I arrived at the Nikko having spent 3 nights at another hotel further out and booked in here as I had some business to attend to in the CBD district.
There was a long queue to check in and a bit of a wait. In time I was shown the room.
Obviously this is a Japanese hotel and Japanese make up a large proportion of the guests. Japanese tend to be heavy smokers. I had booked a non smoking room. It was obvious that someone had smoked in the first room I was shown which was a petite queen room. I therefore asked for another room. I noticed in any event that the furniture in the first room was very worn and the room did not have a good feel to it.
My opinion of the room was that it was tatty with marked furniture which was not of the standard you expect from what is supposed to be a luxury hotel.
The second room I was shown was in even worse condition. The furniture was even more tatty, the room smelt [but not of smoke - more like a faint burning plastic] and to my horror, I saw that a light socket by the entrance had been completely smashed in so that there was, in effect, a gaping hole in the wall.
I was shocked as I was paying for, and expecting, a luxury hotel. The state of the room was totally unacceptable. I complained to the front desk about it and the gentleman who picked up the phone did not care less. I said the standard of the room was unacceptable - he said if I wanted a better room I would have to pay for it!! I asked to speak to the manager - they said he was in a meeting. I have never encountered such a rude individual on the front desk in all my years of travelling.
In time the head of housekeeping came up. I said the state of the room was unacceptable and did they really think that a gaping hole in the wall was good enough in what is supposed to be a luxury hotel.
She couldn't have cared less.
At this point I left the hotel to return my rental car as it was due back, on the understanding that I would speak to the manager upon my return.
When I came back the head of housekeeping had had maintenance in to change the light socket so that there was no gaping hole any more and had plugged in an air freshener.
This was not good enough - I should have been upgraded to a better room immediately.
As the phone in the room now appeared to be broken, and would no longer work, I had to go down to the front desk - to another queue and the manager was still "in a meeting".
My experience at this hotel is that they could not care less about the satisfaction of their guests. The Hotel Manager should be sacked immediately for not having procedures in place for this kind of occurrence.
At this point one of the front desk staff recognised that my treatment was unacceptable and offered to upgrade my room. However it was too late.
I left the hotel and went across the road to the Hilton.
Needless to say I would not recommend this hotel to anyone.
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