Hotel Royal Kitami

The service was good, and the room was huge, with all the amenities provided.

A little old, but lots of things about it were good!

The lobby is pitch dark at night, with no lights on at all, and feels more like the entrance to a small shopping mall. The whole hotel is run-down, with obvious repairs everywhere, and cleanliness is worrying. We stayed two nights, and it was a terrible experience. I wouldn’t recommend it. 😰 At check-in on the first night, the front desk was staffed for payment, but otherwise it was never staffed. For help, we had to call a local number that only works in Japanese, which is unfriendly to foreign tourists who may not have international calling enabled. Starting the next morning, there was no hot water. The sign said it would be available in a minute, but we waited half an hour and still got none. It was still out when we returned that evening, so with nobody at the desk, we had to call for help. A staff member came and fixed it in about 15 minutes, but they had a very unpleasant odor. 😶‍🌫️ The hygiene is questionable.

On a long drive, I stayed one night without meals and got a good rest. The facilities are old and worn, and the rooms are dated, but at this price that’s to be expected, so it didn’t surprise me. There’s a shared microwave in the corridor on every floor, which I used to heat food from a nearby supermarket. It’s a good fit for people who want to spend as much time driving a motorbike or car as possible and keep lodging costs down. The setup is much like an American motel from the 1980s or 1990s.