The conclusion first: if you are staying at The Westin Tokyo, drive.
There is one reason, and it is the valet parking. We stayed one night as a family on 13 July 2025.
You pull up, and you hand over the key
This is the hotel’s porte-cochère.
Because it sits inside Ebisu Garden Place, the site is simply large. A broad forecourt patterned like stone paving, an entrance with a deep projecting canopy at the far end, “THE WESTIN TOKYO” on the wall, a row of flagpoles, and space for several cars at once.
The mental image of a central-Tokyo hotel is a narrow driveway where cars slot in one at a time and you unload while the next car waits. That is not what happens here. The forecourt is wide enough that nobody has to hurry.
Stop, unload, hand over the key. That is the whole procedure.
What you get back is a single slip of paper
In exchange you are given this.
A yellow slip printed “Automobile Claim Check.” For as long as you are holding it, the car is not your problem.
On departure you hand it to the front desk or the doorman, and a short while later the car appears at the entrance. Which basement level you parked on, where the lift is, where the payment machine is — not having to hold any of that in your head is the actual point of valet parking.
Why it was worth it
Valet parking is not cheap, to be honest. What made it feel worth paying for is that what it removes is not time but the amount of attention you have to spend.
- No worrying about whether the car park is full before you check in
- No walking from the car park to the lobby carrying bags
- On departure, a straight line from the room to the car
- The more children and luggage you have, the bigger the difference
That last point especially. Travelling as a family, the bags multiply — a stroller, paper bags of souvenirs, it makes no difference. Deleting the entire step of “carry everything to the car park” is felt physically.
Most of the reluctance to drive to a hotel in central Tokyo comes down to the hassle of parking. Valet parking removes the reason.
A short walk outside the hotel in the morning
At 9:56 on the morning of the stay, I walked a little way around the hotel.
What I found was this small torii. A gold plaque hangs on the wooden posts, a stone lantern stands beside it, and there is raked gravel and a clipped hedge. Beyond it you can see the wall of a brick-coloured building.
Ebisu Garden Place is built as a European streetscape in brick throughout. And then a Japanese torii appears in the middle of it. The idioms are in collision, and yet it is quiet, and not at all bad.
Once the car is out of your hands, you feel like taking a morning walk. That was another by-product.
Notes from the day
- Stay: one night, 13 July 2025, as a family
- Hotel: The Westin Tokyo, 1-4-1 Mita, Meguro-ku, inside Ebisu Garden Place
- Access: walking distance from JR Ebisu Station; one stop from Shibuya by train
- Valet parking: ¥2,000 per day (per the hotel’s published rates)
- Self parking: ¥1,200 per hour
- Overnight guest parking: ¥3,000 per day
- Restaurant use: three hours free with ¥3,000 or more spent
- Best used when you have a lot of luggage or children with you. Travelling light and alone, the train is the rational choice
- Rates change. Confirm when you book
I think a hotel is largely decided before you enter the room. The few minutes between getting out of the car and reaching your door contain the whole design philosophy of the place. Here, those few minutes were very light.
Rates are as published by the hotel and are subject to change. Some images on this page have been rendered as illustrations.
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