HOTEL LOCUS — Hotel in Miyakojima

This hotel is only a year and a half old (opened January 2018) and already showing signs of wear. The staff was friendly and helpful, but, unfortunately, the cleaning and maintenance of the building leave a lot to be desired. Dust and dirt are all over all the floors, the sofas/chairs in the community spaces and in the restaurants have stains and grim. The walls are scuffed and a layer of dust is on every floorboard. The communal bathroom seems to be only cleaned once a day. The restaurant is delicious, but the menu is limited and the specials repetitive which is a shame when staying for a week like I did.

The bed was comfortable, a double in our room with 4 good pillows and a nice comforter. The A/C worked beautifully. It was a typical small Japanese style space with no closets or storage, so we had to keep everything in our suitcases (they need more storage/ hangers for the hooks), but the ample charging ports and long desk was nice. I will say the most frustrating thing was the key situation. To unlock your hotel room you need both hands, one to turn the lock and another to pull the door open as you hold the key in the lock. So, if you are carrying anything it becomes an issue, which was almost every time we opened our door. Not only that, but because you have to use the key in your room to turn on the lights, when it's dark it was sometimes difficult to get the key in the right way (the small blue light on the key hole did not provide enough light to help). The keys were also needed to go to your floor in the elevator, but it seemed pretty silly since any key takes you to any floor. Why is this a feature? On top of that, if you don't have your key, you can't get back to your floor - once my boyfriend and I went to breakfast and only brought one key. I returned to the room with the key while my boyfriend had thirds at the buffet. He texted me about 20 minutes later to tell me he couldn't get up to our floor because the stairs were emergency exits only and the elevator required the key. So frustrating.

The laundry facilities are 2 washers and 2 dryers that can handle small loads. They are dated and dirty machines - washer is 300 yen a load and the dryer is 100 yen for 30 minutes. They are in pretty constant use since there are 100 rooms in the building and in August it seemed pretty full. They definitely need to be cleaned a lot more regularly.

The pool is tiny, only about 4 people could comfortably enjoy swimming at one time and only about 10 people could comfortably lounge around the pool without being on top of each other. The community space has a shuffle board (closed for use in August because of high number of children who mess with the board in August - they let us play when the kids were all out), but no other games or entertainment like playing cards or chess boards, etc.

Sunset Terrace is a rooftop space on the top of the building. You can see the sunset, but there were only 4 chairs available next to the elevators that you could carry out to the open space. No tables, no cover, no lounging spots, just a big empty space - ambiance leaves much to be desired.

We are near a commercial port, so you are overlooking a harbor, not a beach, so you won't hear sounds of the ocean, just cars and engines from the pier.

Walls are not soundproof, which wasn't a big deal because guests were generally polite and quiet, but once the cleaners got started it was a little noisy and you can hear water from other rooms when they flush or shower.

Oh! Almost forgot - the whole place has concrete floors, hallways, restaurant, entrance, rooms. BUT, the elevator has gross carpet... why??

Pictures: (1-2) very dusty TV in our room, (3-4) scuff on the wall in our hotel room, (5-6) grates the hallway from the evaluator to our room, (7-8) elevator carpet and key sensor, (9-10) dust and dirt on the floors in the waiting area around the elevator, (11) dirty communal bathroom sink, (12) dirty floorboards, (13) dirty communal seating area, (14) small pool area, (15)...

The hotel only opened last year and is already a favorite among visitors. You should try booking early. There are a few types of room all facing the port which offers nice sunset view. For our eight-night stay, the economy double looked too small so we booked a standard double but it’s still small. There is no cupboard for anything but a few items were hung or put on the shelf of a wall along a narrow corridor in the room where only one person can pass through at a given time. Among the items are four hangers; two cups; 2 bottles of water; some tea bags and a small and narrow safe. New bottles of water are supplied every day which is much appreciated. A handy for all your internet and mobile phone need is a great idea and the wifi is also excellent. You can choose between complete room cleaning or only towel changes and are free to make that decision every day. ||||The small lap pool they have is more for the eyes than for a real swim. The small study is lovely, and so is the restaurant. However, the restaurant only opens for breakfast and lunch. We didn’t have breakfast in the restaurant but tried to have our lunch here the last day. However, the way they designed the lunch menu made it impossible. First they only offer paella (3 flavors) and a salad bar. Second, if one of us (my husband and I in this case) picks paella, the other must also have the same. It was not possible to order just one paella and one salad for the two of us and since we are small lunch eaters, we decided to go elsewhere and went to the lounge café in Atoll Emerald Hotel next door instead. Its view was less nice but it offers far more choices.||||Talking about restaurants, we tried two of them close to the hotel: Uminosachi (海の幸) and Mama’s kitchen (マーマーズキッチン) and were nothing to write home about. On the other hand, Bistro Pierrot and Nanraku (南楽)in the town center are highly recommended.||||The hotel has a few parking areas, either on the premises or off. The only covered ones are at the lowest level opposite the port but there are only a few parking spaces there. If you drive out for dinner, they will normally be taken by the time...

Came back to Miyakojiama and stayed in the same hotel within half a year. If you had read my last review, you would have known how delighted I was last time. Well, the hotel is still very nice (only some minor wear and tear on the walls and in the elevator that we noticed which were not there last time) but the service has definitely deteriorated.||||My first big disappointment is that they do not provide the handy phone anymore. This means I will have to rely on my own data plan and will need to find a pay phone if I were to make a phone call (sim cards are difficult to buy for foreigners). Then, they changed their policy of room service. If you don't want them to make up your room, instead of automatically supplying you with fresh supplies every day, you will now have to list out the items you want and hand the list to the reception, have them prepare and collect it later on.||||They are offering a good discount for the hotel guests on their breakfast and I would really have loved to try. Unfortunately it was served as a buffet and during this health sensitive period, it is probably not the most sensible thing to do.||||Last time, we stayed in a standard double and found it small. We chose a standard twin this time and are much more satisfied with the extra space. The bathroom is also more reasonable in terms of how things are arranged. However, with the new setting, the bigger sofa is now completely blocking the balcony door and we didn't even bother to get out on the balcony. If we were to come back, I think we will try the superior twin next time, but hopefully some improvements of the hotel can be made...