MIMARU Osaka Shinsaibashi NORTH — Hotel in Osaka

I recently stayed at MIMARU Osaka Shinsaibashi North (hereafter abbreviated as “MOSN”) and was disappointed with my stay. To be clear, I am a loyal Mimaru fan and really enjoy their chain; prior to my stay at MOSN, I had stayed at three other Mimaru properties across Japan and I generally had a great experience at each of them. MOSN is, I regret to say, the most disappointing Mimaru property I have stayed at so far. I would not recommend it, at least not until they improve. To be objective and balanced, as with my usual review format, below is my list of pros and cons:||||PROS:||1. Location: MOSN is well-located for travelers. There is a Lawsons and FamilyMart right near the hotel. You can also access an underground shopping street (I forgot the name, but the signs are in blue and yellow) right near the hotel too. This underground street has numerous dining and shopping options and connects with various subway stations. MOSN is located approximately 40-45 minutes drive from Kansai international airport.||||2. Clean rooms: rooms were clean. Housekeeping staff at MOSN are doing a good job keeping rooms clean. ||||3. Spacious rooms: I stayed in one of the 2-bedroom apartments and found it spacious, more spacious than other Mimaru properties.||||4. Friendly, professional staff (but not all - see below): most (but not all) front-desk staff members I interacted with at MOSN were friendly and professional. In particular, the local Japanese staff were extremely polite and professional and had excellent English (I mention English skills because they will be relevant later in the review). The staff member who checked me out was also very polite.||||CONS:||||1. Noise and bad soundproofing: The biggest problem with MOSN is that the soundproofing is simply not good. I am not the only guest to comment on the noise issue here - don’t just take my word for it. If you scroll down and look at older reviews, you will see other reviewers have also flagged this issue. During our stay, it was very difficult to get sleep because every 4-6 seconds we would hear stomping (with vibrations) from the neighboring flat (not sure whether it was upstairs, next door, and/or below). In MOSN’s response to previous, earlier reviews complaining about the noise/soundproofing issues, you will see that MOSN replied they enforce their quiet time hours from 22:00-07:00 and can help, but this is with all due respect quite a disingenuous and misleading response because what MOSN utterly fails to mention or disclose in their responses is that their front desk is closed precisely during those very hours. In other words, there are zero - none - Mimaru front desk staff from 22:00-07:00. There is only a security guard who I understand is not even Mimaru hotel staff; the guard is contracted via an outside security company. We did notify the security guard during the quiet hours about the noise. I have no doubt that he helped us (he was very polite on the phone), but the stomping noise continued for some time. MOSN needs to take the reviews about noise issues more seriously - not just mine but also the previous reviews on TripAdvisor and elsewhere online which mentioned this.||||2. Broken/defective washer-dryer in room: I specifically booked (and paid for) a room with an in-room washer-dryer. Not all rooms are MOSN have an in-room washer-dryer, and those that do are naturally more expensive. So, I specifically did my research in advance and chose and booked a room which had an in-room washer and dryer. Unfortunately, I was assigned a room with a defective washer-dryer. The machine’s drying function was defective, and as a result, I could not dry my clothes. And because it was after 22:00, no hotel staff were available to help. The next morning, after 07:00, the front desk did respond and was apologetic, saying I could dry my clothes using the coin-operated machines in the lobby and that they wouldn’t charge me for that. But the entire experience was disappointing because the whole point of my booking and paying for a room with a washer-dryer was so I wouldn’t have to go downstairs to the lobby to do my laundry. And why did they not check the machine properly before assigning me that room?||||3. Some odd interactions with one staff member: One front-desk staff member made me feel rather uncomfortable when I checked in, not so much her behavior toward me, but rather, toward her colleague. Let me give some background: having read the previous reviews online regarding the noise and soundproofing issues, I emailed the MOSN front desk well in advance of my stay, flagging my noise concerns and asking politely if I might be assigned to the top floor if possible. They replied saying they could assign me to one of the higher floors and would help with any noise issues and worst case they have earplugs. When I checked in, I followed up with the front desk staff member (a young, Japanese male front staff member) who was checking me if the room MOSN assigned me was the top floor room or not (I asked because I obviously don’t know how many floors are in the building as I was just checking in). He had been checking me in, introducing the property’s facilities, and preparing my room key, all in excellent English. Then, after I asked him this question, one of his colleagues suddenly then cut him off and interrupted him (a Caucasian female staff member interrupted him - I don’t know her name, and even if I did, I would not write it in a review, but she was constantly seated while speaking and wasn’t wearing glasses when she was speaking to me - I mention glasses because there was another Caucasian female staff member who was always wearing glasses and she was not the one who interrupted him) and in a quite defensive tone she said “we already tried assigning you to one of our highest floors.” I then asked politely for clarification whether “one of our highest floors” meant the “top floor” (because they are not the same thing) and she responded that there was already a guest staying on the top floor. First of all, and most importantly, I did not know why she felt it was necessary to interrupt her Japanese male colleague (he had excellent English skills and he was doing an excellent job checking me in). Her interrupting him made me feel very uncomfortable. Also, second, I was polite throughout the entire process, made no demands, and thus I do not understand why she adopted a defensive tone (it should be noted that the Japanese front desk staffer checking me in did not have any defensive tone whatsoever). As someone who also works in the service profession, I think a simple “sorry, but there is another guest already on the top floor, but we have assigned you to one of the highest floors, but if you have any issues with noise please let us know” would have sufficed and would have been the professional way to respond. ||||4. Differential treatment: I noticed some differential treatment by front desk staff. For example, when I checked in, the front desk did not mention or offer their “stamp rally mission book” - this apparently is a fun activity for children guests - they get a ninja mission book and collect stamps during the stay. I was traveling with my young child and we were not proactively offered this at all during check-in. However, while waiting for my taxi in the lobby later that afternoon, I noticed that when another family with a young child checked in (a Caucasian family), their child was apparently proactively offered this with the front desk staff member checking them even saying to them that their child could now go on his “ninja mission.” I won’t speculate as to why differential treatment was engaged in, but differential treatment appears to exist. Differential treatment leaves a bad taste and is unprofessional. MOSN should really pay attention to this. Either proactively offer the book to all kids, or don’t. When you offer it to some and don’t offer it to others, it leaves a bad impression, even if you have no intention of causing offense (I will give MOSN the benefit of the doubt and assume they had no intention of causing offense).||||In conclusion, let me just say that not all Mimarus are created equal. I would avoid the MOSN until they improve. Mimaru has other properties in Osaka that...

