Eiwa Place Hotel Hakata

So disappointed I picked this place for my trip. There was even mold on the wall 😅

There’s no front desk. For your first entry, you need a code or ID sent by email in advance. I saw several groups of foreign guests stuck outside because they couldn’t remember theirs, and I helped them. If you’re not used to this system, it feels inconvenient and unsettling. It’s hard to call it hospitality when you can’t even speak to someone at a front desk. For a night or two, the room is fine: it’s clean, the bed is spacious, the lighting is bright, and there’s a kettle, cups and a large mirror. But I stayed five nights and the room wasn’t cleaned once. Isn’t the lack of cleaning just laziness rather than anything to do with SDGs? Normally, cleaning is done on the third night. Going all five days without the trash emptied or the bathroom cleaned felt unsanitary.

Cheap price, reasonable access and a convenience store nearby are the good parts. Beyond that, I found the stay stressful, and would only recommend it to people focused on saving money. The room had mold on the wall, and the thin door let me see people coming and going. Even regular conversation carried through, despite the quiet-at-night rule. In winter it really hurt my throat. One bulb was missing from the room light, maybe to cut costs. There were obvious black marks on the bed corners and other hard-to-clean spots, and it seemed to collect mold and dust. In the toilet, black spots were in the corners even though I walked in barefoot. They weren’t mold, just poor cleaning. There was another black mark in the gap by the light switch. The duvet was too thin for December. There are two check-in tablets, but one wasn’t working. It got fixed the next day, though they should be keeping it in order. The restroom by the front desk was dirty, with toilet paper left out and what looked like urine splashes on it. Was it a men’s restroom for single people? I left my luggage after checking in, then came back to find extra body and bath towels on the bed. That was scary. Had someone used them after I checked in? The amenities were two disposable toothbrushes for two people for two nights, lol. Too much to give up just to save money.

It’s about a 10-minute walk from the station, with convenience stores and MaxValu supermarkets along the way. Towels and tissues are provided in the room, and both the toilet and shower were clean. Shampoo, conditioner, body soap and toothbrushes are supplied too. The fridge barely gets cold, even at its highest setting. Cleaning isn’t done during your stay, so I’d say it suits short visits. The lobby desk area was dirty, with no trash cans or wet wipes, despite the limited staff. In the mornings, the cleaning staff’s children were noticeably noisy. The TV remote had built-up dust, and there was a red mark on the hairdryer handle that wiped off easily, which made the cleaning seem poor.