St Regis Hotels in Osaka

Concierge: We emailed the hotel weeks in advance of our stay to assist with bookings. Weeks would pass before they would respond, and multiple follow up emails were required to get a response. They did successfully book one 3 Michelin star restaurant to which we owe them significant credit. However, when we arrived and asked basic requests such as where to find restaurants or stores, the concierge was usually very short and had no suggestions. We were better off consulting Google maps. And this for a 5 star concierge service? In addition, the English skills of many of the concierge staff were extremely limited. While I know some Japanese, it should not be required at a hotel of this calibre. In fact, when visiting Japan, a 5 star hotel should have fluent English speakers for most front facing staff. Hotel Condition: The hotel has significant and noticeable wear and tear. We were in a Grand Deluxe Suite and when I arrived, a man was literally gluing on a piece of the door that had torn off. The woodwork throughout the suite was heavily scratched and dented including tables. The carpet was worn thin, and the sofa's velvet exterior was worn. In any event, for a hotel suite whose copay was $500+ per night, this was disappointing. Check out Process: The check out process was extremely troubling and disappointing. We asked for a Butler to assist with bags multiple times, and even after 45 minutes they did not come up to our room to collect our bags. This resulted in us having to drag our bags down to the lobby ourselves, as we were rushing for a Shinkansen train. Normally, this would have been fine, but we had a lot of luggage. The significantly wait time for luggage assistance is not characteristic of a St. Regis. Hidden Taxes and No Final Folio Provided: The hotel has some hidden taxes associated with rooms that have copays for upgrades. While we expected to pay 50,000 yen per night + about 37,000 yen in total taxes (about 5600 yen per night in tax), we did not expect too many additional taxes. Yet there was another 6500 or so taxes per night in taxes we were assessed. Even after numerous attempts, the hotel never sent a final folio nor explained the charges which is all I asked. General Impressions: The hotel seems poorly managed with a ”choatic” vibe in which there is not only no personalized guests are vying for the attention for concierge staff who are stretched too thin with minimal English skills. While I understand this is a busy time for the hotel, the hotel should not be having any difficulty meeting basic demands of elite members even when they are at capacity. The hotel felt more like a 3-4 star hotel than a St. Regis. Among St. Regis hotels, this one was a major disappointment.