Candeo Hotels Hiroshima Hatchobori

The staff were extremely friendly and the hotel was very clean. Breakfast cafe is a short walk away, and there are lots of dinner places nearby. You can walk to all the main sightseeing spots from the hotel.

The air conditioning was a major problem. In our first room it wouldn’t cool below 25C, and the second room we were moved to wasn’t much better, stopping at 21C. We had to keep the curtains closed to keep the room cool. Reception seems to know about the issue, so why isn’t the air conditioning left running between guests? The fridges were switched off, too, and took 24 hours to cool down. Why do that? Both rooms were dusty everywhere, dirty, and scruffy. The hotel needs a major refurbishment. There was nowhere to put anything in the bathroom, and showering was unpleasant because of the water pressure and shower heads. Only two lifts serve the floors, so it takes ages at busy times, and there are no stairs.

The Sky Spa and sauna were far too hot, and hardly any guests were using them. I’d enjoyed the views from the Sky Spas at the two previous Candeo hotels on my trip, in Wakayama and Osaka, but this one felt fairly muted by comparison. This was my third Candeo out of four on the trip, and by far the oldest. The hotel felt dated and the rooms were small. Three stars for the older property and small rooms.

We had to miss breakfast to catch our Shinkansen on time. Two people we met weren’t going to make their departure plans because they couldn’t get out of the hotel in time. Stairs are for emergencies only, and when we asked if we could use them, we were told no. Reception and breakfast are on the top floor, which makes the situation hard to understand. There were coachloads of tourists. Even though we arrived right at the 0700 opening time, we waited 30 minutes for our prepaid breakfast. The two lifts couldn’t handle that many people, and one morning it took us 40 minutes to get from our floor to breakfast. The next day, after another coachload arrived, it took 40 minutes to get back to our room. Every other hotel we stayed at in Japan ran smoothly. Avoid Candeo Hotel chain.