Hotel Alpha-One Onomichi

The location is good, and staff kindly handled my requests for frozen ice packs, an extra pillow, and luggage storage. I’m grateful they accommodated me. Young W-san was especially helpful and professional. A few others seemed to look at me as if I were an alien when I interacted with them, a tanned foreigner who speaks intermediate Japanese. It’s an old-school business hotel and feels tired in places. The price seemed a little high, though that appears to be the trend in a tourist town like Onomichi.

The room was too small, and the service was really poor. They don’t speak English at all, and they were extremely inflexible, which made it hard to communicate or reason with them. I stayed at both hotels in October and November 2025. Hotel Cycle (U2), just five minutes away, was the complete opposite: supportive and reasonable. I strongly recommend staying there and definitely don’t recommend Anpha-1.

The room was clean and everything worked, but there were plenty of drawbacks. The hotel and rooms are old, the wallpaper was peeling, and the pillow was hard. The central air conditioning was set to heating, with no option to change the mode. The window only opened about two or three centimeters, and the plugs were on the desk, not by the bed. The bathroom did have a bidet and hot and cold water taps. It’s okay for a single night, but I’d look for another hotel if possible.

The location is great, only three minutes from the station. The room was a little old but clean. There was mold on the light spot in the room, though, and that’s why I’m not giving a full score.