The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Osaka Midosuji (what a long name!) is a 352-room 5-star hotel located in the heart of Osaka’s financial district. Opened in March 2020, the hotel is one of Osaka’s newest upper-market hotels. It is one of the three ICONIC-branded properties of the Japan-based Royal Park Hotel Group. Like many Royal Park Hotels, this property also maintains a marketing agreement with Preferred Hotels as part of its Connect collection.

Booking Royal Park Hotel Iconic Osaka

I’ll be frank here, the sole reason I booked the Royal Park Hotel Iconic Osaka was because of how cheap it was. I paid a nightly rate of JPY13,500 (~USD92, GBP73) via Agoda.com for our stay, which suffice to say, is an incredible price. To sweeten the deal (or so it seems), the property is classified as a 5-star hotel and belongs to the Royal Park Hotel group. Since I had a pleasant stay at the Yokohama Royal Park, I felt, why not?

Location

The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Osaka Midosuji is located in Osaka’s Chuo Ward, home to the city’s main business and financial centre. Living up to this location, the hotel occupied the higher floors of the Obic Midosuji office tower! As expected from a business-oriented location, there isn’t much in terms of curiosities located nearby the hotel. Thankfully, the hotel is wedged between two subway stations – Yodoyabashi and Hommachi – both located around six minutes away by foot.

Arrival

In the spirit of being cheap, I decided to take the subway from Osaka Station after taking the Shinkansen from Nagoya. Whilst an eight-minute walk from Yodoyabashi Station seemed easy enough, it proved to be quite a chore to hand carry a 20-kilogram suitcase up the station’s stairs and down the road. Whilst tiring, it was thankfully not too hot on the day of our arrival, so at least we weren’t all sweaty when we reached the hotel.

Confusingly, however, the hotel’s entrance is located down a narrow, pedestrian-only alley. From there, it became clear that the hotel’s porte-cochère is shared with the office building, located in the back. Regardless, there wasn’t anybody greeting and directing guests or offering to help with bags. How strange! I was even more so confused to not see a reception desk until it occurred to me that the lobby is on the 15th floor.

Check-in

After making our way up, we finally found the proper hotel in all its glory. As we arrived at the hotel at 13.00, we were kindly requested to return to the reception desk during the check-in time at 15.00. We couldn’t even have the registration formality filled out before then, which is a shame. This was, however, not before the agent asked to see our passports and reservation details. As such, we left our baggage at the reception and left to get lunch in the city.

When we got back, we went back to the reception to check in. Again, we had to present our passports, before being able to fill out the registration forms. I felt this unnecessary trouble could have been avoided had they taken our details when we first arrived at the hotel. Wouldn’t it be nice to just go back only to get our keycards instead of going over the registration process again? To make things more interesting, nobody also offered to take our bags to our room, which is a first for me in Japan.

Standard Twin Room

We were assigned a room on the 17th floor, which combined with the hotel’s location in the business district, offers some nice views of the Osaka skyline. Whilst generally quite typical of a city-centre view, I found it interesting that the building next door has a bit of a rooftop garden with a small Shinto shrine. Pretty cool!

Bedroom

The design takes its cues from the ginkgo biloba – apparent from the ginkgo leaf wall decor and yellow hues complementing the dark tones of the space. Whilst I like the dark look of the room, I felt that it only contributed to making the space feel smaller. Our standard room is advertised to be 26 sqm, which sounds about right given the slightly compact feel of the room. Honestly, the room would’ve probably felt more spacious had they omitted the glass cabinet near the chairs.

Disregarding all that, the bedroom consisted of two oversized single beds and two chairs in a dining table arrangement. Located across the beds are the television and a dehumidifier (as you’d often find in Japan). Furthermore, the room’s lighting is controlled by a small panel next to the bed, which I thought was convenient. Notably, due to the size of the room, a dedicated luggage space isn’t available. As such, in its place is a small luggage rack located by the television.

Finally, I’d have to admit that the beds are quite comfortable. I liked that the pillows are proportionately sized (unlike at the Nagoya Tokyu Hotel) and that the mattress wasn’t too firm. As you’d often find in Japanese hotels, a pyjama set is also placed on the bed for use during the stay. However, I did question the placement of the room’s sole rubbish bin right next to the bed. That, I felt, was really quite undesirable.

Despite all that, the room is comfortable enough for our stay, although truly nothing special.

Bathroom

Accessed through the entrance corridor is the bathroom, which features a nice wet room composed of a rainshower and bathtub. Being newly built in 2020, it is no surprise that the bathroom feels sleek and modern. I was more so impressed by the addition of a Toto Neorest wash closet, which surely is a nice touch!

As you’d typically find at most Japanese hotels, a dispensing bottle of a handwash and facial cleanser liquid is placed by the sink. Additionally, a pair of disposable body towels are also provided next to the other toiletries.

Across from the toilet is the wet room, which reminds me of a traditional Japanese bath setup. The space is neatly clad in dark-coloured tiles, giving it a nice and sleek vibe. I also appreciated the good water pressure, which is appreciated after a long day out. I liked the Millennium Organics-branded bath gels and shampoo, which I felt was nice and high quality. Whilst they came in large dispenders, I thought that its eucalyptus-based formula reminded me a lot of Aesop’s bath gels.

Service

To be honest, I felt that the service at the Iconic Osaka was mediocre at best. I mean, the hotel still functioned well in the sense that the rooms are kept clean and tidy… but I just felt the service here to be rather cold and impersonal. For one, there wasn’t anyone greeting guests or offering to help with bags, neither in the lobby at the road level nor upstairs at the lobby level. All interactions occur at the reception desk, and though polite, the staff merely through the motions of checking people in. Nothing bad, but also nothing good. 🙁

Overall

With small rooms, mediocre service, and an average location, there isn’t much to write home about the Royal Park Hotel Iconic Osaka Midosuji – well, perhaps apart from its very long name. Frankly, the hotel’s selling point to me was its price, and nothing more. Yet, now seeing that they charge twice the price I paid, I honestly wouldn’t voluntarily seek to stay here again. It is more so the case seeing numerous other chain hotels charging less than the Royal Park, and in better locations too…

Read more from this trip here!