Hotel Elcient Osaka Umeda

We stayed at Hotel Elcient for 5 nights in June/July. We found the hotel staff to be very accommodating and helpful. The premium lounge service provided free drinks throughout most of the day, including evening alcoholic drinks which we thought was great! There is a Family mart convenience shop right next door, and the station with a big shopping centre is about 10 minutes walk away. The room itself is of course very cosy compared to European/American rooms. But we found the room to be perfect and became used to the space. Possible downside for other people was that we were right next to a main highway (see photo view from our room) which was sometimes loud, but didn’t bother us. The laundry services, Japanese Spa and extensive free amenities in Reception were perfect. Only improvements would be a better luggage space as when we dropped ours they were left in a corridor right next to the door.

Not a good location if you use the train/subway. Minimum 14 minutes to the nearest stations. Much better to be closer. The staff seemed courteous. The Japanese spa is very nice and under used when we were there. There are weird policies that were not helpful. Encouragement not to have clean towels each day. A problem because towels don’t dry in 24 hours in the humidity. And the beds come undone with the flat sheets. They claim to offer complimentary coffee and nonalcoholic beverages but the hours are limited to times when guests are probably out doing things like mid afternoon and late morning. Otherwise if you want coffee or tea you need to buy breakfast or pay a 1000 yen cover charge. We stayed 4 places on our trip. I wouldn’t book here again. Hospitality is a specialty in this country. Our other stays showed more.

You'll need to walk some ways to get to the train station and to great eateries from the hotel. However, there are taxi drivers, but it can add up $$$. No one from the hotel asked if we needed anything or how our stay was. We basically checked in and was on our own from there. I asked if they could accommodate us on our last day by calling a cab in advance before leaving the hotel. We waited for quite a while, but rather than continuing to wait, we waved down the first cab we saw. Not long after, the cab that was called in for us arrived and got upset, demanding money. The hotel workers did not inform us there was a cost, which led to a lot of shouting between cab drivers, hotel workers, and family members. This is not how I expected to be treated from a pricey hotel. What a disappointment! Moreover, the bathroom smelt awful! They utilize an open PVC drainage system that smells like heavy sewer.