During our recent trip to Japan we spent a night at the beautiful Osaka Marriott Miyako hotel the night before our flight to China. We had been staying at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto and had a relatively early flight to catch out of Kansai airport, but that would have required a very early wake up call and a longer train ride, so we decided to get a little closer to Kansai and overnight in Osaka at this hotel. I was really excited about staying at this property, which is located in the tallest building in Japan.

Cost:

The hotel is a category 6, which means it “only” cost 30,000 points per night, which given the quality of accommodations and service, I consider it to be a bargain. Since we booked the room with points, I don’t recall how much the rooms were selling for, but a quick search for around our same dates for 2016 shows the prices below in Japanese yen.

That’s about $410 at the current exchange rate. At 30,000 points that’s an incredible value.

Arrival and check in:

The train and subway stations are directly across the street, and getting off the train and walking to the hotel was really easy. The lobby is located on the 16th Floor, and the actual hotel occupies the 38th through 57th floors of the 60-floor tower, so when you’re staying in a room on the top floor, you’re essentially staying at the highest hotel room in Japan.

After a quick elevator ride we arrived on the 16th floor to one of the most beautifully decorated lobbies I’ve ever seen. I usually don’t notice these type of things, but the lamps over the check in counter were really pretty.

Then off to the other side of the lobby was the main bar.

Even from the “low” 16th floor lobby, the views were incredible. These are two photos I took the next morning by the elevator wells:

Check in was pretty easy and the staff was extremely courteous and friendly. I love the typical Japanese service culture, where if they have to reach down into a drawer, type something in their computer, or do anything else than takes literally longer than 3 seconds when they are done they say “thank you so much for waiting”. Since my wife has Gold status with Marriott, we had booked the reservation under her name, which at the very least would get us complimentary Lounge access for dinner and breakfast and a better room upgrade at check-in.

While we completed our check in our bags were on standby with a young valet employee, and when we were finished he took a ride with us to our room to show us around and help us with our bags, which we don’t usually find necessary since we travel light and don’t mind carrying our own bags, but when employees take so much pride in helping you and making you feel at home like Japanese do, it’s best to just let them do their job. The part I usually hated during our whole trip was feeling awkward about not tipping, especially when there is great service, but in Japan tipping can be seen as even offensive sometimes, and at a minimum certainly not expected.

Room:

As we climbed on a fast elevator ride to the 49th floor, I braced myself for the views. Thanks to my wife’s Gold status we were upgraded to a King premium corner room, which was very large for two people, with wraparound floor to ceiling windows. The views of the city at night for miles and miles in two different directions was enough to just stay in the room and stare out the windows.

The room had tons of amenities, including minibar and fridge, robes and slippers, about a million toiletries, bottled water, hot water for tea, and what I always call my favorite amenity, a Nespresso machine!

The bathroom was huge, and one of the nicest I’ve ever seen, with a bathtub view, a Rain Shower Plate, and the usual Japanese toilet, which even had an automated lid that lifted up or closed down in sync with the bathroom light.

The only thing missing from the toilet controls that could be useful is English captions. Some of them were pretty intuitive but others I had no idea what they were for.

The room was stunning, and as I mentioned before, one of the nicest I’ve ever stayed at, and certainly the highest. The only thing I regretted as soon as arriving is the fact that we would only be staying overnight and departing early the next morning.

Lounge:

We got to the hotel at around 7:00 p.m. or so, but the hotel lounge was still open for another hour, so we made a beeline for the lounge to get dinner before they closed. The lounge is on the 38th floor, and while it was busy, it also felt pretty quiet and secluded and a great place to relax while eating and enjoying a conversation. The food had plenty of variety and it was all excellent, especially the noodles, which they prepare for you on the spot.

The liquor selection was pretty decent, and they even had cold sake, which is what I ended up having.

The lounge has another section with couches and a large screen TV, although I didn’t take any pictures of that section since there were several guests sitting and watching TV and it didn’t feel polite to take pictures in that area.

Just before leaving the next morning we also had breakfast, which had a very good spread.

I love it how Japanese buffets load up on fresh vegetables.

After dinner we walked back over to the train station to buy our tickets for the next day, and after heading back to the hotel I went back over to the lounge for tea service, which if I remember correctly went from around 9:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. or midnight. The spread for tea time wasn’t anything impressive though, with mostly chocolate covered snacks and other sweets.

Business center:

The business center is located right outside the lounge, and we took advantage of it to print our boarding passes. It has 3 workstations and even a conference table.

Right outside the lounge and the business center there is an outdoor terrace, which I would have loved to go out to if the weather would have cooperated and we would have had more time in the morning.

Overall impression:

I was very impressed with this hotel, and while I was expecting good service quality and a nice bed, I wasn’t prepared for how over the top the room, service and views were. The only regret was not having stayed longer, although now I can say I stayed at the tallest hotel in Japan. The service was phenomenal and in typical Japanese fashion, and at 30,000 points per night it’s a steal. While Marriott is most definitely not my favorite brand, whenever I go back to Osaka I will specifically be looking to go back to this hotel and enjoying the food, views and quality of service for a bit longer. A true gem!

Have you stayed at the Osaka Marriott Miyako before? I’d love to hear your thoughts about your experience.

The is a post from FreeTravelGuys.