Just completed a stay here and wow, this place is a strong contender for the title of worst Sheraton outside of North America.

I was given the exact room I booked, "guest room low floor mountain view." The view in either direction is obstructed by other buildings, so I'm not sure whether they consider ocean or mountain the preferred direction. Club floor and "larger guest rooms" were showing available on the website, but I know that the inventory isn't necessarily accurate, and I hate haggling for upgrades, so I just stuck with what they gave me. Rooms are good size for Japan, some 360sqft, but horribly out of date -- like so many Japanese hotels, there hasn't been any refurbishment since the place was built some 3 decades ago. The corridor smelled of mold and stale smoke, but the room only had a very mild musk to it. I'm quite familiar with this problem from other ancient Japanese hotels, so didn't even bother asking for a room change. The furniture and carpeting is worn -- this hotel, like so many of its peers are really moving beyond the "old but clean" description so often given in these threads, toward the "yuck, I'm not sitting on that" stage.

Internet connection, reported to be poor in posts going back a decade, is still poor. Complete the cumbersome sign-up process, and it'll work for a bit, and then it'll kick you off. A lot of sites don't load, forget about Netflix. I ended up using my phone. They must know this is an issue from thousands of complaints, so why don't they fix it?

The club lounge is clearly the worst in Japan, and I've been to super weak lounges like Sheraton Osaka and HR Tokyo. One plate is brought to your table with three small dishes -- a croquette (supposedly hot), a small slice of fish, and a small chunk of pate. The buffet has luncheon meat, cheese, crackers, and a variety of nuts and candy. There is wide range of alcohol, though.

Breakfast is now served at the lounge, and it's super basic continental. Restaurant breakfast is no longer a free option, but now requires giving up the 1000 welcome points. I'm not a breakfast eater, so didn't pick the restaurant option, but I did swing by the lounge out of curiosity, and it was as comically bad as I had expected.

I didn't try the onsen, but it was explained to me. There's a special access ticket that you need to show on your first visit, but you're not constrained to one visit. Plat+ are given the club welcome sheet, which also lists a "Spa Living" space on the third floor (with healthy teas and massage chairs), but I was warned that you're only allowed access if you're given a room on the club floors. A little weird.

The location is dreadful. A man-made island with a sea of ugly bubble era concrete. Initially it may have been quite lively, with business headquarters, malls and some restaurants, but now all that is abandoned, leaving you to wander through the concrete desert and wonder why it was ever seen fit for human habitation. If you're looking for "ugly Japan," you're in the heart of it.

There's a blurb on the hotel website about convenient access to Shin-Kobe. That's an interesting definition of convenient. You're looking at either a 30 minute bus ride (on a bus that doesn't run very frequently) or no less than three trains. Getting to Central Kobe (Sannomiya or Motomachi) also takes a good 20 minutes, and does get fairly pricey if you go back-and-forth more than once a day, because the different transportation companies will each charge a separate fare even though you may only be riding a couple stops on the respective system.

I had a JPY 9000 BRG rate, and with the 5k BRG rewards points and the current promo, should be ending up with ~10k points for the stay. Even so, I have no intention of ever returning. The location is terrible, the surroundings are depressing, the rooms are in dire need of a remodel, the entire hotel needs major investment, and the lounge is a joke. A number of Kobe hotels are superior and in the same price range, and if you're exploring the region by train, Courtyard Shin-Osaka is probably the best option, and really none of the Osaka area Bonvoy properties is less favorably located for getting around.