SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western Shin-Osaka, Osaka

Simply put, this new SureStay by Best Western hotel's (formerly known as "Hotel Shin Osaka" or "Shin Osaka Hotel") location is not the greatest in my book. It may have escaped other reviewers, but the hotel is literally one door over from a very elaborate multi-story funeral home. It is nearly unavoidable on your walk to the Osaka Metro Midōsuji Line's Nishinakajima-Minamigata Station. The funeral home's street level entrance also serves as the loading/unloading zone for hearses. During my stay, I've encountered multiple times when a hearse being parked perpendicular to the walkway to load/unload caskets. With all due respect to the departed ones and their families, this is not a somber sight I want to encounter multiple times during any stay, especially if you are on a vacation. At night time, the brightly lit ground floor funeral hall is fully visible from the street, including mourners dressed in black and the deceased's picture. I've stayed with Best Western in Japan frequently for my business travels, so I booked this SureStay location as it showed up as a new property in the Osaka area. I can certainly understand why the old owner may decided to let this hotel go and get rebranded for the above mentioned reason. Here is a summary of my experience but I do not plan to stay here again... Good: - The room is slightly larger than the typical Japanese hotel of the same class. - Recent renovation and/or good upkeep, resulting in very clean guestrooms. Neutral: - The hotel's area is between Shin-Osaka Station and Umeda Station, so it's geographically fairly convenient. That said, it's a decent walk to nearest grocery stores and common eateries. There is no Don Quijote, Daiso, or any of the popular drugstores nearby, and so definitely not convenient compare to the typical Japanese hotels. Negative: - Very close to a funeral home is likely an issue for most. - Very noisy due to the hotel being on Nishinakajima, a very busy cooridor, with constantly traffic noise and the beeping sound of traffic lights. - Most staff, while very friendly, do not seem to speak even basic English. Best Western is a western hotel chain and naturally get a lot of foreigners. All other BW locations (even the ones in non-tourist areas) have staff that can speak varying degree of English, enough to process guest check-in and check-out, but this was not my experience here... It was Google Translate for me and struggle through the entire process. - The staff is often not at the front desk. From my comings and goings, I keep finding no staff at the front desk on an almost daily basis. - Weird room layout. For my deluxe dual twin-bed room, the beds were pushed together but no night stand on either side. This arrangement might be OK for family but definitely problematic if you are sharing the room with friends or coworkers, as you have to jump over one bed to get into the other. I wasn't sharing the room, and just need extra space, but because the beds were pushed together, it was pain to pull lose the bedding. All in all, I can see why Best Western branded this as SureStay instead of the full Best Western brand, it's definitely the bottom tier hotel from many prospective.

Only 1 station away from the main Shin-Osaka station. We used this hotel as a transit point from a late night flight and depart to Tokyo by Shinkansen the next morning. Although we arrived late (around 12 AM), the staffs and reception are always on stand by. Check in was easy and nice because we're so tired over the long flight. The room is not big. Despite the small size, the room itself is very well equipped. You get bed robes, bathroom amenities, refrigerator, TV, water kettle, etc. The bathroom is small, but the hot shower is great, now slowdowns whatsoever. Only after we checked out that a friend in our group realized that she left her PC tablet in the room. We could only reach the hotel by phone in the night. The staff is very kind to keep the PC until we could grab them 6 days later. Kudos to them.

We enjoyed our stay here. The room was quite spacious by Japanese standards. Plenty of room for two large suitcases to be opened. The bathroom was also roomy. All renovated with modern bathroom fixtures. The best thing was the mattress - so comfortable! We both slept really well. Our room was at the back of the building and had an amazing view across the river to the lights of Umeda. There is washing machines on two levels and a vending machine and ice cream for sale at reception. The hotel is a 5 minute walk from the south entrance to Nishinakajima-Minamigata Station (M14) on the Midosuji line. You can also walk to Shin-Osaka station but that will take you around 15 minutes. On the walk to the subway you will pass both a Family Mart and Lawson Station. It's in a nice neighbourhood too. And the price was amazing. We will definitely be returning.