My first place of stay this 14 day work trip to the cities of Fukuoka, Matsue and Osaka. This is a four star establishment in Fukuoka, and – coincidentally – roughly opposite Royal Park Fukuoka Hotel that I stayed in during the 2019 visit. I stayed here 4D3N, and here are my notes for it:
The hotel looks and feels modern, right from the main entrance at street level (take the lift up to L(obby) level), the restaurant I had my breakfasts each morning, and the rooms themselves. Hakata Station is a manageable 6 minute walk away along wide pavements. Roughly opposite the hotel and also a 5 minute walk away is Canal City. This shopping mall isn’t quite the size of JR Hakata Station but it’s quieter, prettier, and has adequate dining options – including the level 5 Ramen Stadium which sees some of Kyushu’s best ramen stalls clustered together.
The hotel doesn’t look like it’s primarily for business travelers though: I saw a couple of young families with toddlers and infants, and the guests I ran into in the lifts or restaurants were routinely also a mix of young and elderly couples and families.
The room I was booked into was a Moderate Double Room that sleeps up to two persons. The room is well big enough for solo travelers, adequate for couples, and possibly also Ok if you have a single child about. The standard amenities are also in the room: including a small mini-fridge (no complimentary cold drinks there), two bottles of mineral water, a combined toilet and shower stall, ironing board, and a safety deposit box that was too small to keep my laptop. There are plenty of power sockets everywhere in the room, and a couple of lights can be adjusted in intensity to suit your needs.
In-room WIFI was fast enough for streaming on Netflix, and also supported multi-device connections with no complaints; I had four connected devices each time (two phones, a tablet, and a laptop). The air-conditioning worked very well and has a working themostat for me to do micro adjustments to cooling temperature.
Breakfast starts at 6:30AM, and was included in my room package. The BF restaurant is at level two and offers a view of sorts of the quiet street part of the hotel faces. There’s a decent spread of items, including cold and grilled meats, pastries, local food types, and a variety of hot and cold beverages. It’s not spectacular, but breakfast for me every morning was a quiet serene affair, though this might also be in large part because I was routinely the first guest to arrive for BF each morning!
The room rates at the time of booking was about SGD180/night without BF: which is a little on the expensive side for hotels that are this distance away from Hakata Station. Nonetheless, it was a comfortable stay for me, and I had absolutely no complaints of it.
