Hotel Route-Inn Kumamoto Ekimae

Ms Y. Urakawa checked us in efficiently and spoke English with us flawlessly. We were especially grateful that she called our next accommodation to confirm the booking in Japanese. The next hotel was in a hotspring village and had no English-speaking staff, so that help meant a lot. Thank you, Ms Urakawa, for your excellent communication in both English and Japanese and your warm, sincere service. The staff were wonderful and welcoming. We also really enjoyed the public bath and the generous, tasty buffet breakfast provided for all guests. The hotel is only a three-minute walk from JR Kumamoto station. Our room had a nice size and layout, with a long desk, a coffee table and lots of power points for charging our devices. We’d book here again.

Avoid rooms 202, 203, 204 and 205. There’s a wall right in front of the window. This is the second time on this Japan trip that I’ve ended up with that kind of room. The Japanese seem to treat tourists this way even though they have plenty of other rooms.

The location is the one good point, about 150m from Kumamoto station. The room and furniture are quite old, and the air-con makes some noise when its compressor is running. I booked a non-smoking room, but there was a really strong smell of smoke all along the corridor and some of it got into my room 🥲. Breakfast was okay.

The hotel is nicely situated, only about five minutes from the railway station. My room was modern, clean and nice, with a king-size bed, though the pillows were too hard. The bathroom wasn’t large, but it was clean and had a heated toilet. Breakfast had European and Japanese dishes, but it was cold every day.