Checked-in last Thurs and out on Sat. We arrived at the hotel around 1230pm and the room was ready. Location-wise, it's not that convenient for trains and streetcar. It's walkable to the Hondori shopping area (10-15min) and Peace Memorial Park (20min), but there isn't much in the immediate vicinity. We flew into HIJ and caught the airport bus to Hiroshima station, then finally a cab to the hotel. The cab fare was around 1300 yen. On the day we checked out, we wanted to get a cab back to the station to catch the Shinkansen. The hotel tried to call one but we were told it would take 15min. Ended getting a cab through Uber almost instantly, which came to 1300 yen again. We would not have made our train if we had waited for the hotel to get a cab.
It seems the locals are/were having some holiday, so the hotel was absolutely packed. Still managed to get an upgrade to an exec room, which is essentially the same as a standard room but on a higher floor. The rooms are nice and new of course, and felt spacious enough for two of us and our luggage. My only slight complaint is the tiny size of the vanity top. It was very narrow and not much space for both of our toiletry bags.
The exec lounge is on the top floor (22nd). Slot bookings were required for evening cocktails on the weekend we were there. Even so, the lounge was totally full and the food disappeared extremely fast. To the credit of the poor lounge staff, they did a great job constantly replenishing the food. However as a result, the hot food offerings varied during each dining slot. It could start with a pasta dish, then become grilled sausages and potatoes by end of the 1h slot. I noticed most guests attached the food nonstop in the first 10-15min, but not the drinks. So my strategy was to grab a glass of wine and wait for the crowd at the buffet to die down. The quality and quantity of the offerings were not bad in my opinion.
Breakfast at Mozaik was a little more peaceful, however the staff here were far less diligent in replenishing food. On our first morning, we went down for breakfast around 35min before the end, and found many things had run out. These were not replenished at all through the rest of breakfast. I suppose the staff might have done so if asked. Our favourite item was the oyster omelette from the egg station. It was displayed as an option on our first morning but not the next morning. I still requested for it and the chef knew what I was talking about, so it's should still be available even when not listed on the board.
The hotel does seem to treat Diamonds/Golds quite well. While there's no lounge check-in/out currently, in the afternoon there was priority line at the front desk for Diamond/Gold. Likewise at breakfast there was a separate line, though at the times I went the queue was never long enough to require that. We were also offered an exclusive menu of iced drinks and freshly prepared fried oyster (oysters being a specialty of the area), which was nice.
Staff were generally really nice. There was one instance where we paused outside the entrance to figure out our walking directions, a staff member noticed and came out to offer assistance. Overall, we had a mostly lovely stay, apart from the madness at evening cocktails which was out of the hotel's control.