fenger

A quick trip report on the Westin Osaka:

Westin Osaka was fantastic in every aspect, well, maybe except the smoking room that we got, but the smell was relatively faint, and it gradually decreased as days went by. We didn't spend much time in the room anyway.

Finding the shuttle was initially a bit challenging at the Osaka station since the area where the shuttle drops off/picks up passengers were lined with various buses and we got there during rush hour, and there were no signs of where Westin shuttle was to be parked. We walked to the end of the street to be safe in case the shuttle ended up there and missed us. Turned out the Westin Shuttle's regular spot is in the middle of bus parking area, so we had came running back about 25 yards (w/ two 50 pound suitcase and two laptop bags in a sea of rush hour ppl on a narrow sidewalk, not fun). After that, the rest of our time using the shuttle was a breeze. FWIW, when they mean the bus leaves at 10 after the hour from the Hotel, they mean 10 after, as the driver literally closes the door and starts the engine at 10 after the hour. Why can't Chicago bus or any American public transit system buses run with that kind of attention to detail, oh well, I digress.

After arriving at the hotel at a bit past 8PM, I was really overwhelmed by the level of service. After attempting to check in at the front desk initially, I was puzzled on why I was not given a key and room number, as I was told to follow the bell-girl (very politely of course in all manner of speaking). Then, I was led by the 100 pound bell-girl who incidentally tried to lift our two 50 pound suitcases onto the carrying cart (no worries, I did the work, but appreciated her effort!) to the lounge on the 26 floor, where I was "officially" checked in by the concierge girl, given the breakfast certificates, and officially welcomed to the hotel. Since it was late enough at night after a 15 hour flight (delayed per wind, mechanical, etc) and we had a full day of events planned for next day, we just went over to the Hokka Hokka bento box joint half a block away and got us two nicely plated bentos, then went over to the FamilyMart (think 7/11 for those who have never been to Japan) and got us an oversupply of water/juice for the next day or so and promptly ate and crashed.

We were there three nights/mornings, thus tried each of the three breakfast options given to us for free. The lobby restaurant spread were the most elaborate and our upgraded executive level certificate allowed us free reign of all the items on the first day, which were really fantastic since we tried everything from Japanese breakfast items to the typical American stuff. The other two days, we had the normal certificates given to the plat, which allowed us to do the continental breakfast at the same restaurant or the lounge. The continental at the lobby restaurant was what it is, pastries and coffee, nothing too fancy, but better than your typical run-of-the-mill American continental, also w/ the same level of waitron service as the previous day which was quite attentive and pleasant. The last day we did the lounge option, which was really a mini version of the breakfast spread downstairs w/ various cuts of meats, pastries, juices and full-staffed waitron. Knowing this, I'd probably use the lounge for breakfast more in my future standard stays here if I ever happened to be back.

Our room was 3016, top floor I believe, facing directly at the Umeda building, really great view at night. A bit smoky flavored on first night as I mentioned, but not a big deal to me (may be to others). King size bed was not heavenly, which I was suprised, but sufficed, restroom was efficiently sized, not small, but also not overly sized to waste space (very much like the country itself). We had a fantastic 42"(?) LCD that had various inputs such as normal TV, audio channels, dvd player, english channels (I didn't explore it enough since I wasn't in the room enough, but enjoyed the selections when I did play w/ it). HSI was more than adequate and had a really fat upload stream (I think I reached over 100KBytes/sec) compare to US hotels. Housekeeping and afternoon turn down service were quite efficient. Not sure how they could tell, but they had english paper for me every morning, and Japanese paper for others on the floor, not a terribly difficult thing to figure out, but I definitely appreciated the attn. to detail.

We walked a few times to the Osaka JR and Hankyu stations (5-10min), and also took the shuttle a few times (just as long as walking due to traffic, but more comfortable and w/ AC), and also used the cab once, all were convenient and dependable ways of getting around from the Westin. There's also a rather sizable underground eating mall (think 15+ eateries) that is a replica of 1700(?) Osaka literally underneath the Westin/Umeda building, a very nice eating option to explore if you are going to be spending time in the area or on business trip at the hotel and don't want to eat in the hotel. We were away most of the three days we spent in the area, so I can't vouch for their quality, but all looked very appetizing.