Hotel Wow, Shimane

If you caught my review of Shimane, you might remember the disaster that was my rainy, shutdown long weekend there. With only one lonely train line, the place grinds to a halt at the first sign of bad weather. I even warned you: do not attempt Shimane without a car. But today’s hotel might just have rescued Shimane from being forever banished to my mental list of worst travel destinations, a list currently ruled by the bafflingly beautiful Birmingham.

 The star of that trip was in fact the hotel, and I will unpack my experience in today’s review, whilst granting it a score in preparation for an upcoming blog entry that will be a visual list of the hotels and scores so far.

 Hotel Wow is three stops past Izumo and close to the airport. It is a relaxing ten-minute walk from the station, which has a taxi rank outside. The first score is for location. Hotel Wow has a great location; it’s on the line to the capital and very close to the airport. The walk is nice and goes past fields where most other love hotels are often in industrial estates, and the walk often leaves you wondering if you should be there at all. The location score for this hotel will be an 8.

 Scoring this hotel for ease of access is a no-brainer, thanks to a feature that truly stands out. Hotel Wow’s website lets you track every room in real time, showing not just availability but also when rooms are being cleaned. You can browse detailed descriptions and pick your favorite before you even set foot inside. After too many wasted trips to fully booked hotels, I wish every love hotel would adopt this game-changing tool. With a quick glance, you know exactly how many rooms are open and can decide on the spot whether to make the trip.

 The website is very easy to use. Upon arrival, you will see that Hotel Wow is a garage-style hotel. All rooms have garages to park in, allowing guests to enter straight into their room. If you arrive on foot, no big deal, you can pick your room, and you will receive a call to confirm how long you intend to stay. The hotel is a corridor, so you simply walk around until you find a room available and to your liking. Each room has a light-up display, red for taken, yellow for cleaning, and blue for vacant. It is easy to see if a room is free. For ease of access, I am awarding a 9. The only thing better would have been a button to notify the staff how long you’re staying instead of the call.  The new score is 17.

 The room surpassed my hopes for both comfort and cleanliness. I chose the second-highest tier of room; the priciest room came complete with a staircase leading to an airy upper level. At first glance from outside, I was skeptical, but my doubts vanished as soon as I stepped in. I have stayed in garage-style hotels before, usually nothing special, but Hotel Wow truly lives up to its name. The sleek, modern design sparked ideas for my dream home if I ever had the budget. A glass entrance welcomes you into a space with a plush sofa, an enormous TV, and a bed that invites you to sink in. The bathroom is spacious and contemporary, with a bath that feels almost luxurious. Metallic wood floors and a striking feature wall tie the whole look together. I arrived with low expectations but left thoroughly impressed. Everything felt spotless and brand new. For comfort and cleanliness, I give it an 8, bringing my total score to 25.

 As for amenities, everything can be ordered in via the TV, which has a cute system of sending notes otome game style. You can select your shampoos and food all via the TV, and the room comes with a variety of freebies too. The bed was very comfortable, and the room has LEDs that can be personalized. The bathroom has a bath and showers the water pressure is very good.  For amenities, I award a 7, taking the total to 32.

 Next up is food, and Hotel Wow truly lived up to its name after my exhausting journey. Starving and bracing myself for the usual bland hotel food, I ordered steak, fries, gyoza, ice cream, and a handful of tempting small plates. To my surprise, the room included a membership card for just 100 yen, unlocking unlimited free drinks that night and discounts on menu items. It was an easy choice for anyone wanting to save. But then, Hotel Wow did something I have never seen before: they staggered the food deliveries just like a real restaurant, with starters arriving first. Each dish was a revelation. The steak cooked perfectly medium rare, a rarity in Japan, was a highlight. Dessert came last, and every item was left discreetly outside my door, announced by a cheerful doorbell chime. The food and service easily earned an 8, bringing the total score to 40. Even when I ordered a drink at 2am, it arrived within minutes, as if by magic.

 This style of hotel is very easy to run for skeleton staff, where usually only one person or maybe two will serve the guests. The rooms are all connected via a service corridor where the staff members can wheel the food to the correct room very quickly. This hotel also offered a summer special of cotton candy, and it was a big rainbow-colored cotton candy, not just one color in a bag style.

 Overall enjoyment for this hotel is high. I loved the food, service, room decoration, and the extras that could be enjoyed. This hotel provided a safe space from the nightmare day I had experienced, and it truly felt like a high-end apartment. I relaxed very quickly and had an amazing meal and bath. For overall enjoyment, I award an 8, taking the score to 48.

 The final category is hard as it is likely to return, and I would very much be happy not seeing Shimane again, I still must visit its equally remote cousin, Tottori, and must dip back into Shimane briefly for a tower my travel companion is doing a stamp rally for. For that tower alone, I would consider going back to Hotel Wow, maybe to experience the top room with the staircase and upper floor. The hotel really was the highlight of the long weekend, so I will give Hotel Wow a 7 for this final category, leaving it with a very high score of 56/70.

 Hotel Wow enters our rankings in a tied 4th with Hotel Bvljua, which is an amazing achievement as the hotel style love hotels tend to me a higher quality. Hotel Wow for me is the best garage-style love hotel I have stayed at so far. The live room tracker is a huge game-changer and puts its miles ahead of the rest. Because of the nature of love hotels, being able to see how many rooms free and which ones are occupied is huge. The food at this hotel was amazing, and the small choices, such as staggering when food is put out, are also unique. It allowed time to enjoy the current course and saved on space, as there were a lot of plates and cups by the end of dinner. The TV system with cute notes was nice, and the service around the clock, being that fast, is impressive. The small extras, like cotton candy, just sweetened the whole experience. I fully recommend this hotel; however, not the prefecture, so perhaps a car is necessary for this one.