Rakuten STAY Kokura Station

1. Very spacious room for this price point to be honest. Could be because it's not a major city... 2. Kitchen equipment like induction cooker and pot and bowls and utensils were provided! Makes it possible to cook your own meals (or even just Maggie mee) fridge was very big so can buy drinks to store 3. Location was alright. Located along small alley but very near main road leading to shopping street and Kokura station. 4. Aircon and heater worked well. Great for winter weather 5. Bathroom ventilator was very strong. To the extent that it feels very cold after taking a shower. We tried closing the bathroom door at night and it was literally like a freezer in the morning when we open it. But also because of the ventilator, our clothes dried fast indoors 🥶 6. Now to the pain points. First got to be the facility management and check in check out process. This property does auto check in meaning there is no physical staff to handle your check in check out throughout. There is no receptionist at all. I made my booking 2- 3 hours prior to arriving at property. At the front door we were prompted to input entry passcode which we had no idea what it was (it's not the reservation number provided by the booking partner like Agoda or trip.com) tried to contact both the hotel helpline (there was a Jp phone number at the entrance but that's all, no other info whatsoever) and also escalated to Agoda (as I made my booking through Agoda for first nights) but no ans. In the end we had to enter property when someone unlocked the front entrance using her own passcode before we could speak to the helpdesk through the tablets. So it turns out that they claim most travellers would make their reservation at least a day prior to arrival, which was why system didn't capture my booking (yet ironically they allowed booking for same day check in .... When they clearly cannot manage the whole process) shouldn't there be more effort being put in to monitor for same day booking so the traveller doesn't get stuck at the front entrance especially in winter weather? We had to sit at the park nearby while trying to contact the helpdkesks but couldn't get through till the end...... The whole check in process was rather manual, basically you enter the info as prompted on screen then video call the helpline agent to verify before you'll get your passcode to your room. (All through tablet) Security seems alright if you're ok with the idea of using a keypad lock instead of having a physical room card? I guess customers just have to always make sure no one is looking when entering the passcode at the front door. Btw same passcode is used to enter hotel front entrance and for your room lock. All in all the biggest issue we found was the check in check out process. Overall stay was above average.