My wife and I stayed at this hotel for nine nights in late October and early November, 2012. If you want to stay in the Sakae area of Nagoya, the Best Western Hotel Nagoya is a very good value. The rooms are larger than typical for a Japanese hotel, and the bathroom had a full-size tub with built-in shower. There was room to unpack and be able to store your suitcases. The closet was small, but functional. There were two comfortable chairs in the room to sit in. The desk area was quite useable. The service at the front desk was very good: these people really do care. There was almost always someone present who spoke sufficient English to be able to help you. Everything was quite clean. The price varied depending on the day of the week, but it was significantly less than for any other decent hotel in the area (indeed, in most of Nagoya).

There were two drawbacks to the hotel. First, the rooms have an in-room wired Internet connection, use of which was included in the room price. However, when anyone in the hotel was downloading a large amount of data (e.g., streaming a movie), it brought the whole system to a crawl. In some cases, it simply became so slow as to be unusable. In other cases, you were disconnected and could not reconnect. If you require a reliable Internet connection, you probably should not stay in this hotel. Management is aware of the situation -- it has apparently been a problem for quite some time -- and I believe they are going to try to address it. Until it is addressed, the Internet connection in the hotel has to be considered unreliable. This seems to be a problem more often in the evening, so if you can use the Internet in the morning or during the day it is likely that you will have fewer problems. If your computer only works with Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi is advertised as being available in the lobby, but it is not available in the rooms. You could carry a small wireless access point and plug it in in the room. However, I assume the Wi-Fi works on the same system, and would thus have the same reliability problems.

Second, although the rooms have individual air conditioning and heating, the air conditioning system was turned off the whole time we were there. While the outside temperature was not that warm most days (it was for some), the heat from all of the rooms below us made the room too hot be comfortable for sleeping at night. The windows in the rooms do not open. The front desk can provide a fan, but that is not really a solution. I also noted that the lowest temperature setting possible on the in-room unit was 68 degrees F.

One very nice feature of the rooms is that they have a small refrigerator. This isn't a mini-bar: it is a refrigerator you can use to keep your drinks or other food cold. As noted below, there are two stores within easy walking distance where you can buy food.

Some information about the location may be useful. The hotel is three blocks from the Sakae station. Note that this does not mean that you are three blocks from the subway: the Sakae station is very large. Sakae is a very convenient place to stay in terms of restaurants and shopping. There is a Denny's around the corner at the end of the block in the direction away from Sakae station (not a US menu, but good steaks and pasta at quite reasonable prices for Japan), and a Circle K food market on the way to the Denny's. McDonald's is two blocks from the hotel on the opposite side of the street, toward Sakae station. Breakfast at the hotel is about $25 per person. McDonald's opens for breakfast at 5:00 or 5:30 am, and is priced similarly to McDonald's in the US (breakfast for two at McDonald's was less than 1000 Yen, and still hot when we got it back to the room). Two blocks toward Sakae station from the hotel is a 7-11. Around the corner to the left from this is an excellent Italian restaurant with quite reasonable prices. Sakae station has a large number of Japanese restaurants, many with very reasonable prices. If stairs are a problem for you, you can use the elevators in the Counichi (sp?) building next to Exit 12 to access the subway level. There is a very large, multistory department store on one corner of the plaza where the entrances to Sakae station are located, and many other stores in the area. There is a Starbucks on the ground floor of the hotel.

If you are attending a conference at the Nagoya Congress Centre, the literature provided by the Congress Centre and many conference organizers may make it sound like Sakae is closer time-wise to the Congress Centre than it is. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from the Best Western to where you buy a ticket and get to where you actually board the subway. It takes about another 15 minutes to get to Hibino station, the closest station to the Congress Centre. (You take the Meijo line in the Nagoya Port direction. About half of the trains do go to Hibino station: these actually say Nagoya Port on their lighted destination panels. The other half do not go to Hibino: you have to change to the Track 2 train at Kanayama station. An announcement is made when you are approaching Kanayama if you need to make the change.) It then takes an additional 15 minutes to walk from Hibino station to the interior of the Nagoya Congress Centre (which is a very large, multi-building structure). Sakae is very convenient for food and shopping, but it really is 45 minutes away from a meeting at the Congress Centre. I would suggest staying at Kanayama station (the ANA Crowne Plaza is a good possibility based on what others attending my conference said, although I have never stayed there) if you are attending a multi-day conference at the Congress Centre. Kanayama station does have a number of Japanese restaurants, although I do not know what it has in terms of stores or Western restaurants. You can always get to Sakae from Kanayama station with a 15-minute subway ride.