Sheraton Kagoshima, Japan [Master Thread]
 

The Sheraton Kagoshima Hotel will open in May 2023 and is now listed on the Marriott.com website but room reservations still cannot be made.
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...goshima-hotel/

Construction photos:
https://kagoshima-kara-mile.com/sheraton-kagoshima/

I tagged the exact location on Wikimapia:

Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!

I was wondering why there was no Marriott properties in that part of Japan. Lo and behold this welcome addition to the Kagoshima region renown for its great volcanoes Mt. Kirishima and Mt. Sakurajima.

The new Sheraton Kagoshima is slated to open on May 16 with room rates during the first week of opening at around 65,000 yen/night. The paid rate drops in the second week to around 33,000 yen/night. A points rate is not available until the second week at 25,000 to 27,000 points/night. https://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...ton-kagoshima/

I posted a review of the Sheraton Kagoshima Hotel in the Japan Forum where some may not see it, so here is a link to that review: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japa...l#post35360279

Recently had a pleasant one night stay at this hotel - hard to get a feel with just a one night stay but it felt like a relatively solid property.

The hotel is all about the view, so didn't want to take my chances with upgrade roulette so booked a Sakurajima view room and was assigned one on the 18th floor next door to the club lounge.

The room wasn't a huge size but was set out in a practical manner which made it feel bigger. Being under one year old the room was in great condition and had a modern feel.



Only used the club during the evening service and wasn't overly impressed, I guess I didn't really get the concept they are going for. The lounge itself is nice but the evening session is broken into three roughly hour blocks and you have to book your time at checkin. So basically you are surrounded be people trying to eat and drink as much as possible in their allowed time before being kicked out so the staff can clean and reopen for the next session. I guess they had a wide of range of foods but nothing of any note. You can easily have a full meal if you wish - which is what it appears to be set up to do.

Breakfast is on the fourth floor in the restaurant. It was a bit disappointing but had potential. Unfortunately I appeared to arrive at the same time as a large tour group so didn't get to see it at its best.

The hotel has its own Onsen but it was closed during my stay and the hotel had a shuttle bus to another hotel with a onsen.

The hotel also runs a shuttle bus to and from the station. It was too cold for me to stand waiting for a bus and I couldn't be bothered faffing around with the tram so took a taxi which only cost 800 yen. On the way back I took a leisurly stroll along the canal back to the station which took around ten minutes.

All in all I'd definitely go back just for the view.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ac9f25986.jpeg
Exterior
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...38ecf6bd3.jpeg
Room
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...079009c86.jpeg
Room
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...efc0863f8.jpeg
View
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ea7560f79.jpeg
View
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...236d2dad2.jpeg
Room - sliding doors to hide the bathroom area if required.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...de1b80f35.jpeg
Bathroom
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...417e58119.jpeg
Bathroom

Does anyone have any email addresses to contact the hotel in advance of a planned stay in November? Alternatively, does anyone have any restaurant recommendations in the area?

Did you ever get a contact email or have any reflections from your stay? I'll be here in a couple months

Spent two nights here. Despite some mild hiccups, I'm inclined to rank it as top Sheraton in Japan.

We flew into Kagoshima Airport (which has only 1-2 international flights a day) and took the Bus to Kagoshima-Chuo station. Wanted to grab a cab, but saw a Sheraton shuttle bus pull in. It's rather convenient and runs every 30 minutes during the day (at :00 and :30 from the hotel and :15 and :45 from the station). There's a tram stop outside the hotel, which is fine for getting to the shopping area and Sakurajima ferry, but I wouldn't use it for travel to/from the station -- platforms are very narrow, a nightmare with luggage, and you'd have to transfer from line 2 to line 1. The shuttle bus ride only takes a few minutes, and I assume a taxi would be in the 1000yen range.

Arrived at the hotel around 2:30pm and were told that our room wasn't ready. They handed me some sort of "waiting for room" card and invited us to the lounge. The lounge is on the 18th floor and has a great view, and offers a small selection of cakes/fruit/cookies in the afternoon. We expected that someone would come up with our keys soon, as is customary in Japan. Nope. At 3:15pm, I inquired, and it turned out that they had forgotten all about us. Hectic typing ensued, and I was told, "your room isn't ready." This is an annoyance I've run in at a number of Bonvoys in recent years. What it means is that the computer has pre-assigned a specific room number, and that room isn't ready. I told them I don't care about that specific room, just find me any room. More typing, and they somehow came up with a Sakurajima-view room on the 11th floor (my pre-assigned room would have been on the 6th floor, which I assume would be a rather obstructed view). The room is fine for a Sheraton, modern style and Ikea-ish furniture, with a very open bathroom concept (which can be somewhat alleviated with sliding doors).

