The work event I’m attending over these four days is hosted in Toyota City, about an hour by train east of Nagoya. Like many other built-up cities, there are hotels that are near to the train station – Toyotashi Stn in this case – and the property I have been staying at this several days is Hotel Toyota Castle.
Comments about the stay:
The room I stayed was a Twin Standard Room and located on the ninth floor. Size-wise, it was significantly larger at 30sqm compared to the small 14-15 sqm rooms in the station hotels I have routinely stay at in Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. The room had space for a full-sized bathroom and toilet, with the bathroom separated from the toilet via door. The TV was disappointingly small though – not that there was anything interesting to watch in the broadcast channels that TV had installed.
Check-in time is at 3PM, and like most other Japanese hotels, do not seem to allow early check-ins. The hotel accepts luggage keeping though, so there are no issues leaving your heavy bags there if you’re arriving in early.
The hotel seemed popular with business travelers: each morning at breakfast over the days I stayed, there was a group of westerners business guests – American from their accent – who’d come in early for BF before continuing onto their morning activities.
The hotel is also an easy 1-2 minute walk from the station itself, and is adjacent to a small mix-use complex. The complex itself has a Pronto cafe with light eats and the usual range of beverages: convenient if you need a late night cup of joe!
Unlike some other business hotels I’ve stayed at, the amenities like shower accessories and beverages aren’t self-collect/help yourself at the reception but pre-supplied in the room itself. These were replenished everyday though with daily room service. I couldn’t find coin-operated laundry machines though: any laundry you might have would be handled directly by the hotel.
Location-wise: the area around Toyotashi station is fairly quiet, but there are a few shopping malls, including a mid-sized one called T-Face: and this multi-floor mall has a large department store that would have everything that you’d need, and a large supermarket at the basement.
That’s a wrap for my four night stay at the Hotel Toyota Castle. In short, pretty OK though nothing particularly extraordinary, though I certainly appreciated the fairly large sized rooms!