About PlusOne Nishikoen
PlusOne Nishikoen (also written as Plus One Nishikoen), although it has a similar name to other hotels across Japan, is a one-off hotel located near Fukuoka City’s Nishikoen (or “West Park”), which is in the western part of the central district (hence the name).
PlusOne Nishikoen is located in an older apartment complex with four floors and three rooms per floor. The exception is the ground floor, which has the office and two rooms. The “rooms” are actually apartments with a small kitchen, combined bathroom and washroom (shower, bathtub) facilities, a microwave, fridge, and small dining table.
For all intents and purposes, PlusOne Nishikoen is an unmanned hotel. Check-in and check-out are done with no human contact. Instead, you interact with a touchpad and a vending machine. The vending machine is to pay for Fukuoka’s accommodation tax, which is ¥200 per person per night. This is not included on some hotel booking websites, so you need to pay this (in cash) in person using the ticket machine.
Before arriving at PlusOne Nishikoen, you will receive a lot of information via messages. This includes information about how to check in, including a reservation number (which you enter into the touchpad). Unlike traditional hotels, where you do it upon arrival, you also fill in the guest information before arrival via a web portal link sent in one of those messages.
Location
Nishikoen is in the western part of the central district of Fukuoka, hence the name. It is also very close to the coast.
This area is well connected to the rest of the city through bus and underground rail links. Buses go to and from two stops very close to PlusOne Nishikoen, connecting you to Tenjin, Hakata and the Momochihama/Fukuoka Tower area.
The underground also connects to these areas, with the final destination being Fukuoka Airport (domestic terminal). It takes about 10 minutes on foot to reach Tojinmachi, the nearest underground station.
Gallery
About the Room
As there were very few hotels and rooms left, as a solo traveller I booked the only remaining room – the Quadruple Room. This apartment can sleep four people – 2 single beds, a sofa bed and a futon in the loft area (accessed via a ladder). Please see the photos of apartment 301 for more details about the layout.
The room comes with a small kitchen (one stove burner, a sink, a microwave and a full-sized fridge), a wet room (with shower, bathtub, and toilet), and the main living space where everyone sleeps (and also has some side tables and a dining table with two chairs).
The good
Here is what I wrote on Booking.com:
Check-in and out were very easy. Make sure you check your messages, which contain all the information in English, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. The location was also good, as it sits near good transport links, including the W1/300/301 buses (which travel directly to and from Tenjin in about 10 minutes via the highway) and the airport underground line, which is about a 10-minute walk away. It is also a quieter area of Fukuoka, meaning you should not be disturbed by too much outside noise. Also, as someone who likes softer beds, I did not mind the mattresses, but if you generally prefer a harder bed, this may be an issue for you.
The bad
Here is what I wrote on Booking.com:
This hotel is extremely bare-bones, and the building is old. The door and windows do not sit close to the frame, meaning heat/cold and noise from the outside come in without much of a barrier. Additionally, the walls have very little sound insulation, so you can hear everything from the people next door. Fortunately, I was in 301, so I only had one neighbouring room, but I heard almost everything from those occupants every day. I would suggest sleeping with earplugs if you can. Finally, it was not a very clean place. There is a cleaning service that cleans whenever someone checks out, but is very superficial. There was a lot of dust around the apartment. Also, when I took a bath the first night, I had to rinse it out because there was hair and an unidentified sticky, white liquid from a previous stay.
Response to my review
Here is what the owners had to say:
(There has been no response so far)
What I did while there
Here are some things to do in the area:
Verdict
It was acceptable to stay in, and if nowhere is available next time I am looking for a place to stay, I will choose here rather than not go to Fukuoka. However, it is not a great place, and I would prefer to pay a little more and stay elsewhere.
Thanks for reading! Want to do some more exploring? Have a look at the travel map:
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.
Interested in seeing our social media? Follow us on Instagram for travel photos and Youtube for travel videos!