Richmond Hotel Sendai

The staff were kind and helpful, and willing to speak English; they also had pamphlets in several languages. I liked the breakfast and the free services. With my 3 yo, I found getting to Sendai Station easy on foot, and after a short day trip we could also take a bus from the stop just a few steps from the hotel. It runs every few minutes, which was really helpful. Just make sure you head to the right Richmond branch. You can see the building from the station.

I was happy with the location, about an 8-minute walk from Sendai Station, and the restaurants and izakayas across the road were handy. The fresh, recently renovated hotel has a lounge with coffee, drinks and ice cream, and the washing machines show on the TV when they’re free, a very useful setup. Amenities include shampoo, toothbrushes, cleansing oil, face masks and even diapers, and you can take what you need. There are different pillows to choose from, too. Staff were polite, smiling and helpful, even though their English wasn’t very fluent. There’s no onsen, but that didn’t bother me. Our first booking was for a smaller room, and I knew it wouldn’t be spacious. The sofa by the window takes up a lot of room, leaving little space for two people to use the desk or work on a computer, so we later paid extra to move to a larger room and were much happier. The mattress and pillows felt too firm for me, though that’s personal preference; at least you can pick a different pillow, even if the mattress can’t be changed. Rooms are cleaned every three days, which I liked as an environmentally friendly touch. We’ll definitely come back.

Handy for Sendai train station, with a good breakfast and a nice play area for kids. The hotel, its surroundings, and the staff were all lovely. A good fit for families.

The rooms felt a little cramped, and there were lots of families with small kids. Reception staff didn’t understand English. Breakfast wasn’t very good, and the restaurant couldn’t handle the number of guests, so we had to wait a long time to get in.