Recently stayed here for several nights. All in all, very pleased with our choice. There were some drawbacks, however.
Location/Setting/Convenience -- The Crowne Plaza juts out dramatically out of the foothills of the Rokko Mountain. It's like 40 stories high and it literally stands out as the landmark building in the Shin-Kobe section of town. The Shin-Kobe area is set apart from the center of Kobe. The heart of Kobe's is the shopping and dining mecca of Sannomiya, which is about 25 minutes by foot from Crowne Plaza (or 2-3minutes by subway). Chinatown, Motomachi and Old Foreigners Settlement areas all are further yet from the hotel. Also, most of Kobe's train lines converge at Sannomiya, and many of our favorite sights (eg, Okamoto bakery/cafe district, Akashi's fish market arcade, Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Harbor area) were located on those lines. So we inevitably found ourselves always heading for Sannomiya first, whether it was to shop/eat there or to hop on a train to get to wherever else we needed to go.
One distinct advantage of Shin-Kobe is that the station for the bullet train (Shinkansen) is located here. In fact, Crowne Plaza is connected to the Shinkansen station by a covered walkway. So this hotel is definitely great as a base for using Shinkansen to go see Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. Also, a subway line passes through Shin-Kobe, connecting it with the heart of Kobe. Crowne Plaza literally sits on top of this subway station, and Sannomiya is just the next station over (2-3minutes ride). So the hotel does have pretty convenient access to the heart of Kobe. And you never have to go outside of a covered area to either reach Sannomiya or the Shinkansen station! Also the hotel is conveniently located with respect to two sightseeing attractions: Kitano district and Shin-Kobe Ropeway/Herb Garden. The only thing is there is really not much happening in the immediate vicinity of the hotel (except for the adjoining "Oriental Avenue" mall, which I'll discuss later), so we had to take this subway every time. And at the cost of 200yen per ride to Sannomiya, it did add up. Whenever our shopping bags piled up or we needed shower breaks from the summertime humidity, we found it a hassle to have to trek back to the hotel and then return back to Sannomiya/Motomachi area for more adventure. But with this inconvenience aside, the location of this hotel really is lovely. We felt good to get away from the hustle and bustle of central Kobe whenever we returned at night. The hotel's hillside location at the foot of the Rokko Mountain is lovely, and you're pretty much guaranteed to have an amazing panoramic view of Kobe no matter which room you get. In one direction, the hotel is connected to the Shinkansen station. As you exit out the other direction, you'll come upon a walkway that directly connects the hotel complex with Shin-Kobe Ropeway. When you reach the ropeway station, you take the elevator up to the boarding/ticket area. Coming out of the elevator, if you take a right, it'll take you onto a footpath that takes you straight to the lovely Kitano district where you'll find a number of quaint little shops and buildings and cafes and bakeries. Take a left out of the elevator and you'll be boarding the Ropeway up to the Herb Garden. The Ropeway ride affords a great view of Kobe and the sea, and the walk through the Herb Garden is really nice.
Room -- Based on the quality of the room alone, I would say this is definitely a 3-star hotel, not quite 4-stars. As mentioned above, the view was spectacular. And the room was very clean. But all in all, I'd say the room quality is on par with an average Holiday Inn in North America, not quite as good as what you'd expect from a Crowne Plaza. Our room was "Superior Double", which is essentially a mid-price range room with a king-size bed. The room was big for Japanese standard and there were no noise issues at all. The bathroom was clean and the shower was nice and powerful. On the other hand, the bed wasn't the most comfortable. The mattress was rather thin and hard; I'm used to much better beds and linens at Crowne Plazas in the US. Also, they only gave us two rather thin bath towels each day (although we could request more). There was a mini-fridge in our room (no freezer) which was stocked with mini bar items. The hotel staff gave us permission to take out the mini-bar stuff so that we could have an empty fridge to stock with drinks and groceries we bought outside. Instead of giving us new little shampoo/conditioner bottles and new soaps, they had large reusable toiletries that the maids replenished each day, which I didn't quite expect. The room supposedly came with free high-speed Internet (via cable, not wireless), but I couldn't get it to work. I have Windows Vista on my laptop and I followed the hotel's Internet instruction guides step-by-step, but couldn't get it to work even though the hotel staff claimed that they checked it out and found nothing wrong with the room's network/modem. So I had to use the computer downstairs in the lobby, which was reasonably-priced at 100yen for 10minutes. One other minor complaint was that there was only one English channel on TV (CNN). I've stayed at many Western-brand hotels in Tokyo and Osaka (eg, Hyatt, Radisson, Hilton), and you usually get at least two or three English channels.
Service/Facilities -- No complaints with service. Everything is prompt and professional. Every time we asked for something, the staff came to our room within ten minutes at most. The check-in and check-out went quickly and smoothly. The check-out time of 12pm is very generous by Japanese standards (usually 11am at city hotels, 10am at most ryokans and resorts) and they let us extend the check-out time by one hour, which they don't always allow for free in Japan. Plenty of Western guests at this hotel, so most of the front desk staff appear to be okay communicating in English. There is a fitness center and indoor pool, which I was looking forward to using. But I was put off by the fact that they charge hotel guests additional 1000yen or so to use these facilities (this kind of policy is common in Japan although many Western-brand hotels do allow hotel guests free usage).
Restaurants/Shopping on Premises -- The hotel is built on top of a three-story shopping mall, which was very convenient. The mall is called "Oriental Avenue" and it has, among other things, a dozen or so restaurants (including Wendy's), a small supermarket and a 100yen store. Although we did not try any of the hotel's restaurants, we did try some of the restaurants in the Oriental Avenue. We got this seven-course lobster dinner for 4000yen per person at Chunagon restaurant... it was so good I'm salivating as I type. Also went to Yume-Kitchen restaurant, which served great salads and pastas and other light-fare Western dishes with Japanese twist. Everything was great, and the dishes came with all-you-can-eat home-baked artisan breads which were just delicious. The supermarket (called Gourmet City) stocks a lot of cheap but good bentos and sushis to go, as well as lot of fruits, snacks, toiletries and everything else. It's open till 11pm, so comes in handy at night. There is another supermarket called Peacock, about five minutes walk from the hotel, which I thought had much better selections and much better fruits and bentos... but that one closes at 9pm and you have to go outside the hotel to reach it. Additionally, there are two 24-hour convenience stores right nearby (Family Mart and Lawson's) that stock excellent selection of snacks, drinks and take-away food. The whole of Oriental Avenue is pretty dead; hardly any customers in most of the shops. An awful lot of open tables at its restaurants, even on weekends. I sure hope the place doesn't go bankrupt.
