Caption Namba Osaka - after only its first five nights
Caption at Namba, Osaka has potential, but opens as a disappointment. The hard product is shiny, new, and occasionally beautiful. Globalist breakfast is a choice from three very small 2,400 yen sets including a drink. You will be hungry again before you finish your coffee. Globalists can get early check in and late check out, but no Globalist room upgrades, no Globalist welcome drink.
Talk Shop, which makes up the entire entrance and check-in area, marketed as a brand-defining, flexible, DIY, you-are-in-control coworking and community area, is actually just an overpriced restaurant, where you will be asked to leave (really. seriously.) if you don't buy something or have a room reservation, and where staying guests cannot bring in outside food. Cafe latte 750 yen. Draft beer 1100 yen.
Management seems, at best, terribly inexperienced. Despite having empty minimum-sized rooms available every night, they refuse to accept new World of Hyatt point or free night reservations for most nights in June, July, August, and mid September apparently somehow believing that an empty room generating zero revenue is better than a point redemption generating some revenue. Encouraging guests to earn World of Hyatt points that they cannot actually redeem is fraud.
If you, like I, were lucky enough to get a room reservation on points during the day or two they were available, great, Caption is fairly valued at category 1.
For a cash stay, Hyatt Place Kyoto is a better, and often much cheaper, choice. If you just need a place to crash after spending a night eating, drinking and wandering around the lively Namba area, APA hotel, Toyoko Inn or about a dozen other select-service hotels in the area would work just as well, for less than half the current price of Caption.
Caption Namba Osaka vs Hyatt Place Kyoto
Hyatt Place Kyoto wins on its buffet breakfast, ease of train access, free coffee in the lounge, free space to bring in food or drinks, and hospitality. It is also often significantly cheaper.
Caption Namba Osaka wins on Wifi speeds (28 mps at caption vs 3 mps at Hyatt place Kyoto) and as new a badge for your Brand Explorer collection.
They tie on attached restaurants (Talk Shop and School Bus Coffee), interiors, rooms, bathrooms, beds, gyms, (lack of) Globalist benefits and ability to cast to TVs.
2400 yen Breakfast above and below. Free for adult Globalists
Pizza 1300 yen
Last edited by Mark McCracken; Aug 6, 2024 at 12:13 am