KOKO HOTEL Premier Kumamoto — Hotel in Kumamoto

Good hotel to stay at. Note that the hotel is part of the larger mall complex and does not have an independent entrance, which makes unloading luggage a bit difficult. However, it seems to be common practice to idle your vehicle in the leftmost lane and unload from there. Service is fine, nothing special.

Hotel itself is very modern. Amenities bar has a lot more options than usual, with lotions and bath accessories. Hotel has a great view of Kumamoto castle. We did not try the restaurant but it is well-reviewed.

Rooms themselves are alright. Good size, comfortable beds. Bathroom layout is strange, to say the least, but functional. Heated mirror is a nice touch. Make sure to pick up everything from the amenities bar as nothing is provided beforehand.

Parking-wise, the hotel has agreements with the lot in the lobby as well as the one across the street. Rates are average.

The location of this hotel is great. The mall attached has lots of good shops and restaurants. It is right on top of the bus terminal, which I imagine makes this easy for travellers. It is also right beside the Shinshigai shopping arcade.

The hotel is also a very good walking distance from Kumamoto Castle. Just a heads up - Google Maps will take you on a strange and unnecessary route that goes through the hospital if you leave the hotel at the west side. Instead, exit the mall through the east and the castle is within a 10 minute walk...

June 2025. Great hotel room for such a nice price. Not a big room, barely has space to open up luggage. However the bath room is considered spacious with a bathtub and a shower. The room has narrow space - basically a “one way street” for two people in a room. Table long enough to put stuffs. Hotel lobby is on 14th floor. One important point! You cannot find Koko Hotel logo outside because it is part of Sakuramachi building. So if you drive here, google will tell u that u have reached and you could only see bus terminal and could not find any logo. Yes you have reached. The hotel offered free parking but you have to find the parking entrance to the Sakuramachi Kumamoto. I didn’t because I didn’t know where Koko hotel is. I was looking for a big sign and have trouble looking for it. I decided to rerun my rented car first and sorted out the place later. So remember to tag Sakuramachi Kumamoto rather than Hotel Koko if you want to park. The hotel offered a microwave oven on 9th floor and I was surprised to find it located together with a big vending machine and ice making machine squeezed in a very very small room! You can’t even enter into the room. Well other than this, everything else is perfect. It is located together with a shopping mall and very near to the castle or a tram station and MRT station. Great...

When we checked in no one from the hotel told us the check out time is at eleven and there will be extra charge if you check out late. Yet they called us at 11:20 and asked us to check out at 11:30. We rushed out at 11:40, trying our best with short notice, but the front desk still asked to charge 2000yen with bad attitude. We explained that we are not informed about the charge and the manager still ask us to pay 500 yen. The issue here is: No one infrom us the check out time and panelty for late check out. If there’s a charge, you should inform in advance. If you really want people to check out (not just wanting to charge them), you should provide sufficient time for notice. Most fine hotels worldwide have this capabilities, maybe just Japan culture? First they wanna charge us 2000yen and then change to 500yen. It seems like they can just charge whatever they want. No clear rate indication, or they just charge for charge.

Overall the attitude of front desk is quite rude. It’s the first time for us to see someone like this as normally Japanese in hospitality are quite nice.

Not suggest this hotel useless you are...