Rafre Saitama

Comentarios destacados

• snikwahn

  24 abril 2015
  Nice room, good location, but bad service

  I booked a night here so I could conveniently visit the nearby railway museum the next day. My first impression was great: Despite the low price (just over 7200 yen), the room was fairly large for a single and had an amazing view of the city. It's not brand new, but the hotel is clean and modern. The walk from Saitama-Shintoshi station took maybe ten minutes, all on an elevated, well-traveled pedestrian pathway. One of the big reasons I picked this place was that their listing on Rakuten Travel claimed they had a Japanese bath. In fact, they also have a swimming pool, outdoor jacuzzi, and a gym as well, which all sounds great until you discover that you have to pay to get in and they don't provide a yukata, extra towels, or swimsuits (for the pool). If you're going to make me pay for the basic privilege of using an ofuro in Japan, it had better be a really nice bath, but it isn't: It's small and shows signs of age and neglect, and the water is nothing to write home about: no hot-spring "oyu" here, just regular, old, not particularly hot water. The showers are even worse, possibly the worst I've seen in a month of traveling. From what I could see, the pool and jacuzzi looked much nicer, but I couldn't use them without a swimsuit -- who brings a swimsuit to Japan? The people at the desk were rude and condescending, and when I complained at the front desk, they had no response. If all you're after is a clean room with a comfortable bed (which can be hard to find in Japan) in a convenient hotel, this is a great place. It's definitely a business-oriented area, but there's a huge shopping mall nearby with all sorts of shops and restaurants and shoppers of all ages. If, however, you're looking for a place with a little soul, good service, or a human touch, look elsewhere.

  

• StarShine80

  01 junio 2015
  Value for money. Affordable and pleasant Hotel.

