APA Hotel Mido-suji Honmachi-Ekimae — Hotel in Osaka

I visited Japan for the first time midway through last year. During this time I used various Apa hotels 3 times, 2 of which were excellent, and one of which was one of the worst hotel stays I've experienced, and the only one through my 2 week Japan stay that I found to be unpleasant.||||I stayed in the "Apa hotel Midosuji Honmachi Ekimae" hotel on the 3rd of may and immediately there were a series of issues.||||-The first is that the room was not ready, of that I dont object because I believe we were slightly early. However there was only 3 seats in the lobby, which were taken. I could not sit anywhere else as the staff had filled every available space with luggage (including the entire dining room area), blocking it off. FYI I believe that constitutes a fire hazzard.||We walked around for a while however on returning our room still wasnt ready. The member of staff we talked to said he would inform us when it was, so we sat on the stone floor due to the lack of any seating. As you can imagine that wasnt exactly enjoyable after a long journey into osaka. We remained there for about 20 minutes before I asked the staff member again if it was ready. He informed us it was despite saying he would come to us when it was prepared.||||-The 2nd issue was the smell. We booked a smoking room purely due to the fact it was very busy and avalability was low. However not only did the room smell of it (no effort had been made to air it out), but the entire corrdior smelt of smoke. The smell was very overpowering, as if the corridor had been on fire. I understand that it will smell a little however you should be trying to air it out.||||-Returning to the issue of the corridor, I have not seen anything like this in any hotel I have booked. In every available space were trash bags overflowing with beer cans, ciggaretes and other litter. This was strewn everwhere which made it very difficult to navigate our luggage through (which we had to do ourselves). Id also point out that it was also a health and safety risk, as this particular corridor also appears to have housed the floors fire exit. To have the entire route to the fire exit filled with rubbish is asking for trouble.||||-Arriving in the room itself, it didnt get any better. The curtains to our window were dirty and mouldy, the shower curtain in the bathroom was abysmal, and there was an old sock directly outside our window. Im not convinced our room was even cleaned other than changing the bed sheets.||Equally the room had only one plug socket available, in a room meant for two people.||||I actually sympathise with your cleaner, I honestly believe she was in her mid 70's - 80's, and she was all alone trying to clean all these rooms. That is really unnaceptable, and no wonder that she wasnt able to do it.||||I would understand these conditions if it was a cheap room, however we were charged around £130 (¥20,000) for only one night. My girlfriend discovered on the day that we had arrived you had actually halved the price since we booked it, though even at half the price this room would be a tough sell. So realistically you fleeced us with the price because you expected it to be busy (cherry blossom season), when really this room should have been going for about £20.||||||For your convenience I have included some photos of the conditions in the room.||As I prefaced before, your first two hotels were excellent, however this one was awful and I would think twice before trusting the apa brand again lest I get stung twice. I hope you take steps to fix that because those rooms are not acceptable.||I provided this information to apa hotels int he hope they would at least refund some of the price, however all they stated is they would "endeavor to make our customers comfortable" and be more fair with price going forward.||Osaka is beautiful, as is most of Japan. I will be back, but its unlikely Apa will be my...

Overall, this is a good (not great) hotel. It's small and simple (no fluff here). It's in a good location, easy to walk to plenty of touristy areas. It's about 10-15 min walk to the touristy hub/neighborhoods (Dotonbori, Shinsaibashi & Namba...). It's right off a major boulevard that has luxury stores, hotels and car showrooms (think Aston Martin...). There's a convenient store across the street where we've gotten plenty of snacks (open late). There's a big, nice Starbucks a block away. It's also right next to a metro station. It's actually located in a good spot as long as you don't want to be right in the middle of it all, since it's located at the top end of the busy area. It's been perfect for us.||||Room: Very small. We were a bit shocked by the size but then we realized, by looking at the emergency exit & floorplan sign, that we had the largest room on the floor! Since this is more of a business hotel, it's probably fine when you're traveling alone. But it's been a bit tight for my husband and I (and we're not large people). The bathroom is tiny but very efficient and comfortable. Great water pressure and temperature. The beds were separated, but we put them together. Very firm mattresses (our backs loved them). The wifi is fantastic! You only have to sign in once and your device will connect day after day without a problem. We're even able to stream. There's a huge tv but we haven't used it since we've been using our laptops. There is no closet. There are only 3 hooks and 4 hangers. This is tough for 2 people staying for 1 1/2 weeks! The soap, shampoo and conditioner are abundant! They provide these huge bottles. That has been really nice. ||||Cafe: We had the American breakfast on our first day. We haven't gone back. One day we broke down and had the buffet at the St. Regis which is on the corner. It was amazing and worth the price.||||Communication/staff: The front desk staff are friendly and courteous, but they don't speak English so it's been tough to communicate. We found a cell phone on the street and I wasn't able to convey this... for them to answer it when someone calls so it can get reunited with the owner. Luckily, I had Google Translate on my phone and typed in my explanation and they understood once they could read it in Japanese. I highly recommend Google Translate here in Osaka.||||Overall a good experience. I would not recommend this if you're looking for a nicer or more comfortable stay. This is fine for business (which this trip is for us), but I wouldn't come back here if I were on vacation when I want my stay to be...

We stayed here for 3 nights in room 810. It's a good sized twin bed room (for Japanese hotel standard). But the beds were really hard.||Rooms were clean throughout our stay. ||They are strict with the check-in times so had to come back later to check in after dropping the bags (as we got there late morning after arriving at Kansai airport).||Only about 3-5 minutes from Exit 5 of the Honmachi subway stn (Midosuji line).||But note there is only stairs on this exit so if you got a heavy luggage you need to find another exit. We just slowly carried our luggages up the stairs.||Honmachi subway station makes it easy to get to Umeda or Shinsaibashi by train but Shinsaibashi is a nice walk along the shopping streets. Although the walk takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the busy part of Shinsaibashi, all the shops along the way will keep you pretty much occupied that you won't realise the "long walk".||I won't recommend using the laundry services here.||I had to wash my ducks down jacket (as it's still pretty cold in spring here) and they didn't even check with price with me before accepting it and made me pay 3500 yen for it! I've washed this jacket at other hotels in Japan before and I usually got charged...