Hotel Aqua Citta Naha — Hotel in Naha

HEALTH HAZARD. I am not sure how this place is still open.

Rooms: the room I was assigned was very humid and moist. I rested a little bit on the bed in the afternoon and it was kind of wet and very humid. I had to wear the pyjama they provide (quite comfy to be honest) to keep dry. The air in the room was also difficult to breathe. I told the issue to reception, and asked if I could change the room. They gave me a humidifier instead, which made the situation bearable. However the air quality in the room remained poor and stuffy, and the fact that you can’t even open the window made me wonder for the whole night what kind of air I was breathing. It felt unhealthy and unsafe, never experienced this in Japan (or anywhere else). Moreover, the humidifier has a very bright blue light and started beeping in the middle of the night. I had to change the water at 3am and couldn’t really fall asleep after. The room is also very basic and outdated (no USB). The bathroom is completely refurbished, however there was something weird - it felt like it was moving ? Maybe they didn’t refurbish it on stable ground. There is no water and no telephone in the room, so how does it classify as 4 stars??

Facilities: most people choose this hotel for the facilities and the swimming pool. Unfortunately you may be disappointed. The swimming pool is very small and has no vibe. I checked it out in the evening (didn’t get in) and there were 3 guys inside which felt like too many people already. No place to rest or even hang your towel. I can’t even imagine how overcrowded and uncomfortable it must be on a sunny day … no tattoos allowed. I didn’t have the breakfast, but the dining room looked overcrowded.

Service: to me this was one of the most horrible experiences in Japan (and I travel a lot in the country). The staff was nice, I suspect the issue is at the management level. I arrived at 2.30pm and they told me without even seeing my passport “check in is at 3pm”. No hotel usually does that, they would check if your room is ready when you arrive close to checkin time (or even earlier). Then I saw that among the many things they ask you to pay extra, there was “extra hour in the room”… zero service really. The other super odd thing, they have a notice saying that they don’t call taxis for customers. What’s the point of being in a hotel then ?? Management really needs to learn what service means.

Location: the only decent thing, if you’re getting the boat for the islands. The port is literally 5 minutes away and very convenient to get to. On the other hand, to get to the city centre it is a 15/20 minutes walk, and the way is not well illuminated at night (although it feels safe).

Overall, I decided not to further risk my health and cancelled my reservation for another couple of nights later in the week (obviously the staff didn’t even notice that I was coming back, and treated me like a...

Check in was strictly 3pm, but then done on a machine which struggled with our foreign passports, yet 3 staff members were sat behind the reception?

Room was nice, simple and Japanese in size but good bathroom with a bath (actual size bath!) kettle facilities in the room but not tea available so we had to buy from local store. Coffee machine was out of order the whole time we were there (5 nights) even though we saw a new one arrive. I have a feeling it was only available during the breakfast to make people pay. I don't know many people who want a full Italian buffet for breakfast, so we went to buy things from the Lawson/Family Mart every morning.

Location wise it's good, we were in a quieter area but only 15 minutes from the Starbucks on the main street. But not a lot going on around the very close area (cafes, bars, etc). Good for the monorail which took us to the airport and shiro castle etc.

Weather wasn't great when we were here so feel bad commenting but even in 8° weather the "all weather" pool felt very cold. No sunbeds by the pool. Jacuzzi was lovely but freezing when you get out!

Finally, the thing that annoyed us the most, we went for a whale watching tour (external) one day, we were picked up at 8am and left the clean room sign up. We returned at 12pm, not clean. We then went for lunch nearby and returned, still not cleaned. It wasn't until 2.45 when we had complained to reception that our room was clean. It disrupted our whole day and made us very tired, sat in reception for almost 3 hour (no coffee machine remember?!) as hotel guests. It's not like we hadn't already checked in, we just wanted to go and nap after...

First of all, Im really surprised that a hotel have staff that cant speak even a single sentence of english, and with the only means to communicate with language apps. You dont feel welcome as a foreigner when this is how it is done. I had problems with the room I was assigned as it smelled very bad. It was some moldy smell that was in the bathroom and the bedroom. I tried to explain to front desk but they didnt seem to care too much and didnt understand either. I got to change my room, but I wasnt happy with the new room either because there was also the same kind of smell in there, but a bit lighter. I suspect though that every room more or less in this hotel have this smell. When housekeeping did cleaning in other rooms i went close to that room to smell in there too and guess what: the same smell was present there too!!|So at this point I gave up my efforts and hopes to change to a odourless room..|On the positive side, the pool is awesome and very warm and nice and almost empty with people if you go 10am. A little bit annoying that they charge 1000 yen if you wanna go to the pool after 7pm. But one very good thing with the hotel is that you get 500yen voucher every night if you opt not to have your room cleaned, very progressive and smart!|Didnt try the breakfast as it is super strange to have Italian breakfast with pizza and pasta, for breakfast and in Japan...A local friend suggested to me this might be due to this kind of food is very cheap to cook and arrange in Okinawa so maybe a reason for offering this "Italian concept" is due to the hotels...