anchor79

anyone have any idea when in Oct the lounge will be open? I will be there in late oct. as a plat. hopefully they will still have drink/buffet coupon for plats!

MattTaiwan

Just some pictures would like to share to all...

Sheraton Miyako Osaka - Japan

Room number: 1062 in Premier Room
Check-in Date: Oct.20, 2007
Room rate: JPY$19000 with 2 buffet breakfast (Platinum benefit)

Room View

Room View

Room View

Working Desk

Small Television

Very Small Bathroom

Very Small Bathroom

Bathroom Amenities

Bathroom Amenities

No pictures of Executive Club for SPG Platinum members cause just some juice and tea/coffee machine served with some cookies. A small room with no view, located in 18 floors and service time only from 11am to 7.30pm only. You could pass this lounge and go out to find some bar would be nice than stay in this lounge.

For the same room rate, I will choose Hyatt Regency Osaka but it's far away Osaka city center. I will post my stay report in Hyatt Forums.

allset2travel

Thanks for the pics. Bathroom looks real small (of course you're in Japan).

Will have my first stay here soon. Disappointed to learn that Exec Club is so so.

camsean

Thanks for an interesting trip report. Sounds like great treatment for plats.

allset2travel

Completed a 2-night stay at this hotel. For those who might be coming in from Shin-Osaka Station (as we did, arrival by Shinkansen) and want to subway your way to the hotel, its quite easy.
Take the RED M line (Midosuji line) subway to M20 (Namba station), transfer to S line (Sennichimae Line) 2 stops to Tanimachi 9-chome station. Out of the ticket machine, hang a left. Walk the long hallway and look for Exit 12 (small letters written below the larger Exit 8 sign). You will spot a Sheraton sign on a pillar. proceed further and take 2 flights of escalators to the lobby floor (which is 2nd floor).
I am a no-body with SPG and did not expect upgrade. Got a standard room on the 14th floor. Everything works in the room. Hot tea pot with green/red tea bags. No coffee though. Small room but has a king bed. Wired internet is free and was quite slow. 2 sets of bath robes, 2 pairs of slippers, full amenities in the bathroom. We found that the level of English efficiency in this hotel is way below that we experienced in the New Otani (across town) and the Marriott Nagoya Associa. Nonetheless, they were helpful. However, don't always find the concierge at the desk.
We dined at one of the restaurants in a department store which is next to the hotel. Many restaurants are 9th floor (I think, didn't recall exactly which). Good Japanese nigiri sushi at reasonable prices.
As reported by other posters, the Kansai International airport limosine bus stap in front of the hotel (1st floor) and takes you to KIX in 45 minutes and costs Y1,300.

Globehopper

If you go during the evening hours, things are not so bad. There's free drinks, the lounge does have a view North as I recall, and when I was there, a pleasant and personable staff member on duty.

TravellerOnline

Going there next month. Thanks for the nice report.

motytrah

Stayed here a couple weeks ago. I liked the room. Small by western standards, but bigger than the Hyatt Regency Shinjuku I'd stayed in the previous week. Very clean. TV setup was a little goofy, but I tend to sling box it to my local TV anyway. Internet is still free. Staff is very helpful. Hotel restaurants are way overpriced for the neighborhood, but there is plenty of other places to eat in the neighborhood.

I found the location to the train and subway stations very nice for local trips and side trips. (Nara, Mt Koya, etc). It's a couple stops away from the JR Osaka loop, so if you plan on doing a lot of side trips you might want to consider the Kansai Thru Pass.

lerasp

just returned from Osaka Sheraton. Was upgraded to a woderful Junior Suite on Club level. It was the size of an very large oom with seating area, comfy bed and with a nice plasma tv. also a good size entry foyer to leave luggage and a closet. as a Plat, you get full buffet breakfast downstairs, which is ok. the lounge is open as described above. one thing to note, alcohol is only served between 5:30-6:30pm! so even the lounge itself is open till 7:30, the last hour you can only get non-alcoholic drinks. i think it's pretty weird to have that last hour like that. no snacks except some cookies, but very pleasant attendant. the airport bus stops directly in front and goes non-stop to Kansai airport. makes it a great place for getting to/from airport. overall, i enjoyed my stay and had a very easy trip to airport. wish they would beef up the lounge a bit though with extended alcohol hours

allset2travel

I found that the Kansai Through Pass very useful and of great value. By virtual of having the pass saves plenty of time and hassle of buying tickets every time.

