Apa Hotel Higashi-Shinjuku-Kabukicho

One of three apa hotels within two blocks of each other at the north end of Kabukicho. Closer to Shin-Okubo station than Shinjuku - about a 10-15- minute walk from either, through very busy streets; uncomfortable to do with luggage. It's a standard business hotel with decent but very basic facilities. The room was comfortable but small. The bed was soft and lacked pillows.

The hotel sent me an email while I was on a transpacific flight threatening to cancel my reservation, which I had paid in advance and confirmed by email, if I did not respond before 12:00. If I hadn't thought to check my email upon arrival at the airport, I might have arrived to no room despite the advance payment and the confirmed arrival time. On my last night, the fire alarm went off around 4:45 AM. After three minutes, the hotel began broadcasting a message in extremely formal Japanese explaining that it was a false alarm and that guests should stay in their rooms. As the clientele was mostly foreign, this was useless to them, and most guests evacuated onto the freezing January street. Even to a fluent Japanese speaker, the message was worded incomprehensibly. After about 8 minutes, a translation was added to the broadcast in extremely formal English, which was equally useless to most guests. The night clerk was overwhelmed by the situation. Hotel staff were polite and friendly, but were utterly unequipped to handle their jobs, or stuck following corporate policies that did not serve their guests. I would not stay in this hotel again, or another of the APA chain.