InTheHood hotel appears to have industrialized the tokyo airbnb experience extremely well. The rooms are flawlessly clean, linen and towels are crisp white with a scent of detergent, and the kitchen necessities to cook a meal (sans rice cooker) are all there. The grill that is built into the stove is a quentessential element of this kitchen where it is imperative to bring home a 西京 miso seasoned fish from the nearby market to grill a fatty seasoned amberjack from the market to selfishly enjoy this winter seafood delectable.
Albeit there are a few areas for improvement:
1) Confirmation code entry during checkin obstructs streamlining the checkin experience: The tablet available at checkin booth requires you to type in the 10 character confirmation code that is sent to you after your reservation is confirmed. The tablet (size of ipad mini) defaults to upper case for first character, followed by lower case for subsequent character sets. The checkin app on tablet rejected my entry a couple times before I realised the app was case sensitive for all character sets. I must admit I was a bit unnerved having to re-tap the hashed alpha numeric keys a few times after a lengthy travel.
2) Questionnable lock key inspection: During my stay, I received a notice over the course of two days that my room door was going to be opened to debug the room lock. The key was working fine for the duration of my stay, and the communication that announced this replacement left a few open questions and put me at slight unease since I could not be present during the time this inspection was being performed (exactly what is wrong with the lock? why are you citing fire inspection when it clearly is not related to this lock key? why couldnt this service wait two more days at which point I would have departed the room?)
Knowing the checkin booth attendant is not able to speak japanese, it made me wonder how having that staff be present while the lock key was being worked on could alleviate any concerns if a handyman who supposedly replaces the lock runs into any issues.
3) No bathtub faucet: To fill the bathtub, you have to point the showerhead to the tub. The water in the tub will inevitably cool due to the slow fill rate and the exposed surface area of water that drains through the showerhead to open air before filling into the tub. By the time the tub fills, the water would have cooled— the lukewarm bath experience (despite a 47 degree setting) was underwhelming on cold winter nights.
4) Room chair: There is a work desk, but the sole room chair with wide mesh is uncomfortable. You simply can not stay seated for an extended duration without a backache. Placing a pillow on your back reduces the back discomfort but that reduces the area to sit, which eventually creates another discomfort. As someone who has to work from home for extended hours, the setup was not suited for work.
5) Wifi : The wifi information provided on room description on airbnb points to the wifi connection that serves the smartlock. Its connection is extremely slow. The 5G wifi credentials you should use are taped onto the wifi router; however, the wifi connection seems to degrade after connecting three devices to the network. My online teleconference was periodically interrupted by network connection issues.
6) Unsettling Financial penalties : $1000 clean up fee for anybody honestly reporting having contracted covid simply did not make any sense. We are in an era of pandemic— this incentivizes individuals not to report having contracted covid, especially when we share an elevator and common lobby space. This puts other residents at risk.
All in all, despite these small kinks, this hotel excels at cost performance in Tokyo area. Thank you team for the amazing hospitality!