PackJetRoam

This hotel is situated on the eastern part of the city, not far from Osaka Castle. It is rated as a 2 star hotel on Google, although I would actually rate it far better than that, which you will see after the end of this review.

The location is fairly well situated in terms of transportation accessibility, with the Tenmabashi station right across the road connecting you to the central Osaka district or the more touristy side of Osaka down south. Although be aware that if you are coming from the station, there will be signage pointing you to the hotel with the same name but it actually is not the same hotel, so it is better to go up to the street and get your orientation from there, once you know the exit of the station to use then it will be very straight forward but it does cut through a shopping mall and having to go through several levels so it can be confusing to be orientated underground.

The hotel entrance and lobby felt grand and high end, when I was there to check in there was a bit of a queue but given the size of the hotel it is to be expected. The hotel has a restaurant right opposite the lobby but given I did not have breakfast included in my room, I did not check out the restaurant during my stay, and there are convenience stores nearby so it wasn’t difficult to get food in a hurry. On the ground floor right next to the elevators is also the laundry and smoking room. Throughout my stay I have been having difficulty getting laundry done especially during late afternoon to midnight so if you plan to do laundry, I would suggest getting them done as soon as you check in or whenever you can when the machines are available, you can check the availability on your room TV and the time remaining on each machine, on several occasions several of those finished loads wasn’t being taken and was occupying the machine for an hour or even longer, and someone had to get the staff to unlock the machine to get the clothes out. Do be considerate and keep track of the time, as there’s high demand for the laundry machines so keeping people waiting is a dick move.

As you enter the room, immediately on the left is a closet space with some storage up top, hangers and then a small safe (which will not fit a small laptop). Further down the hall is the toilet and bathroom. It is clean and a normal Japanese size, the only complaint would be the exhaust fan where condensation would form during shower and drip, which is pretty gross since that is not a regularly cleaned area.

The main room area features a Double bed and 2 nightstands on each side, with a tablet on one side to control the room. A coffee table and chair is placed next to the window which is really nice to have a place to enjoy a view out and relax. The mini bar area has a mini fridge, a box water, kettle and ice bucket. If you want any amenities or coffee/tea, you can self serve by the shelve just opposite the lift.

Just opposite the bed is a large TV, with luggage rack and a small rubbish bin, although I wished they have a bigger rubbish bin box since some of the containers cannot fit into the small slot.

On certain floors, they have fitted vending machines, microwaves and ironing board. Fortunately they have done these on multiple floors otherwise there could be a bit of a wait if there are multiple people wanting to use them at the same time, I did not encounter anyone using them throughout my stay which is a good sign since it means there’s no need for me to wait, although I also assume not a lot of people are buying convenience store food to eat.

Overall I am very satisfied with the hotel, I paid a total of NZD$367.49 for 3 nights, which is not very cheap but comparing to other hotels of similar offering it is on the lower end of the scale and is also very grand looking and comfortable so I can’t complaint for what I’ve paid. Location is not right in the centre of everything but you can easily get to places with public transport which is just across the road so that’s a plus, for reference going to Dotonbori would take 22 minutes on the subway system. But given Osaka is so spread out I find that you would often be traveling out to different parts of Osaka anyway so I think this location is fairly central. Back to the opening when I stated that Google rated this hotel as 2 star, I would actually give it a 3.5 star, only because it lacks on site amenities such as a gym, pool, sauna, and it is not trying to be a high end hotel so I can’t give it more than that without expecting more in return.