Our experience started off promising as we had pleasant mail communications with the Front desk staff. The Front desk staff is multi national and speak a lot of languages including Dutch, which was a great surprise. They are very friendly and helpful for any type of questions you have regarding transport, restaurants and sights.|We had a Theatre apartment, which is slightly bigger than standard. The room is clean, had a separate toilet, wardrobe corner, bathroom, small kitchenette with fridge/freezer, seating area with the beamer. We couldn't connect our Netflix account for the kids, but that was no big deal, as most of the time we were out and about. You tube worked. |It was very convenient to be able to have breakfast in our own apartment. The bedroom is separated by a wall with sliding door. The beds were big for Japan standards and the kids really liked the bunk bed. Mattrasses are very firm, the way Japanese like, a bit too firm for our taste, but it was OK. The airco worked good, but you can also open the windows for fresh air. We loved that the whole hotel style was Japanese. You do have to get used to the low ceilings everywhere. We have used the coin operated laundry once. The hotel provided us with slippers, they did a quick cleanse every day, replenishing the amenities, clean towels every day and clean sheets every 4th day. There was enough space for our luggage, although most of our stuff we had to keep in the suitcases as there was a small corner with clothes hangers, which was right at the entrance, but it wasn't enough for us. They do have some extra hooks though.|We really missed some extra surfaces to put stuff. There weren't any bedside tables. There were 2 doors near the kitchen which we thought would mean there is big closet, so it was a sort of closet, but it only had 1 low shelf, the safe was on there, but there was so much space above, but no more shelves at all on the higher part of the closet, so seemed like wasted space. Would suggest just a couple extra shelves, else you can't really have a good use for it to put groceries and other stuff, maybe folded clothes etc.|The curtains aren't thick enough, no black out option, so the rooms do get very light in the early mornings. The rooms are not sound proof, so if you're sensitive to that, I suggest earplugs. We had noisy neighbors for a couple of nights, but most of the time it was quiet enough for us. The carpet is black, so not really sure how clean that is, but we always use slippers at hotels. The rest of the room seemed really clean, so I trusted the Japanese standards.|Would definitely come back to this hotel if the chance arises, really recommend it for families and the neighborhood has so many cute stores, cafe and restaurants. Japan is convenient. Would try Mimaru in other cities. The price-quality is good for this hotel. Location is also good, walking distance to loads of things. Our time flew by, so it meant we had...

A really great family hotel near subway and just 2 blocks away from the popular Shinsaibashisuji Kita Shopping Arcade, a grand shopping street which stretches across a full 15 blocks from Chuo-Odori to Sennichimae-Dori where right at the end of this shopping street is the renowned Glico man in Dotonburi. Therefore, you simply do all your shopping here without having to carry bags full of stuff on a train.

Staff here can speak English very well and very helpful with everything you ever needed their assistance during your stay. The hotel has everything you needed, however, I found some minor in-room equipments that should be mandatory instead of renting them from the staff even though they are all free of charge. For instance, the bath stool and a vacuum cleaner, both should be equipped in the room. For the room itself, pretty spacious with great layout. I love the sliding door that separates bedroom from other areas of the room when closed. But the door is not sound proof nor walls, floor, and the ceiling so you can hear every foot steps from the upper room and since this is a family hotel so a lot of running noises from the upper floor every late night and early morning.

Your room is cleaned, minor, everyday with big cleaning every 3rd day of your stay which is good. The garbage is much less confusing than other family hotels I've stayed, only Can-Glass-Plastic bottles and other trashes. Laundry service is at 1ft floor even a smoking room is available.

Overall, a great family hotel located in a prime location both for shopping and travelling places by metro trains....