The Rise Osaka Kitashinchi — Hotel in Osaka

Not really sure why there's so many positives reviews for this place. It's okay, not the best hotel I've ever been to but it's clean, I guess? The rooms are small (definitely the smallest room out of everywhere I stayed in Japan), the location isn't the best (still at least ten minutes each direction for the train stations, not a deverse range of food areas around) and I felt extremely restricted with everything, like maximum TV volume is 30? I could barely hear it. You also can't use the electricity unless you have the key card in the black box, which I understand, yay saving electricity but I would always enter to an extremely hot room, and the air con would always take three attempts to actually turn on. It's such a negative way to walk into a room. Also if you're over 6ft you'll have trouble in the shower. It's SUPER short, which I get, a lot of Japanese showers are small, but we were in a room where there was a giant and sharp corner ledge above the shower which made it extremely hard to wash yourself without bumping your head on it. And it hurts. The cleaning service was subpar too, bed sheets only changed every third day. The staff was okay too, nothing special to mention... Simon was nice and outgoing but still nothing about this hotel stood out at all. Also the main entrance is up stairs, so when you're carrying all your luggage after a long trip, it's quite annoying having to carry it up a flight of stairs too. Honestly, I'd pick another hotel if I could. I feel like they purposely make you put a deposit down before you pay because you'll realize later it's not that great of a place. This was the only hotel that made us pay in advance and it definitely wasn't...

No service provided, stayed for two nights so our room would not get cleaned according to their cleaning schedule. Plus, I had to check myself in and out on a clunky machine, and all the staff in the lobby did was point me to the machine. (Why are you there then?)

They do provide a bottle of free water in the room (just one, even if booking for two), and there are umbrellas you can borrow when it rains.

Rooms are tiny, if you are thinking two people for a double, think again. The same tap fills the sink and the bath, to illustrate the size of the bathroom. I could barely stand or sit comfortably anywhere in the room due to lack of floorspace, and a weird ledge in the shower meant I kind of had to stand sideways or I’d hit my head while showering (I’m 1.83m/6ft tall). Sink was clogged so water drained slowly, aircon was kind of noisy and had a faint smell.

Location was convenient for us near Yodoyabashi station, direct metro to Shin-Osaka for the Shinkansen trains to Tokyo or Hiroshima and the Keihan Main Line trains for Kyoto.

Every other hotel we stayed in in Japan for a similar price was much, much nicer, quieter and more comfortable and spacious - couldn’t wait to leave...

Just about to wrap up a 3 night stay at The Rise Osaka Kitashinchi and I can say I'm satisfied with the overall room, service and location. The room and bathroom is small but that's fairly typical. Two people fit comfortably on the double bed provided (we both measure 169cm and 161 cm) and I personally didn't mind facing the wall. The sofa is a nice touch, providing additional space just to chill. Bathroom did have a slight damp smell but it's not a deal-breaker if you use the room just to rest after a long day.

On the night of check in, the front desk did well to welcome us and were approachable and friendly. The front desk provided me with an additional charging cable when I realised my adaptor couldn't be used in the room.

The hotel is a short and fairly direct 5 minute walk to Yodobashi Station. To be honest, the station is smaller than Osaka Station for sure, but much easier to get to - and more than serves as an adequate hub to connect you to the rest of metro Osaka. I wager your most frequented route will be the Midosuji line, which takes you to locations such as Namba, Shinsaibashi and Tennoji - as well as...