derpelikan

Hello everybody,

work brought me down to Osaka, landed at Kobe Airport and went to the china town . (had the best Nikuman there ...)

i checked out all 3 airports .

1.) Osaka (KIX) 1hour to the hotel.
2.) Osaka (ITM) Itami , there is a shuttle bus to the hotel (700yen/30mins )
3.) Kobe airport (you have to change the train 3 times... 970yen/ 1hour)

so the my advice is, fly to itm and take the bus ..

I arrived at Tanimachi-9chome station, and got off the subway.
just ask the staff there where the miyako hotel is, you have to work around 5minutes to arrive at the underground entrance of the hotel.

that entrance looked a bit shabby,,,

anyway, took the elevator and went up to the lobby which is in the second floor.

staff of the hotel came immediately and took my baggage. i told them that i am a platinum and they did take me to the dedicated platinum counter.

duty manager said hello , and checked me in.
he asked if i wanted twin or king and if i would like the suite or a deluxe room.

was told that the suites have no internet and are still not renovated so i went for the deluxe room.

this hotel has no lounge, but platinums get breakfast vouchers , welcome drink vouchers, gym vouchers.

my vouchers showed Platinum 001- 004 so i think i was one of the first platinums....

i entered the room,

on the right side the bathroom with a good choice of amenities.

the entrence is huge, you can have a little party there

the room , renovated , clean and it size was nice for a deluxe room. other hotels would have sold this as a junior suite, so it was ok.

NO platinum welcome letter, no fruits, only 2 bottle water for free.

you had a nice sofa on the left and two beds on the right.

went to the bar in the second floor and had my welcome drink, bar closes at 23pm. the vouchers were good for drinks max. 1100yen.

after the bar i went to bed , the beds were ok.

went for breakfast around 9pm (6am to 10am) , they had a huge selection of continental and japanese breakfast.

6-7 fruit drinks , flakes, egg, toast , miso soup , fish ..

the bacon was really nice, best bacon i had so far in japan .

checkout went smoth, had a total of 16000yen (room rate was around 12600yen)

cant complain about this hotel, but its not the best one. the westin in osaka is much better.

its a good alternative for people who want to stay at a low rate and its good for a hotel run for status.

from Shin-Osaka Shinkansen station you can take the Underground to Namba and than change to the Sennichimae Line. it takes appx . 20minutes from shin-osaka to the hotel.

Sheraton Miyako Osaka Hotel
6-1-55, Uehonmachi, Osaka 543-0001 Japan
Telefon: (81)(6) 6773 1111 Fax: (81)(6) 6773 3322

http://www.miyakohotels.ne.jp/osaka/


hotel is on the same level with the grand meridien in odaiba, the rooms are a bit better , but the same old hotel feeling in both places.



i have posted some picture here

http://blog.livedoor.jp/numazucat/ar.../50922140.html

at the end there is a link to kodak if you want to see more pictures.

cheers dp

allset2travel

I was looking for a more recent post for an update on this property. Thanks.
You said "Osaka (KIX) 1hour to the hotel". Was this by limousine bus or train? I understand the limousine bus stops at the hotel door, can you confirm?

Too bad the suites are not renovated and have no internet access. What about the deluxe room, does it have WiFi? Thanks

derpelikan

about the KIX thing, hotel told me there are direct buses from both airports ITM and KIX while ITM takes 30minutes, from KIX it will take 1 hour.

its sad that the suites are not renovated but the room i have been to was very spacious, and its bigger than some so called "suites " i have been to in the spg chain, so its fair , given the price.

dp

allset2travel

Thanks dp. Did your room have internet access (wired or WiFi?)? How much per day? Have you checked the gym?

mcgahat

Anyone have a recent stay at this property? I am gold and curious if they have any benefits for gold. Also from the previous posts there is a gym but a charge, can anyone confirm? Just curious of any recent experiences.

