Hotel Route-Inn Tokyo Ikebukuro

First, a notice: there is no parking as advertised, or very little parking that is generally full. Onto the good: 1. Affordable, 2. Great location in Ikebukuro, 3. Has sufficient amenities, 4. Allows guests, 5. Helpful staff. The bad: 1. Central AC that brings in cigarette smoke from other rooms. There is a small AC in the room that can help, also. But for some people, it may not be enough. 2. The beds are hard, 3. A little dingy looking.

Stayed here for two nights during New Year's 2019. The somewhat outdated rooms are typically small for a Japanese hotel, they appear to be accommodating with a variety of accessories in the room plus a handy (free cell/mobile phone) for guest use. I did try to use it but my calls did not seem to go through for some reason. Nevertheless, it is available and likely helpful to guests without use of a cell phone or access to the internet.There is a breakfast included which is mostly a typical Japanese breakfast so for Westerners they might find it very limited. Oddly enough during the two days I was there they offered lunchtime food for breakfast along with Japanese breakfast staples of fish, steamed rice and miso soup. Good price and a great location. Hotel Route Inn Tokyo Ikebukuro in Japanese ホテルルートイン東京池袋

If you are looking for a budget hotel like no further. Good value for money. I stayed a total of 10 nights. 5 nights in a twin room in August another 5 nights in a single room in early September. Rooms are small tight fitting, as in most Tokyo hotel rooms, good decor and friendly staff. There's even a washer dryer on the ground floor should you need it. Suggest you take the airport limousine bus service to get dropped off at Sunshine City Prince Hotel and it's a 5 minute walk to the hotel beats dragging suitcases up and down the steps on 5he train line. My son and I both had 30kg suitcase each hence this hotel was a great option. Daily access via the JR line is a 10-15min walk to Ikebukuru station which is very doable. Lots of local cheap eats around within walking distance ramen houses, beef rice bowl gyumeshi

Knowing Tokyo like the back of my hands, I chose to stay in the Ikebukuro area again for this short 4 day trip. I arrived at Haneda airport and boarded the airport limousine heading for ikebukuro, I advise you to get off at Prince hotel sunshine city, which is only a 5 minutes walk away. The location is almost perfect, it is 5 mins from limousine bus stop, 10 mins from sunshine city, and 10-15 mins from JR station and major department store. I have stayed in Hotel Metropolitan, and Tokyustay ikebukuro and some other shinjuku hotels, and I am surprised to say this cheap 3 star hotel really deserve my 4 stars rating. The receptionist is friendly and helpful, although at first entry, you see the old fashioned Japanese style lobby and is hit by old fashioned toilet freshners smell. The room key is the old fashioned, key with huge keychain and then we stayed in 6/F. It is important to request NON SMOKING if you are a non-smoker like us ( our room had NO smoking smell anyway so don't worry), cos I can imagine the smokers' room would have a strong smell for non-smoker to handle given the aged hotel. The room is quite spacious for tokyo standard, it is clean despite our floor is the eco-friendly type where they only have room service every 3 days. That was totally fine with us, we take the trash out to the door daily and they put fresh towels and toiletries in a bag every day at your door. On the 3rd day, they did clean our room which was great. I only paid 190 USD for about 4 days in a twin bed room.. price wise it is phenomenally cheap ( after suffering from PTSD from dirty 3 stars hotels in the States) ! Leaving airport is equally easy, we bought ticket at Prince hotel sunshine 1 day earlier ( this is highly recommended as tickets DO get sold out, lesson learnt in the hard way in my previous trips!!! ). I would recommend this hotel to budget travellers like me or those unpretentious frequent travellers to Japan, esp those landing at Haneda. I would stay here again next time.

like in most hotels in Tokyo the rooms are not very big but they are clean, nice sheets, a good bed , refrigarator and a small but very clean bathroom. Breakfast is Japanese or Western style, more than enough choise.