Didn't receive a welcome letter, so went up to the club lounge around 6:15pm. Well, tried going up to the club lounge, but our key wasn't coded for it. Went to the front desk to get that fixed and learned that they don't code your key for the lounge, but rather give you a separate key for the club floor. We did receive that when we waited for our room, but I handed it over to the club agent when she gave me my room keys. So do make sure you have two sets of keys. No other faffing around with vouchers here, though (breakfast, onsen, whatever).

We sat down and poured a drink from the ample alcohol selection. Wines are barely drinkable, but there is a good selection of sake. At 6:45pm, a staff member approached our table and told us that the food offerings were about to be taken away. Turns out lounge hours are 4:30-7pm here. Alcohol remains available until 8:30pm. We quickly grabbed some food, which was ok for Japanese lounge standards. The next day, we came back from a Sakurajima trip at 4:15pm and found housekeeping servicing our room. We thus went to the club lounge and I took some pictures of the offerings. The setup is ready around 4:20pm, but there are signs that food and drink start at 4:30pm. The lounge fills up (with practically only Japanese people during our stay), and at 4:29:30, staff members remove these signs and there's a mad dash to the buffet.

Breakfast is offered at the lounge on Sat-Sun-Mon, so if you're staying on those days, you have to pick restaurant breakfast as an amenity. We never checked out the lounge offerings, but breakfast at the restaurant is excellent (by Japanese Sheraton standards). Great selection of local dishes, decent Western stuff, tasty baked goods, ice cream, etc. Signs everywhere warn of crowding during peak times, but we went during the dark red times and it wan't a problem.

Room :

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...911e909e9d.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...014c22b19c.jpg

Lounge:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4d5c649148.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...701515af73.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...477ee57733.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7088a8908d.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cef1e4700e.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8221ed0b86.jpg

Just wrapped up a 3 night stay. Our room was identical to the photos posted by chad75 above.

Quick impressions: Really nice hard product. The views of the mountain are stellar. I normally don't pay extra for rooms with a view, but this was worth it, especially given the overall reasonable room rates. We were told we got upgraded, which appears to have been a bump to a higher floor club room of the same size. I'll take it, as again, the views from the upper floors are stellar.

We had breakfast in the restaurant each morning (Titanium). It's a wide selection but coming from the Grand Hyatt in Fukuoka the quality just can't compare. Otherwise, I'd say its a solid brekkie, above average. Coffee one morning in the restaurant was a barista-made latte which was surprisingly good but the next morning we were served what was clearly robot coffee or done by someone who didn't know what they were doing. Plain Coffee Shop is a short-ish walk from the hotel and was good.

We ran around too much to take advantage of the lounge or the onsen, but the lounge looked decent when we popped in for a look-see during evening drinks.

Overall it was a very nice stay, super helpful and friendly staff, and I'd recommend it.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...914182827.jpeg

Recently completed a stay here, and I echo the sentiments above that this is an excellent property. The shuttle bus from the station is easy to find if you arrive at Kagoshima Airport and take the bus to the station, as the bus stops are right next to each other. If arriving on the train, may be a little harder to find but just look for the bus stop signs at the station and it is on the lower level off to the side a bit. The bellmen were fantastic at this property, as is usually the case in Japan. Check in was pleasant and brief while still going over benefits and some other details. Concierge team was excellent and helped get me some day passes for traveling around the city. I particularly recommend the Chiran Peace Museum (an old military base that was the final departure point for many kamikaze pilots), about an hour south on a bus. Not much in English at the museum, but it is very moving and powerful nonetheless to see the pictures and read the final words of the hundreds of pilots.

