[Hotel Review] Tokyo's First Robot Hotel - The Strange Henn na Hotel Maihama Tokyo Bay - Vikingess Voyages

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

[Hotel Review] Tokyo's First Robot Hotel - The Strange Henn na Hotel Maihama Tokyo Bay

9:47:00 PM , , ,
This April (2017) the tech-heavy Tokyo finally got its first robot hotel; Henn na Hotel Maihama Tokyo Bay!
This is the second one in Japan, as Henn na Hotel opened up Japan's first robot hotel in Nagasaki (Huis Ten Bosch Henn na Hotel) last year. The concept has proven to be a great success, and now their second hotel is ready to welcome guests with their impeccable robot service.
The second hotel is more specifically located in Maihama. This area is most known as the location of Disneyland Tokyo, and is ironically not per se a part of Tokyo but rather included in the prefecture Chiba. I had the chance to spend a night at the newly opened hotel, and have summarized the experience below.


See also: 
 Check the room availability for Henn na Hotel Maihama Tokyo Bay on Agoda.com.
Above: Crossing a bridge on the way to the hotel
The hotel is located a twenty minutes' walk away from Mayhama Station and Disney Land, so if you're planning on visiting the adventure park it might be a good (and cheaper) option to the official Disney hotels in the area. A taxi to Disney Land would take around 5 minutes. The hotel also has available parking for 2500 yen/night if you reserve in advance.
Henn na Hotel literarily means "strange hotel" and the hotel does without a doubt live up to that name. The first thing that meets you upon entering the lobby is the sight of a huge dinosaur statue, and when you look to the reception you'll find that the receptionists have been replaced by dinosaurs that greet you in Japanese, English and Chinese.
The checkin procedure is very simple; after having inputted your details your room key and receipt will automatically be presented to you from the box next to the reception. In our case we had a booking that included breakfast, but there was no extra ticked issued for that.

Above to the left: A phone that can be used to call for staff if you need help. Right: A cleaning robot in the reception.
There is no staff in the check-in area so unless you have any troubles you won't see any living people while you're there. There is however a phone available if you need assistance, and in our case we got helped by a staff when the check-in machine didn't recognize my romaji name.
Above left: You can get the amenities you need at the check-in counter. Right: Your room key is used to operate the elevator. Below: On the guest floor you can find vending machines providing different types of beverages and toys.

Guest room

We stayed at a Standard Twin room type, and as soon as we entered we were greeted by our very own personal concierge named Tapia. As you might have guessed Tapia was not a real person; rather it was an egg-shaped robot that welcomed us and told us about the upcoming weather. A cute addition to the room, but to be honest we weren't too lucky with our commands. We tried with a couple of simple ones like "please turn off the light" but it didn't do what we asked for. 
As for the beds the Twin Room comes with two small single beds, so if you prefer to have a little bit of space to roll around you might want to go for a room type with larger beds. 

From the room we could see a bit of the Maihama area. As the hotel is situated in a residential area it was mostly houses to be seen from the room, as well as the main road.
Above: View from our room

Room Amenities

The room came with the most basic amenities such as air conditioning, slippers and hair dryers. As mentioned earlier in this post there were also a number of amenities available in the reception. 
Above: Twin beds and a pajama that you can use during your stay that has a Tapia logo on it.


Below you can find a list of the hotel's main facilities:


 Bathroom


One really good thing about our room was that we had separate rooms for the toilet and shower. In Japan it is very common that the toilets and showers are in the same room due to lack of space, so this was clearly a plus point.


The sink was situated in the entrance area of the room, separated from the shower room and the toilet. All in all it was good to having them separated so that we wouldn't have to wait to access the one or the other.

Breakfast

On the first floor the hotel had a restaurant providing a buffet style breakfast with a big selection of delicious food for guests who had ordered their breakfast plan. 
The restaurant was designed as a family/cafeteria restaurant with a big painting of dinosaurs on one of the walls. It seemed like most of the other guests who were using the restaurant were families with younger kids.

Above: Various types of food available for breakfast. Below: Our breakfast plates.
Below: A selection of juice to the left and coffee machines to the right.
After you've finished your breakfast you have to return your tray in the corner of the room. The breakfast was a good start of the day, and with few dining options around the area it is a good option to start the day with breakfast included.


All in all the night at Henn na Hotel provided an interesting experience that could be recommended for anyone who'd like to stay a night at a robot hotel. During the breakfast we saw a number of families with kids, and I'm sure the hotel will be especially popular among those who have young ones with them (even my darling seemed pretty amused by the moving and talking dinosaurs at the front desk).
Above: Check-out is done manually by inserting your room card into the check-out machine in the lobby.

In addition to this post you can check out my short 2-minute video from the stay below:


Update: Henn na Hotel is increasing their number of robot-themed hotels around Japan. You can find a list of their new hotels below:

Henn na Hotel Tokyo Nishikasai - Opening in December 2017
Henn na Hotel Tokyo Ginza - Opening in 2018 
Henn na Hotel Laguna Ten Bosch - Situated in Aichi

That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed the post! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments in the comment section below.

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Basic Info

Name of Hotel: Henn na Hotel Maihama Tokyo Bay
Star Rating: 4 ★★★★
Map
Location 20 min walk from Maihama Station / About 10 minutes by taxi
Check in: Check In From 3PM
Check Out Until 12AM


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About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.

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A modern day shield-maiden who loves to explore the unbeaten paths of the world. From her base in Tokyo, Anette takes on both rural and urban challenges, and goes by the motto "No challenge too big, no adventure too small"!
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