Location is nice, in the heart of Kobe’s animated port with attractions, restaurants and nice walk paths. Must walk a small distance in order to reach the subway station, but the hotel provides a shuttle. The hotel also provides a lot of amenities - too much as they add some every day - and bottles of water, tea and coffee daily and there is a free drink spot next to the reception desk, and a small but very convenient store on the ground floor.

Mass hotel dedicated to the overwhelming Chinese tourists tsunami hitting Japan right now, quantity is preferred to quality, a very sad phenomena which is happening pretty much in all Japanese major city hotels. Get ready for some loud and rude behavior from most guests.

After a quick and nice check-in with friendly staff, the first room we got was simply disgusting (see pictures): moldy AC, damaged furniture and some sort of viscous sputum on the wall. We complained and got a new room immediately - which was nice - but without having to argue for it at all, as if this happens all the time. The room we got relocated to was stuck between very loud Chinese and a baby playing on the balcony by hitting stones on the metal fence surrounding the building at 7am. Not ideal at all. You would think room allocation is being thought out by the employees, especially considering the posh and luxurious image the hotel pretends to have; apparently common sense wasn’t taught during staff training. Forget getting any kind of compensation for this matter, free meal, free breakfast or anything at all, a very weak move from a hotel pretending to put forward customer service through an apparent luxurious image.

To even consider giving a room as filthy as we first had is in itself highly irresponsible and a huge lack of respect towards the customer.

But in the end, that’s all it is, a worn down hotel that has seen better days, and somehow wishes to stick to a quality it no longer can or wants to provide, maybe because of economic reasons, maybe to save a few bucks over your wellbeing.

Pool and gym come with an entrance fee, off course, and forget going there if you have a tattoo: in 2024 this is still an issue for some, as they link having one with being part of organized crime. Again, an ironic and short sighted attitude considering this establishment wants to welcome guests from all over the world, without willing to adapt, using common sense and intelligence.

Poor sound isolation - both from the other rooms and from the street (the area is used by tuning aficionados on weekends, you can hear the very loud engines and accelerations) at night. Don’t even get me started about noise when a boat docks, the hole place is shaking.

There is a weird huge window in the bathroom looking over the room and the entire bay, but at the same time a recommendation from the hotel to close the shutter on that window in order to avoid anybody peeking in while you take a shower (why bother to have a window there in the first place)?

Overall a sad experience, and a surprising one: Japans hosting standards are high, the customer service is always the one thing you can rely on, as the respect for tourists - and basically everybody - is part of the very culture of the country. What happens here is unworthy of what you should expect and hopefully an exception.

Sadly, it is doubtful that the hotel will take immediate and serious action in order to correct those flaws. A standardized answer to this review will be given by the hotel or one of a bot the use, and that will be the end of it. Considering the many negative reviews we saw online, nothing will change any time soon.

But in today’s world, especially considering the impact of social media and influence one might have over a possibly quite large potential audience willing to travel to Japan, it would be sad, but understandable, to see future customers go elsewhere for accommodation, in the Kobe area.

So far, I wouldn’t recommend the place. Or maybe just a little, as it’s quite close to a beautiful Starbucks…