  This Hotel is definitely for short stay business or short trip. If you must to stay longer period of time, week or longer, I would recommend to choose Superior Twin-Bed Room, even if you are alone. Because room and bathroom are spacious and roomier, compare to other types of rooms in Rafre Hotel. I was alone, but I stayed at Business Twin-Bed Room. It had a specious size bathroom. But there was not enough space to put larger size suitcase in my room. I used 2nd bed as a table. But room was very nice and clean. If you take a look at Rafre Hotel Website, there are 5 different style and size of rooms to choose from. Single-bed Room is the smallest one. (But it is not Closet size room that some Japanese business hotels offer.). Superior Single Room was slightly bigger. Both rooms had a compact size bathroom. Business Twin Bed Room was as same room dimension as Superior Single Room, except for larger size bathroom. Standard Twin Room was roomier than 3 types of room I mentioned. You will like this room. Superior Twin-bed Room was about same room size of typical 3 and 4 Star Hotel in the USA. And there were 2 types of Japanese style room I did not have a chance to view. My recommendation is Standard Twin Room and Superior Twin-bed Room. All rooms are around or less than US$80 per night except for Double Room is slightly over US$100. You dont find pleasant and neat room for less than US$100 per night near Tokyo. You can go a big district such as Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo and Ueno by Train around 30 minutes. Thats not bad at all. I chosen Business Twin-bed Room, and paid US$83 per night. What a deal! Room was very clean and very neat. Bed sheet, cover, comforter blanket and pillowcase were impressively spotless clean everyday. Bed was lower to the floor compare to the average bed in the US. And bed mattress was bit harder than average bed in the US, but I had a great night sleep, every night. No complain at all. If you are 6.5-feet or taller, you might feel bed is short. If you need extra towels? Simply ask for Front Desk. House Keeper did not use any scented detergent or cleaner. They have done great job everyday. I appreciated that. There were many LED lights in room, and you can control all the lights by Light Control Panel between 2 beds except for the bathroom lights and bed reading lights. There were many hangers inside wardrobe. Library silent small refrigerator and inaudible heater were excellent. I love quiet room. (I did not try AC. I bet it would be very quiet.) Bathroom was big enough for adult (Im 6-feet tall). Everything was awesomely clean, neat, and I found no wear and tear. Japanese designed faucet was very practical, user friendly, simply to use, and stylish. Bathtub was big enough to soak entire my body inside tub. If you smoke, select 9th and 14th floor. Friendly warning here: You might smell cigarette smoking in each room, despite every room had a higher-quality Plasma Ion HEPA Air Purifier. (All Non-Smoking rooms have the same Air Purifier, too.) House Keeper checks and clean filters frequently. I think cigarette odor stays on wall and celling. Room window was larger than appearance of exterior photo of building on website. Good outside view. Computer access input LAN for PC and Mac are available. Free WiFi in all rooms but WiFi did not work at front lobby area and restaurants area on the 2nd floor. There was convenient store Lawson on the 2nd floor. They had almost everything you need as a traveler or for business trip. I love Japanese style convenient stores. It was like combination of grocery store, coffee shop, restaurant, magazine store, drug store, office supply store and department store. They dont sale clothing but they have underwears and socks for man and woman. I bought battery charger for I-phone 6. Store was pristine clean. There was free WiFi by Lawson inside store. They had a several small tables and counter table you can sit down. 2nd floor had 4 restaurants. I think they were all expensive. I looked at Menu; I was not interested in any meals with prices, on all restaurants. I would recommend anyone go to Lawson instead. They had sandwiches, Pasta, Bento box style lunch & dinner, Japanese Soba or Udon noodles, Ramen, Rice balls and so much more. Tastes were all exceptionally good, in my opinion. They received fresh newly cooked meals twice a day. I reassure you about cleanliness of foods, they were great. There were many restaurants all around JR Saitama Shin-Toshin station, or go to the Shopping Mall other side of train station. Saitama Super Arena Stadium is nearby. They used to have John Lennon Museum. Too bad, Ms. Yoko Ono closed it a several years ago. Instead, they have a big scale of Gold-Gym (from US). Extremely positive about this hotel is they have beautiful, fun and clean public facilities inside building. They are not free, but pay about US$10 for an adult, you can use all the facilities. It is open to public. Ask front desk for more details. 6th Floor has 25-meter swimming pool. It is clean and well maintained swimming pool. Dry Sauna, Bathroom & Shower, and clean & pristine Locker room for man and woman. Health & beauty Salon. Outdoor water jet bath. Hot Spring Health Bath that designed for rehabilitation. 7th Floor has very nice and immaculate Gym and big Aerobics Studio. 9th Floor has a half outside and a half indoor 150-meter long walking path. Stuff at Front desk was very humble, respectable and friendly. I believe some stuff can speak English. Manager told me they have foreign travelers stayed occasionally. If you need laundry and dry cleaner, I guarantee you, they do superior job, even under wears and socks. Every item was done by 5 pm, if you bring them to the front desk by 9 am. And every items were folded it like a brand new clothes, and sealed in plastic bag. I had business suit, dress shirts, socks and underwear. Their quality job was far better than most average Dry Cleaners in the US. You will be impressed! Dry Clean and Laundry request form are printed in both Japanese and English language. Prices were very reasonable. Downside about this pleasant hotel is that it is quite far from JR Saitama Shin-Toshin Station. It took me about 15 minutes by walk. Website stated it would take 7 minutes. I disagreed. It took me about 20 minutes to JR Kita-Yono Station. Website stated 10 minutes by walk. Positive side was that you walk through a beautiful modern architecture sight. You walk above grand street level, Raised Board Walk all around JR Saitama Shin-Toshin train station, and between Hotels. Therefor, you dont ever walk in residential area at all. Bad news is you would feel pretty lonely and very quiet surrounding you at nighttime. Because location is a middle of Saitama prefecture buildings area, like City Hall or State Capital in the US, you dont see people at night. I only saw a few joggers at night. I felt very isolated. Bright side is, if you would like to take a walk during daytime, Raised Board Walk is really nice place to be. (They have a construction neighboring area, I think building will be the Childrens Hospital. But I did not hear any noise from them day and night, at all.) In Family Park at night near JR Station, all the trees were decorated thousand of blue and white LED lights, like Christmas. It was beautiful. There were some lights and severance security cameras between JR Train Station and hotel. I wish they had more Street Lights. There were many coffee & bakery shops, restaurants, one pharmacy, and shopping stores around JR Saitama Shin-Toshin station. All walking distance from Hotel. There was main Japans Post Office next to the Hotel. There was another business hotel in the same area near Rafre hotel call Hotel Brillante Musashino. I will check this business hotel next time. Enough said about Rafre Hotel? I hope my information would help anyone who is looking for place to stay in downtown Saitama city or attending sports event & concert events at Saitama Super Arena Stadium. If you are not satisfy about this Hotel, courage to talk to the Front Desk face to face. Staff may not speaks good English, but does not mean they are rude. In 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic, I heard a several sports events would be played at Saitama Super Arena. Check it out. There is no English language site about this Hotel. I would recommend you to write your questions and concerns in English to their E-mail address below. E_mail.shukuhaku@rafre.co.jp

  

• JJD702

  15 abril 2019
  Great Centralized Location

  Rafre Saitama proved to be a great location for my recent trip to Tokyo & the surrounding area. The room was clean, neat & quite reasonably sized for a Japanese hotel room (for those unfamiliar Japanese hotel rooms are smaller than American hotel rooms). From Rafre Saitama, it was a 7 minute walk via covered walkways to the train station, restaurants & shopping. The staff of the hotel was tremendously helpful and multi-lingual, a great bonus since my Japanese is poor at best. Contained within the hotel are 3 restaurants, a full fitness center including pool and walking track that is available to guests for a slight daily fee & a Lawson's convenience store that is fully stocked. I would recommend Rafre Saitama without hesitation.

  

• dartagnanaguilar

  29 diciembre 2019
  Location is ideal but the hotel is old

  I did an overnight stay at the Rafre in Saitama because I was scheduled to watch a U2 concert. The hotel itself is not hard to find. Once you exit the train station, you just venture to your left and the turn left again and walk straight until you find the hotel with a sign outside. I arrived a couple of hours before check in time but the staff graciously checked me in. I also left word to the hotel that my concert ticket be dropped off there, which they remembered to give me as soon as I checked in. Plus points for that. The room itself is quite old, but quite spacious for a Japanese hotel. Though it's very clean, one can notice that the furniture is already dated. There is a 711 in the same building as the hotel and not a lot of people use the hotel's restaurants to eat, which is a shame.