Toyoko Inn Akabane Station Higashi

The hotel facilities and room was a standard one in Japan. The worst part is service, especially staff at front desk. A few examples of the bad services: 1.The lady staff at the front desk on Jun 4th was not friendly, when asked for restaurant recommendations, the answer is walk to the street and find one. When I said can you suggest which bbq restaurants might be good, the answer was it depends on each individual, this was not helpful at all and a hotel with good hospitality won't say things that way. I have travelled in Japan for over 20 years and over 30 times, never received this kind of response when ask for recommendations. 2. Worst thing was when we asked for 2 pilows as we have two young children travelling together, we were told only one pillow is possible per room. This may be a hotel policy but it is disappointing to find that there was no flexibility. On the next day when other staff was on duty (not the same lady who worked on Jun 4th), we finally got another pillow, we appreciated the flexibility but it has really made our first night sleep miserable and a hard feeling as we have attempted to ask for a few times but failed....Not really able to understand why that lady at front desk on June 4th was making it so hard and the attutude was not good as well. We hope these instances could be reviewed and looked into. We have never experienced bad service at Japan or other Tokyo Inns hotels.

Things I liked about the hotel--affordabiity, courteous staff, and distance to the train station. Things I didn't like. 1. I booked 2 rooms in advance for my family. They put us on 2 different floors which was a hassle since I have young kids. 2. I could smell smoke from neighbor's room next door. 3. The rooms were small. However, that may just be normal for most rooms in Tokyo.