeepers. Whenever they caught me exiting my room, they would flag me down and begin speaking to me in Chinese and then when I tell them i speak english and a little japanese, they bring out their cell phone and translate chinese into english and ask me whether or not i want my room cleaned and then ask me what i need as well as demanding me for my used towels. If im on a vacation and am exiting my hotel room to attend to my itinerary in the AM, i dont want to be flagged and have a 5 minute google translator conversation about 1) services i have full control over requesting ie room cleans as well as 2) just replenish all of my amenities as any normal hotel would do and hang them on the hook or 3) do it like sotetsu and have guests refill amenities at the lobby on a self serve basis outside of towels which are just peacefully placed outside one’s door everyday.

All in all, this trip will be my final stay at any APA hotel in japan ever. The $15-20 i might save over a sotetsu is not worth it here especially since you can’t even store luggage under your bed at this location which makes opening a 26”+ suitcase absolutely impossible without forcing one to tippy toe and balance their way around the dusty as heck rooms.

Writing this from the aforementioned hotel. I rarely write reviews but I just dont want other people to get burned like me. TL;DR: This is not a good APA.
I have stayed in APAs in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo and all were really good for the price. Tiny rooms, but good service and amenities. This one on the other hand lacks soooo many basic things the other ones nailed. The most important one: SPACE UNDER THE BED TO STORE YOUR BAGS IN. When you are staying in a 2m x 3m room that counts A LOT. And the room they gave me in this APA DID NOT HAVE THAT SPACE (a closed box under the mattress). And when i asked for a room with space (willing to pay more) they said all the rooms were like that (or at least the ones they had available?).
Other downsides:
- 2 washers and driers for the whole 14 floors of rooms. Had to wait hours to do laundry.
- One vending machine for the entire building
- The window does not open at all (the other ones at least the amount so that air can circulate).
APAs in general are fine for the price and the people working here were good. But the installations… leave a lot to be desired.

Settled into a nice room. Stayed other APA locations and appreciated the service.

Waited 2 hours for spa to be less busy. When I go up I am not allowed to enter because- tattoos. This isn't 1950s Japan anymore. Most people know that tattooed folks aren't
always gangsters and can tell the difference between art and gang tattoos. If I knew this before booking I wouldn't have come, I am payed for major amenities I am not allowed to use. It neither illegal nor a safety hazard to have a tattoo.