HOTEL REVIEW: Mandarin Oriental Tokyo-Bloopers Edition

Now that I have started my travel business (www.axeustravel.com) I find it very important to stay at lots of different hotels in Tokyo so that when the borders open up and tourists can enter, I will be able to recommend the best accommodations to my clients.

I decided for this two night trip on April 4th to try out the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo. In the past Adam and I have stayed at the MO in Barcelona and have had an incredible experience, so I was quite excited about this one.

Upon checking in, it started off on the wrong foot. The check in process was too long. Usually I don't mind, but if i'm traveling with my husband, I need things to be done lickety split, because he is used to a certain standard of service, and gets annoyed when your paying for a class of service and it doesn't get delivered. (His favorite comparison is for professional athletes, fans don't hesitate to let them know when they aren't doing a good job!)

Also, I want to say that I do believe that that Covid has really taken its toll on hotels because they are forced to lay people off, which can take away from providing the essential services needed. For example, the bars and restaurants all closed at 9pm. We were disappointed because we arrived at 8:50 pm and couldn't go to the hotel bar and grab a drink and some food with our friends (who were also checking in). Another issue was that we had to schedule what time our breakfast was going to be delivered to the room the night before, including scheduling a reservation at the restaurant for breakfast. I didn't even know how I would feel 10 minutes after check in! Let alone, who knows what time they want to have my breakfast in the morning during a vacay!!

Here's where the blooper happened. Although the bars closed at 9, the room service was still available until 9:30 (also unacceptable in our opinion for a 5-star hotel, there should be some sort of 24 hour offering). So after getting settled in our room, we ordered room service right in the nick of time. Because of covid, the hotel thought they were doing a good thing by requiring "contactless drop off", so in your room, the bell rings, you open the door and poof there was this room service table there with no one there. We ordered a Wagyu burger, with fries, a bottle of wine, and a cheesecake to share...

Once I brought the tray in, I opened the hot box and noticed, there was an extra club sandwich in there with extra fries....My first thought of course was, oh wow they either messed up or gave this to us for free! And, since I already touched it....Finders keepers :)

So Adam and I proceeded to enjoy our meals, then thought, hey, where is our wine and our cheese cake?? Shortly after, I get a text from my friend that says "Hey is your room service order messed up?" and it hit me, I was eating my friends sandwich!! And since room service closed at 9, the chef had gone home already. I felt soooo bad that she didn't get to eat her sandwich, and it was too late for her to order another one. (But she later told me the cheesecake was tasty and so was the wine!).

Customer service was so embarrassed about the mix up and comped both of our meals, I get it, it was a mistake, but still this should have NEVER happened. (They brought us up another bottle of wine shortly after). They sent their sincerest apologies and did their best to make up for it, but something like this you just cant really ever forget!! Especially now that it will be here in this blog post forever! Not to mention, I booked the room for my friends as their travel advisor, so it made me look really bad as well for recommending this hotel.

Overall, I had a good nights rest, but with so many options in Tokyo, slim chance I will ever be back to this hotel to stay over night.