Hotel Livemax Shinsaibashi-East — Hotel in Osaka

The Livemax in East Shinsaibashi is in a great location and the staff were excellent. The room was fine, it had space and all the needed features. The price was also competative for the location, time and facilities of the hotel. The only thing I felt was missing is that there was no ice machine on any floor which was unfortunate given the heat of the Japanese summer.

However this is all general information for staying in the hotel, our stay was unfortunately coloured by an unpleasant incident. Due to the aforementioned Japanese summer and lack of ice the first thing I did on arrival was to fill the bath with cold water to cool off. Once I removed the plug the water drained from the bath but then came up from beneath the toilet from the drain there accompanied with a foul smell. I don't know if there was a blocked drain or if this was a one off but it severely restricted our use of the bathroom as the foul smelling water across the floor was not something we wanted to stand on or clean. I could not report this at the time as it happened quite late at night and we had to leave in a rush, the staff on duty at those times had limited English and my Japanese was not adequate to communicate.

As long as this issue was a one off I would...

I was appalled at the cleaning quality… Usually hotels in Japan are super clean, irrespective of building age. This hotel was such a shame, I feel bad for the building. The building itself seems quite okay and the bed seems to be brand new, but the lack of thorough cleaning means there’s dust everywhere (like on the toilet paper cover, in bed frames, and on desks…)There was also food leftover in the fridge… I complained to the staff who was very apologetic and tried his best to clean the spots that had very obvious dust accumulation, but there’s only so much he can do. The carpet was disgusting with dust, hair and other stuff that we decided not to think too much about.The staff helpfully tried to rearrange another room for us but it was equally dusty if one looks closely so we declined. The next day we also found out they don’t help store luggage so we had to pay to use coin lockers instead. Would definitely not stay here or any livemax...

Overall, the location was quite good. The hotel was easy to find as it was not far from the station. There is also a nearby convenience store next to it. It's open 24/7 so there's no trouble there. The staff can speak English and check-in was not a problem as they used a machine to do it. However, I do not recommend getting the breakfast. The breakfast was onigiri with side dishes with green tea. This menu did not change for the time that we stayed there. The room was a little bit dusty but overall it was ok. The toilet and the showering area is separated so that is convenient. But, the room may feel a little small. There was not much space to put your luggage on the floor as my friends and I could not fully open our luggages that time as there was...