ELE hotel Ginza East

We were only given one keycard for the room, which was already unusual compared to other hotels we’ve stayed at across Japan. What stood out even more was how cheap it looked—it was basically a plain white plastic card with a sticker of the room number, not a standard printed hotel keycard. During our stay in Ginza, it’s very easy to misplace small items after shopping and trying on clothes. Unfortunately, we lost the card. While I completely understand there should be a replacement fee, we were charged 5000 yen, which felt excessive. From experience and typical policies at budget hotels in the Ginza area (for example, ELE Hotel Ginza East), keycard replacement fees are usually around 1000–2000 yen for standard plastic cards. Charging more than double that—especially for such a basic-looking card—felt unreasonable. What was more disappointing was that this fee was never explained upfront at check-in. Many hotels in Japan clearly communicate policies like this or even ask guests to leave the key at the front desk when going out to avoid loss. Overall, this felt poorly handled and unnecessarily profit-driven. Losing a keycard can happen easily, especially in a busy shopping area like Ginza, but the response lacked transparency and fairness. Would not recommend based on this experience.