I forgot to post this review of three stays in November/December 2017.

The Grand continues to be underwhelming. I was upgraded to a larger (maybe 50sqm) junior suite-ish room (with a seating area) for a 5 night stay -- my only proper upgrade ever at this hotel. Apparently, this room type only exists with an interior (mall) view -- I'm not a fan because of the noise associated with the fountain show. My following stay was the usual "upgrade" to a refurbished club room. Strangely, this hotel doesn't seem to make any notations on returning guests -- I was again given a mall-facing room, but was able to move on the second day. The club lounge is weak. Breakfast options are limited, and hot food often sits until cold. I noticed this time that there appears no food prep area in the club -- everything arrives on a cart from the main kitchen, and sometimes sits out in the hallway for a while (saran wrapped and hygienic, of course, but getting cold). The staff are surprisingly disengaged by Japanese standards -- I was never asked my room number (in dozens of nights total at the hotel), and often, staff completely ignore me. The lounge can get very crowded (especially on weekends), and the staff struggle with cleaning tables/refilling the buffet. Prices seem to have gone up a fair bit -- 30k yen seems to be fairly common now -- so C&P, which is usually wide open, is a pretty good deal.

I also spent a couple nights at the Regency. I didn't mind the location very much -- it's a quick walk to Hakata station, and the subway will get you to Tenjin etc quickly. The hotel architecture is pretty interesting, but the rooms are old and in need of refurbishment. I was initially given a tiny, ancient room of maybe 20sqm -- the hotel wasn't full, so the reason eludes me. I hate complaining and haggling for upgrades, but in this case I did go back -- the room doesn't have a safe, and I needed one for my laptop. I assumed that none of the rooms had a safe and told them that I'd check out and move to the Grand, but they somehow found me a deluxe king that has a safe -- and it's also much larger than the standard room (about 40sqm). Still ancient, but clean and acceptable for a couple nights. The club lounge isn't large, but I'm inclined to say that the offerings are better than at the Grand -- the evening spread has a good selection of high quality items. For some reason, my Hyatt reservations recently started coming with a "Vegetarian Guest" notation, so the checkin staff apologized for the lack of Vegetarian options at the club breakfast, and handed me an envelope with vouchers for the breakfast buffet. This turned out to be better than expected -- egg station, various salads and breads/meat/cheeses, plus some wildcard options like Wagyu beef, soups, and an impressive dessert buffet. I swung by the club, and the breakfast there looked ok, too (on par with the Grand).

Overall, I'd concur with others that the Grand is the better option, even though the rates at the Regency can be much lower (around 11k yen, or Cat 2 redemption at 8k points or C&P of 4k points plus under 5k yen). People keep telling me what a great deal HR Osaka is at those Cat 2 rates (a hotel I truly detest), and if that's your stance, then the HR Fukuoka will be right up your alley.