Enzo Shin-Osaka C

Do yourself a favor and find somewhere closer to Namba, even if it costs a little more. This place is far from everything, and the cramped room made me think even a WWII concentration camp had more space. I knew it was a budget hotel, but I hadn't expected this. It felt more like a really bad Airbnb than a hotel, and there was no staff to help at all. They'd moved our check-in time earlier, so we arrived early, but a notice on the door told us to check an email for building access. I never got that email. The phone numbers they gave us didn't work, so we emailed and waited outside in the blazing heat. We finally went to a luggage storage place. Only after we got there did they reply, tell us early check-in cost extra, and send the email that should have arrived in the first place.

We booked through booking.com five months ahead, but they cancelled us one day before check-in, saying our credit card had been declined. We gave them three different cards that all worked, and they still refused to let us stay. They were rude from the start of the conversation.

There's no room service, no extra towels or sheets, and nothing gets restocked. To get a freshly prepared room each day, you'd have to book each night separately. They call themselves a hotel, but it feels more like an Air BnB. The rooms are large compared with other rooms, though.

I booked a room 1.5 months ahead and got a confirmation, but the day before the stay they said I hadn't paid and threatened to cancel unless I did. I'd used the same site to book three other hotels in Japan, and those payments went through fine. These people waited until the last minute to raise the issue. They said they'd email me a “special link” for payment, which was fine, but the link never came and they stopped replying to my messages. When I arrived at check-in time, nobody was at the front desk, so I had to find a hotel elsewhere at the last minute. This was my longest stay in Japan, and it was really hard to find another place with the same price and amenities on such short notice. Avoid them if you can.