Hotel Mei [ホテルメイ福岡天神] — Hotel in Fukuoka

The good: Location to the major sights and convenience stores, which is really what most tourists want.

Super friendly staff which really makes the stay pleasant.

Good-sized fridge.

Enough space to open luggages.

The nice but not really necessary: Nice Level 1 sofa/ high table to relax in. You can also play songs from a tablet. Bare minimum amenities but you can help yourself to the amenities stand at near the counter.

The bad:

The bathroom/toilet measure 1m x 1.4m and is really too small. Inside this 1.4 square meters it fits the sink, toilet and bathtub. Don’t expect a nice bathtub, they should just do away with it as it is tiny. The sink is round and about 30cm across. That is how small it is. The brushing glasses are even placed on top of the toilet bowl (cistern part) due to lack of space. I am 6-feet tall and it is a struggle not to wet everywhere when brushing teeth. When I sat down on the toilet bowl my knees are touching the door and I had to sit sideways. Showering is a challenge as well due to limited space. No space to put extra toiletries that you might preferentially use. You can add one tube of toothpaste and that’s it.

We stayed at the loft-style unit (Room 102) at Level 1. Smell of food does come in during meal times but it is not too bad.

If you want to control the aircon mode in your room, it is not possible. The aircon is centrally controlled and we could not change the aircon to cool mode (it is on heating mode by default). We were told to open the windows at night if we wish the room to be cooler which is not possible for security reasons as we were staying at a Level 1 unit. I was honestly baffled by this policy as we paid good money to stay in the hotel and unable to change the temperature in the room.

Would recommend for couples or adults who wants the great location, but not for families with super young walking children or elderly as it can be a safety hazard sleeping at the loft as there is no safety barrier. The railings have giant gaps and the staircase is steep. There are better...

The Mei is located conveniently, a lot of things can be reached by foot. It is a modern concept, targeting towards a younger clientele (we felt a bit old, in our mid 40ies). We chose the Suite, which is basically a larger room with a spacious, comfortable sitting area, and had a pleasant stay. As with many hotels which have several smaller rooms, but only three larger ones, price/value is a bit out of balance, as rate is much higher – especially as the rate doubles on the weekend -, but amenities remain very basic: two portions of drip coffee, bottled water, two cups, two water glasses. Period. For 66’500 Yen a night. Would be nice if the three larger rooms on the top floor would include a bit more than just "more space".||What we didn’t like: The room's ventilation cannot be turned off, meaning that there is a constant noise. Best to counter it is to open the window in the bath a bit, which stops the airflow and hissing by the window next to the bed. ||Go, if you are open to a new concept, but rather don’t go if you expect a full service hotel. It’s basically a café with a small counter to check you in and out, yet staff was very friendly and welcoming, and could help us out with some of the things we missed...

Pros - the location was good, easy to get to the city centre and quite a few good food options around. We were travelling as a group of 5 and had the double storey loft that had 2 queen beds on top and 1 queen bed on the lower floor. Room was stylishly designed, clean and well maintained

Cons - the room was pretty small for 5 pax and while it was ok for our 1 night stay, I would probably feel quite claustrophobic if I stayed there for a longer duration. Also, the hotel doesn’t really have a proper reception lounge. There’s only a small counter where you register but there’s no waiting lounge and they share the space with a cafe. We landed in Fukuoka early in the morning and were sitting down trying to decide where to head to (since we couldn’t enter our room yet till 3pm) and were told twice that we couldn’t sit around as it was the cafe (which we understand) but maybe they should carve out a waiting lounge/reception area

Overall, would be ok to stay here again for a short 1-2 night stay but would rethink it if it was a longer trip given the...