Looking for an inexpensive hotel to stay in Tokyo in December I stumbled upon this one. Everything looked fine at the first glance: reasonable price, convenient location, interesting neighbourhood and a lot of positive reviews on the 'net. And indeed, finding the hotel was an easy task even though I've never been around the place before. Getting to the Ark Hotel Tokyo Ikebukuro takes less than a 10 minutes afoot from the JR Ikebukuro Station, accessible from Yamanote and Saikyo lines, or from the Higashi-Ikebukuro Metro Station (Yurakucho line), that means that you'll always find an optimal route to almost any place in Tokyo and around you may ever want to visit. The area itself is a pretty busy district full of bars, cafés, convenient stores, night clubs, shopping malls and office buildings. You'll definitely find it interesting to explore. Checking in and out was easy and convenient. Staff at the reception was extremely friendly and spoke enough English to answer all my basic questions about staying in the hotel. The hotel itself looks rather old and worn-out a bit but everything is absolutely clean and functional. My smoking semi-double room on the 7th floor was as small as a room in an average 3 stars Tokyo hotel could be. On the other hand, it was spacious enough to comfortably place my not numerous luggage. The only drawback I can note was the absence of a wardrobe, so I had to put my outer clothing on the coat-rack near the mirror. The air conditioner had just 4 positions and I didn't quite get how it works in detail, I just set it in the "middle" position when it got too cold and it became much warmer in a few minutes. It seems that heating or cooling is automatically selected depending on the temperature outside. The bed was pretty wide for a single person and not too hard. I found it really comfortable though I suspect some may want a softer mattress and bigger pillow. The bathroom was quite standard for similar hotels. The toilet-set was absolutely standard as well and had everything one may need on the trip. The bathtub was short but deep so I could enjoy bathing really well. Considering the amenities, they provide enough of them to meet all your basic needs and more. On the room's table you'll find a TV set, a charger for mobile devices with various connectors, a kettle, a glass, a cup and a complementary set of 2 bags of delicious Japanese tea. There's also a fridge and a cloth steamer in the room. Every room is provided with pretty fast wi-fi and cable internet connection. I had absolutely no problems with it. The room cleaning is carried out every day provided that you are not staying in the hotel during cleaning hours, I guess. They would change your bed-sheets, towels and dump your trash There's one inconvenience I have to mention separately. The room door has very poor noise insulation and you'll hear every sound in the corridor pretty well. It's not the problem most of the time but if you like sleeping long in the morning, be prepared that you'll be awaken by the noise the cleaning staff and guests make. And there's also one thing one may find inconvenient. The door locks on my floor were traditional, not a card-operated ones, and I was required to leave my keys at the reception every time I left the hotel. On the whole, the hotel has left a nice impression and I can definitely recommend it for all unpretentious travellers who value simplicity and convenience over luxury.

I stayed here for 4 nights. We had the economy room, so they told us which date they would clean our room. However, every morning you can place your used towels outside and garbage and they will pick it up/give a new set of towels and garbage bag. The room was very spacious, especially given that we are in Tokyo. Everything was clean. Also, there is big bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash. They also give new sets of razors, wash cloth, combs and tooth brush. There is a hair dryer and kettle in the room. The hotel is located about a 10-12 min walk from Ikebukuro East exit. It is also conveniently near Sunshine City (shopping mall). What really made it for me with my stay is, I had arrived in Tokyo on the 15 and stayed in another hotel, but was travelling West for 7 days. I was checking in on the 24th at Ark. I called to ask if they could hold our luggage and they said it wouldn't be a problem. So they held onto our luggage for a week. When we checked in, they brought it to our room already. While they keep the luggage a outside in the hall, they put the luggage together with a number and tie it together to identify the luggage.

stayed at this hotel for 2 weeks in April,brilliant location for getting out and about in Ikebukero,if you have time try the magnificent breakfast for all we did not have it every morning it was great value for money all you can eat deal and caters for all kinds of taste if you eat breakfast you wont be hungry till maybe 4ish,you can also travel light by not needing shampoo,conditioner or shower wash this hotel has them all even toothpaste razor's for men and women slippers for bedroom and for comfort for walking around hotel i know there is smoking rooms we stayed in non smoking bit there is also a place located at front of hotel to smoke rooms vary in size my adult children had a very large twin room with shower wardrobe drawers were as me and my husband had a double which was smaller but big enough for our two week stay thoroughly enjoyed visiting Japan and enjoyed the central area of Ikebukero were the Ark hotel is.

If you check the map properly before trying to locate the hotel, it is really easy to find. It is within easy walking distance from Ikebukuro Station. The immediate surroundings may not be particularly nice, but if you walk for five minutes at the most, you are in a nice area with shops and restaurants. We really appreciated the breakfast.