Room: I had the Sakurajima King room, must have been a corner version of it because the website pictures don't have the big windows that I had (the windows I had were pretty much across the entire room and even wrapped a bit onto the side with the bed). Excellent room, although the shower set up could be a bit awkward for some as to get to the toilet you walk right past the sink and shower. The partition does block the view of the shower from the bed though. Shower pressure was excellent and temperature was good as well. Toilet was of course a nice Toto one, although a bit surprising for a new, nice hotel that the lid did not open automatically (true first world problems, lol). The bed was comfortable and I liked the daybed by the window. Very spacious room and the view truly is remarkable. I got there at night and my jaw dropped the next morning when I had a (mostly clear but not fully) view of Sakurajima. One of my favorite ever views in a hotel room.

Food: Had room service the first night due to fatigue and quality was good with excellent service as you'd expect. English was a problem but nothing Google Translate couldn't help with. I thought the breakfast spread was solid in the restaurant (did not have lounge access), although it is certainly busy with lots of families. Ate the rest of my meals in the city, I can recommend Ichi-Ni-San Kagoshima (Main Store), a short walk from the hotel. Excellent food with a good staff that spoke some English and English menus. 3.65 on Tabelog.

Service: As you'd expect in Japan, excellent with some language barriers. Most staff did not speak any English, but the front desk and concierge spoke it well.

Onsen: Used it a couple of times. Very nice facilities, although this was my first time so no ability for me to compare to other places. Not much to say here, but if you're on the fence about it or have never used one before, it is a pleasant experience that is nowhere near as awkward as you may think it will be. Just make sure to know the basic rules before hand (and that goes for any onsen in Japan).

An interesting note, I did not see any other Westerners, at least it was not obvious as I did not hear any English or see any obvious Europeans/North Americans. Client base seemed to be mostly Japanese with tourists from South Korea and China. That goes for the city/region as a whole too, virtually no other non-Korean/Chinese tourists over the few days I was there. After visiting Hiroshima and Tokyo later in the trip, it became very clear that Kagoshima and Kyushu are a bit off the main tourist road, which I actually really appreciated and enjoyed for a change of pace. I'd like to go back to the region and explore more.

TLDR: Overall, an excellent property. Highly recommended.

I've visited Japan a few dozen times, and considering how crowded the main tourist trail of Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Hiroshima has become, now mostly spend my time in off-the-beaten-path locations. We had a similar experience to yours at Sheraton Kagoshima, no other Westerners. The club lounge seemed to have 95% Japanese, but the city had a fair number of Chinese and Korean visitors. The latter flock to Kyushu in huge numbers. Funny anecdote, the change machine on the tram spat out a 500 KRW coin instead of 500 JPY when I broke a 1000 JPY note. Chinese people I've encountered everywhere, even the most desolate and remote towns in Hokkaido. I highly recommend visiting these "lesser" locations -- Kuyshu is spectacularly beautiful, and Japan has so much to offer once you've checked off the main sights. A "hack" is to fly into tiny airports like KOJ, NGS, KMJ rather than KIX or HND when you're coming in from other parts of Asia like TPE or HKG. They often have only one or two international flights a day, so immigration waits are zero. This is somewhat offeset by a near 100% chance of being questioned thoruoghly by customs (including opening bags, but in a completely pointless for-show way) if you're a Westerner. Sadly, Sheraton Kagoshima is a bit of a unicorn when it comes to visiting small-town Japan -- if you're lucky, there'll be an ancient Crowne Plaza (where IHG Diamond benefits can be pretty meaningful), but often you'll find yourself in a tiny room at a local chain.

Yeah, I will definitely be exploring less popular tourist places in Japan going forward, having been to pretty much all the main sites and Tokyo specifically 4-5 times. Hiroshima and Kyoto were great and well worth it, but I don't feel any real need to return to either place. Need to check out Hokkaido, and looks like Sapporo is getting some nice new options like the IC and a PH (although that is a year or two away). JR Tower there looks solid but not really my style, but like you say the smaller cities do not have a ton of Western hotel options. Maybe the (apparent?) success of the Sheraton in Kagoshima will help convince Marriott and other brands to keep opening up new options in smaller cities.

Have they done away with the club lounge one-hour rule in the evening? or are they still imposing that? As a solo business traveler, it's always nice to sit there and work and nibble (in the room, it's easy to fall asleep!). Basically, can you stay throughout the evening happy hour or do they limit it to one hour as they did earlier in this thread when it opened?

Does anyone know about the above? Also any recent stay experiences?