If there’s anything to take away from this review of the Royal Park THE Haneda Hotel (at the Haneda Airport in Tokyo), it’s that the experience was a lot better that the name.
A full review of my 1 night stay at the Royal Park Hotel THE Haneda
The Royal Park Hotel at the Haneda International Airport (HND) is one of the most convenient airport hotels I’ve ever stayed at. It’s connected directly to the terminal, and just a few minutes from the main ticketing hall.
The entrance to the Royal Park is situated far back from the hustle and bustle of the main terminal, so you kind of have to keep an eye out for it. It’s easy to miss!
The lobby (and checking in)
The best way to describe the process of checking in at this hotel is to say that it was nothing like check in process you saw in my review of the Tobu Hotel at Narita Airport. Not only was it not that busy, it was a little swanky too (in a good / boutique hotel sort of way).
The room (was small)
Have you ever been in Japan and forgot that you’re actually there until something really weird happens that would never happen at home? Japanese culture is very different from my own, so this happens to me every time and it’s always a bit of a jarring experience.
Case in point: cracking open the door to my room at the Royal Park THE Haneda Hotel and being completely shocked when I saw that it was about the size of my walk-in closet at home. Welcome to Japan buddy!
As you can see, the rooms here at the Royal Park THE Haneda are quite different than anything you would find back home in US. It’s not any worse, and as a matter fact in many ways it’s a lot better.
We Americans tend to associate size with greatness, so coming at this from an American perspective was a bit jolting at first. But once I got past the initial shock of how small this room was, I quickly came to realize that it was probably one of the better hotel rooms that I’ve had a good long while.
The bathroom
I especially liked the fact that the bathroom was nearly the same size as the main room and stuffed full of luxuries such as a deep tub, heated floor, high water pressure, and one of those fancy electronic Japanese toilets that do things to derrières that would make Donald Trump blush.
The only thing I didn’t like about this hotel
Speaking of quirky Japanese–isms, can we talk about the name of this hotel for a moment? Being a native English speaker who consumes a lot of Japanese content, it always makes me chuckle to read titles of things that somehow got lost in translation.
Not only is “THE” in the completely wrong spot in the title of this hotel, the fact that it’s all capitalized bothers me greatly because because it puts too much emphasis on what is essentially a glorified capsule hotel.
In my opinion, using “THE” in all capital letters only seems to work when talking about a Grand Hyatt or something. “THE Grand Hyatt” seems to roll off the tongue a lot better than “Royal Park THE Haneda.” Especially since Grand Hyatt’s (such as the Grand Hyatt in Taipei) are usually a heck of a lot more fancy than tiny airport hotels like this could ever be.
Final thoughts
Was this the best airport hotel that I’ve ever stayed in? Quite possibly…yes. The Marriott at the Calgary International Airport had been holding the number one spot in my mind for a long time, but that was a completely different kind of experience compared to this. I’m not really sure what to think.
Both are great in very different ways, but being the simple kind of guy that I am, I’m starting to think that maybe the Royal Park THE Haneda takes the number one spot.
That name though. Something needs to be done about that name!
