Urbain Hiroshima Central

The smoke smell was awful. We booked three non-smoking rooms in our language, but the English order they showed us said smoking rooms. I showed the staff our booking and we used a translator, but they said no non-smoking rooms were available. They let us inspect the rooms and judge the smell. Since we were only in Hiroshima for one night and had no time to find another hotel, we stayed. The odor soaked into the clothes we'd left out and our backpacks. From comments on other platforms, it seems we weren't the only ones this happened to. In one room there were splashes on the wall by the bed. I don't want to guess what they were, but they shouldn't have been there. The bathroom in another room hadn't been cleaned. The worst hotel experience!

The people at check-in were nice, and the room was a bit more spacious than is usual in Japan. But the place felt like a dirty, loud, dingy hostel. There were stains and odd spots on the walls, bed, and floor, with dust and dirt flying around. The noise was unbearable. I could hear my neighbour splashing bathwater and thought there was a leak, though it was just his bathtub on the other side of the wall. Later there really was a leak because the bathtub and drain didn't work properly. Onsen aren't tattoo-friendly, which was another downside.

The service was arrogant and unpleasant. I've stayed at hundreds of hotels around the world and never had staff mock me like the receptionist seemed to, at 03:05 pm on 14/11/2024. The evening-shift man had told us the day before that a taxi for 05:30pm would be no problem. But when we came for our luggage at 15:05, the day-shift man used Google Translate to tell us he wouldn't order one because there were problems. The staff barely speak any English. I recommend a hotel course, and an English course.

We had a clean room with a cozy bed, fridge, and kettle, and the toiletries were great. The included Japanese-style buffet breakfast had a good selection. We left our luggage at the hotel so we could explore before check-in. There were electric bikes for rent and a bath room on the main floor, but we didn't use either. One problem: our booking through a booking website somehow came through as a smoking room, though we'd have selected non-smoking. We only noticed the cigarette smell after entering. The concierge said switching to a non-smoking room would cost an extra 6500 yen, about $85 CAD, so we stayed and tried to air it out. Otherwise the hotel was great, and I'd recommend it.