SUPER HOTEL Ikebukuro West Natural Hot Spring

Overall satisfied: -Location with Ikebukuro station easily accessible -Very helpful staff -Onsen open from 3pm to the next morning

-The breakfast in itself is good enough, especially for free, but it is small with a relatively short opening hours, so it becomes easily too crowded. It should be open until 10.30am or at the very least 10am to flatten out the traffic of people. -Considering the room is small, it is a pity that there was a big desk, making the space to tiny and difficult to open even 2 luggages. -The bathroom is a bit old fashion and feels small if you are a tall person.

I enjoyed my stay at the Super Hotel Ikebukuro West Natural Hotspring Hotel. The location is fairly convenient, being that it is right next to a station entrance. It is a bit of a walk from the JR gates, maybe like a 10min walk? I didn't mind though, there were many shops to look at while walking through the station. In addition, sometimes there are pop up shops in station! During my stay there was a Kyoto dessert fair that popped up for the weekend. It is also very close to an airport bus stop (near exit 2a on google maps), if you don't book in advance you have to pay the fare in cash. The breakfast provided was very tasty, I really enjoyed how crispy & flakey the pastries were. The other options felt like a nice homecooked meal. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was the scrambled eggs as they were runnier than I prefer. It still tasted good though! The blind is a bit too good, if you close it completely it absolutely blocks all of the outside light. On my first morning I thought it was still dark outside only to open the blind and get dazzled by the sun lol. If you'd like to go to a grocery store, there are a few options. There is a Seijo Ishii/成城石井 in the echika (underground shopping area attached to the train station) on the way to gate C1b. There is a bigger Seijo Ishii/成城石井 in the IT Tower building which is diagonally across the street from the hotel (towards C7, I believe taking the 1a exit will take you directly inside the tower). If you walk towards Kanamecho station (if you are exiting C1b/the hotel, it's to your right/opposite of where Ikebukuro station is) you can find a Life grocery store. There are several food chains in the area, literally an udon place & freshness burger right before you get to C1b. If you want cheap bubble tea, I highly recommend walking across the street to Mixue. It feels like all the different convenience store chains are nearby --- Ministop and Daily Yamazaki are a rare sight...

The bed and pillow are a bit hard. You can always pick up a pillow from the amenities section when you check in though! There's only one elevator to access the guest floors, I only found this to be an issue in the morning when everyone is going for breakfast/checking out. In the manual it says that they will do a mandatory cleaning every 4 days if you stay for a longer period of time... It'd be nice to know exactly which days it would be, like do they start counting the days when you check in? Do they start counting it the day after? I thought I had counted the days properly, but when I came back the room wasn't cleaned;; Sometimes I just like relaxing in my room before heading out, especially since nearby shops tend to open after 10am... But I worried a bit whether I was disrupting the cleaners job...

Really impressed with my stay at Super Hotel. Fantastic accommodations for a solo traveler in Ikebukuro. Facilities were excellent and well maintained, with thoughtful room layouts, comfy beds, and a good shower. The hotspring is definitely far from large, but it is a very welcome bonus that was very enjoyable as you were winding down a busy day of walking and exploring. Hotel staff were great and attentive from the moment I arrived, even holding onto my luggage before and after my checkout. The morning breakfast was also a great little bonus with a wide assortment of fresh Asian and Western foods for guests. For those wanting to skip out on breakfast, there are plenty of nearby restaurants and shopping areas where you can get a more complete bite. I would highly recommend this hotel to my friends that were traveling solo or in pairs.

I think the only real complaint I might have is that there is technically a special aromatherapy scent that they use in the lobby and onsen that could be slightly irritating to those that are scent sensitive . That being said, it was still a very light scent overall, and I would hardly consider it a deterrent to staying here.

We enjoyed the onsen and the fact breakfast was included. In Ikebukuro the location was pretty decent.

The room was tiny. Oddly, the bed had only one pillow with a weird filling of 'little balls'. When we asked for a second pillow the hotel said they had none. Also, the bathroom had a very high step down into the room, which was uncomfortable and arguably unsafe.