LapLap

I used cash and points to stay here for two nights at the end of May and stayed in a standard King Room on floor 15 ^

I've posted links to photos and some comments in post #2 in this thread
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=836563

I was very happy with my stay here and found it to be an excellent location for visiting Nara.

BlissWorld

Quick Review

I stayed there for 2 nights a couple of days ago and had a couple of comments.

1. We got totally lost because stupid google map pointed us to the Honmachi station The hotel is AT the Uehamachi station via Kintetsu (sp?) line.

2. I wasn't really sure what to expect since it was a cat. 2 hotel and I was using a rediculously cheap 1800 + US$30 per night rate.

3. Upon check in, I was told we had been upgraded to the junior suite on the same floor as the club lounge (18th). They offered platinum amenity, free breakfast voucher, and had someone personally escorted us with our luggage to our room (Is this a Japanese standard? I was also personally escorted to my room at Intercontinental Tokyo, but I do have status with IC). I thought that was a very nice touch. But then again, it is Japan, where the service standards are way above US.

4. The junior suite was rather small. It looked like a standard room at any US Sheraton hotel, but I was told that our room was considered a big one by Japanese standards. I looked at the floor map and found out that our junior suite was twice the size of a standard room. I was pretty stunned.

5. The room had pretty good amenities: decent bathroom goodies, robes, pajamas, slippers, free internet. The water was no longer free, but the am/pm downstairs is pretty convenient for those items.

6. I didn't really think the room had anything to write home about. The bed was kinda nice with the light control on the nightstand. It was obvious that the room had been recently reconvated. Everything was new. However, I think the hotel made some wrong color choices to make the room appear very old (but they are not).

It was a nice hotel withdecent amenities, but I probably wouldn't stay there again (well, I am rather spoiled with many fantastic SPG properties, especially just coming in from Le Meridien Khao Lak) ). With the rate I was paying, however, it was fantastic. With free Plat breakfast (2500 yen per person), our stay was pretty much free ^

anchor79

Did the category changed for this hotel? Thats a good news to hear since the location at this property is not that close to JR station (it was a bit of hike in my opinion). As a plat, my last stay they also offered Spa/Gym coupon, do they still pass those out? It will be a great value if its a cate. 2! and the breakfast isn't bad at all downstairs!

BlissWorld

It is currently a cat. 2. The hotel is far from JR if one had luggages, otherwise, it's not too bad of a walk. We used the Uehonmachi station via the private line when we had luggages and JR when we went to around the city (since we had the JR rail pass).

Yes, they also gave me a couple of gym/spa passes although we didn't really have anytime to spare at the hotel. We didn't even have time to go to the lounge (since the lounge had lame hours~ 11am-7:30pm, i mean, seriously ). And that's one of my reasons for staying here, otherwise I'd probably stay at the Westin or elsewhere.

The breakfast wasn't too bad since it was free but I wouldn't have paid for it. I'd rather pick up a bento box at the subway station downstairs. And, we stayed at Intercontinental ANA Strings Tokyo before the Sheraton where they also offered us free breakfast so we were a little spoiled. Sheraton's breakfast didn't even come close to IC Nevertheless, a very nice gesture for plats.

motytrah

You'll also notice they do not wheel your luggage in. It's carried by hand from the hallway, the wheels should never touching the carpet. In really nice hotels they'll take their shoes off before entering as well.