THE CELECTON TAKAMATSU — Hotel in Takamatsu

The hotel is located near the harbour and is a good 30-minute walk from Takamatsu Station. The easiest way to find it is to take the Kotoden train from Takamatsu Station to Kataharamachi which is just one stop away. Then, once you reach the station exit, you veer right and you then soon reach a larger street where you turn right again and then just go straight until you see the hotel in front of you. It is a large white-coloured building with a blue sign displaying the name in Japanese only as オークラホテル in front of which there is a large car park. You go left to reach the entrance above which the name is displayed in English. ||||Inside, the lobby is huge with a lot of seating and a series of drinks vending machines and a large reception desk. I dealt with several reception desk staff and they were all without exception totally unwilling to communicate with me at all in Japanese and refused to answer every question that I asked and refused to acknowledge anything I said in Japanese even though they cannot speak English. They can only make one-word utterances consisting of meaningless words such as "this", "name", "up" etc. Refusing to speak Japanese in Japan is just ridiculous, totally unhelpful and extremely, extremely rude. I found it extremely uncomfortable to deal with the staff at this hotel and there were no polite phrases or bowing at any time and no thank you for my custom or goodbye at the end.||||The room I had was on the 9th floor and overlooked the harbour so that the view was very pleasant. It was a small single room which was over 6000 yen a night on Agoda which I booked only because it was the only hotel left in town with affordable rooms during a Japanese holiday weekend. Now, I understand why it was the only one left. My preferred hotel, Takamatsu Century Hotel, was full where I usually stay. That is an excellent hotel where the staff are courteous, helpful and friendly.||||My room at this hotel was quite typical of any Japanese hotel with a carpet on the floor, a long desk, a TV which does have real television programmes on it and not just video on demand like at some hotels, a fridge, tea-making facilities, a telephone, torch, clothes deodoriser, hairdryer and a real wardrobe for hanging clothes. Night dress was also provided. The bed was quite comfortable with no protruding springs. However, there was boy car racing going on until late into the night when all I could hear were racing engines and screeching tyres which prevented me from sleeping much. The air con temperature in the room could not be regulated. You could only adjust the fan speed.||||The bathroom is also typically Japanese located in a cabinet with the usual small bath tub, wash basin and high-tech toilet. Shampoo and body wash are provided as is a toothbrush with some toothpaste and plenty of toilet paper plus a couple of towels.||||I did not have breakfast at the hotel, but, you can have breakfast there between 06:30 and 09:30 for 1,030 yen, if you so wish. I had breakfast inside the arcade at Gasto (ガスト) which can cost as little as 299 yen and they have all sorts of different breakfasts. Check out time at the hotel is early : at 10am.||||Since most Japanese hotels are quite similar, good customer service is quite important. However, the customer service at this hotel is horrible, if you are a foreigner as you get treated like dirt. I felt extremely uncomfortable and intimidated by their racism. For that reason, I am giving this hotel an extremely low score and I would never even consider staying here again. It must be one of the world's rudest and most...

Renamed as the Celecton, the lobby has perhaps had a refurb, but nothing else has. Once you can finally get in the elevator, which stays open for only a few seconds before snapping shut painfully on any appendage you may have in the vicinity of the doors at the time, you arrive on a floor in desperate need of a deep clean and a palpable wave of decades-old stale cigarette smoke. Your poky room offers little respite in terms of decor (chintzy polyester bedspreads in lurid shades, flat pink carpets, smelly curtains covering a view of carpark or brick walls), space (nowhere to put two suitcases, nowhere to sit except the beds, unless you want to sit at the desk/dressing table/only flat surface and stare at your own refection in the mirror), or comfort (a trip hazard entrance to the bathroom not much bigger than those in economy class on an aeroplane, one teabag apiece, one pillow each, half stuffed with barley or corn or some other kind of dried grass best found in breakfast cereal, an overstarched yukata in very small sizing). Be grateful for the office chair, however, as you will likely be spending a lot of time sitting in the corridor (or down in the lobby), if you want to access anything via the internet. Access from the corridor will still be exceedingly slow, but it is completely impossible from within your room. The local hotel network didn't even show up as an option on any of my devices, when I was in my room. There is a LAN connection in the room, but since we are now actually in the 21st century, I've stopped traveling with such luxuries. The bed (despite the pillow) is comfortable, and the shower pressure reasonable and the water hot, but this is not a room in which to linger. I'm sure there are worse rooms around, but I hope I don't have to experience them. I would give this only half a star if I could....

On a business trip to this regional centre on the island of Shikoku, I stayed at this very ordinary hotel mainly because the two larger chain hotels were full. However, I was glad I stayed here because it gave me a taste of what routine business travel in Japan would be like. The other guests seemed to be business travellers, technicians, or sports team members. There were no westerners and no tourists that I could see.||The hotel is ordinary. Not clean, not dirty; not luxurious; not tawdry. My high-end single-bed room on the 7th floor was tiny by western standards. However, it was well appointed with a good bed, air conditioning, good sound-proofing, a nice little TV, internet access, a desk, and a nice lighting system that I could control from the bed. The bathroom unit was tiny but the bath/shower and faucets were clean and worked well. I was disappointed that this hotel still uses big metal room keys (instead of swipe cards) that you must leave at reception.||The price included breakfast in a large cafeteria-style room with a long buffet with an unusual mix of western, chinese, and Japanese food and drink. The food was adequate. As in many places in Japan, smoking was allowed at one end of the room. ||The hotel's location was also ordinary. It is very close to a secondary rail station (the main station is further off). It is at the end of long shopping arcade that runs into the central business district. Taxis wait outside the hotel at peak business times. Front-desk service was good but a Japanese phrase book would come in handy.||Overall, a comfortable stay for one night, but I would not want to make it my base of operations for...