I like this hotel for a couple reasons, refurbished rooms, web site advertises free HSIA in each room and the limousine bus stops at the hotel.

nldogbert

Just came back from a weekend stay. As a Gold, you will get your upgraded room, late check-out if requested. Other than that, nothing else. You have to becareful that not all rooms are refurbished. During one of my stay, I was upgraded, I had a spacious room, but deco wise, it was really out of the 80's deco and furniture. Luckily it was a one night stay.

Yes, as a Gold, you still need to pay for the use of the gym/sauna facilities. No exception, I did ask but was told it will only be complimentary for Platinums.

There are free LAN connection, but becareful that speed can be rather slow at times. It really depends on the time of the day.

Other than that, do not expect much recognition as a Gold member. Staff as usual are very friendly. There are some nice shops in the area, but walking distances to the various tourist attractions can be a bit tiring with this hot weather.

If breakfast is not included in your rate, I think it is rather expensive to have it at the hotel, if I remember well, it is around 2000 Yen. Never had it, but I think it is one of the highest I have seen in Japan. There is a Seattle Best Coffee chain in the Uehommachi station. You can find a couple of eating places around the hotel.

Hope this info helps.

mcgahat

Thanks nldogbert for the info. Sounds like standard SPG treatment and perhaps I will skip the upgrade if it is to a larger but older room.

mcgahat

Ok, I did end up staying at this property recently and had a pretty nice stay overall.

I arrived early so my room wasnt available and was offered a smoking room instead and I took it. The room was very small but new furnishings so it was pretty nice just small. I could not tell it was a smoking room except for the ashtray.

I did have breakfast in the restaurant every morning and the cost was 2300JPY and although not cheap I didnt consider it overly expensive since that is all in....including tip and tax etc.

The lounge in the evening wasnt that exciting and a glass of wine was about 1100JPY other cocktails ranged in price from 1000 to 1800 which I found to be a bit high but keeping the tip and tax factor in mind and this is a hotel so you do usually pay more it wasnt outrageous.

The free high speed internet (wired) was a nice plus and it did go down one evening and did not get fixed until the next morning once it had acceptable speed.

The fee to use the fitness center was about 3100JPY and that was just too much for me so I just did some extra walking in the hot July heat to burn some extra calories.

Location, there isnt a whole lot around the hotel really but there are some eateries and the trains are nearby so getting around is pretty easy even though the hotel does not have a lot going on around it.

The main reason I chose this location is that we had a huge amount of luggage and I wanted to use the limousine bus which runs every 20 minutes direct to this location with no other stops. Also, it was much less expensive than the rates I was seeing at the Hilton so it was cheaper for us.

The only negative was that I rarely saw anyone at the bell desk downstairs and it would have been nice to have someone there to assist with bags.

allset2travel

Thanks for the new update. Re: limousine bus - is that the bus to/from KIX and hotel? How long is the total journey and fare?

It is unusually not to have bellmen around to assist you with luggage in any hotel in Japan.

mcgahat

Sorry, I should have said. That was from KIX and it was 50 minutes with no traffic coming or going. I want to say the fare was 1300JPY per person but I dont remember exactly but pretty sure that is correct. Yes, it is strang about the bellmen but the hotel lobby is actually on the second floor and there was plenty of assitance on that level and I did see a person at the bell stand in front of the hotel like once as we entered the hotel but all other occasions nobody on level one although they had a podium there.

anchor79

how convinent is it if travelling from Itami airport?

railroadtycoon

Back to Post # 1.

It is about 30-40 minutes from ITM.

Here is the schedule for both KIX and ITM:
http://www.miyakohotels.ne.jp/osaka/...airportbus.pdf

allset2travel

Thanks again for the update. Very helpful. ^

anchor79

are the rooms completely renovated yet or still on process? Thanks for the limo. bus tip, very helpful.

747heavy

I stayed recently at the Sheraton Miyako Osaka. They have a newly remodeled lounge on the 18th floor that I heard is due to become fully functional in October. You can go in and sit down now, even read a newspaper, but there are no drinks, no staff, etc. (At the moment, for Platinums, they offer a welcome drink coupon and another coupon for a full buffet breakfast in the morning -- quite nice.)

It's taken a little while to make the transformation to Sheraton, but it seems like they are getting better... IMHO.