Hotel Forza Hakataeki Chikushi-Guchi II Review in Hakata, Fukuoka, Japan
This Hotel Forza Hakataeki Chikushi-Guchi II review is from a spontaneous August trip to Fukuoka.
I booked the flights just a few days before leaving,
then rushed to find a hotel and ended up choosing this one.
Thankfully, it turned out to be a solid pick overall.
It’s a small hotel near Hakata Station,
Hotel Forza Hakataeki Chikushi-Guchi.
FORZA seems to be a Japanese hotel chain,
and there are actually two properties near Hakata Station,
so after booking, make sure you double-check which one you reserved.
We booked II, not I.
It took about five minutes on foot from Hakata Station.
But after checking in, I realized
that if you come out of Hakata Station’s East Side Exit No. 6,
the hotel is basically a one-minute walk away.
The only catch: that exit has stairs only—no elevator or escalator.
I actually wanted to go to Osaka more than Fukuoka,
but a typhoon was supposed to pass through Japan around that time,
so we picked Fukuoka instead since it wasn’t affected.
That person is always somehow way ahead of me…
I liked how the hotel sign said FORZA in this cute way,
and the color and font felt kind of hip.
As you can probably tell from the exterior,
this isn’t a luxury staycation hotel.
It’s more of a comfortable 3-star hotel that’s great for sleeping and exploring.
As soon as you walk in, the check-in counter is right there,
and the lobby and waiting area were clean and tidy.
Check-in starts at 2 PM,
and check-out is at 11 AM.
One thing that felt very modern here:
there was staff to help with check-in,
but the system was half self-service.
You confirm your reservation on the screen, tap through the steps,
pay yourself, and then the machine spits out your key card.
So it’s basically a self-check-in setup.
When you stay in Fukuoka, there’s a city accommodation tax,
so in addition to your room rate, you’ll need to pay an extra 200 or 500 yen
depending on the details—see the photo above for the breakdown.
We stayed for three nights, so I’m not totally sure why the screen showed it like that.
My husband handled all the hotel bookings,
so I honestly don’t know what happened there,
but yes, we stayed here for 3 nights. That was roughly the price range.
After coming back from Abu Dhabi and Dubai,
Japanese hotel prices somehow felt even more expensive in comparison.
One thing I found interesting about Japanese cash machines:
you can insert multiple bills at once.
I was about to feed them in one by one,
but they told me to just put the whole stack in, which surprised me.
Once all the payment is done, the machine gives you your key card.
The receipt showed a total of 55,065 yen, which looked right.
Our room was 1003.
They also mentioned a welcome drink.
I think if you came to the front desk during a certain time window,
they served wine,
but we were out and about so much that we never made it back in time,
so I have no idea what kind of wine it was.
I’m guessing it was by the glass, not a full bottle.
There’s also a breakfast restaurant on the first floor,
but I’m not usually someone who goes all out for hotel breakfast,
and especially in Japan, there’s just too much good food outside,
so we skipped the breakfast-included option.
Instead, there was a coffee machine and a microwave,
so you could grab a free morning coffee.
I had one once during our stay.
And below the microwave,
there were disposable forks, spoons, chopsticks, and more,
which was super handy when eating convenience store food in the room.
Further inside on the same floor,
there’s also a coin laundry room and an ice machine, so definitely make use of them.
There were only two elevators,
but I didn’t have any major issues using them during our stay.
There were all kinds of amenities set out near the elevators too.
The room already came with refillable shampoo, conditioner, and body wash,
and you could grab anything extra you needed here.
There was cleansing milk, a hair pack, hairbrushes,
basic skincare, disposable razors, cotton swabs, and bath salts—
all stocked generously, which I loved.
I especially used that hair pack every single day.
It probably wasn’t anything super expensive,
but maybe because it was Japanese-made, it left my hair really soft and nice.
The building only goes up to the 11th floor, and they gave us the 10th floor.
At a hotel I stayed at in Tokyo, the top floor was a smoking floor,
but when I checked here,
thankfully all rooms were non-smoking.
That said, some hotels in Japan still allow smoking rooms,
so it’s definitely worth confirming when you book.
We always ask for a quiet room at the end of the hall,
and this time too, we successfully got the very last room.
The room type was just the most basic one,
probably a Deluxe Double Room, if I remember right.
There are also larger rooms, like the 10, 11, and 16 layouts.
Anyway, here’s a quick look around the room first.
As you can see, the room is pretty small.
Maybe around 20 square meters?
But it’s packed efficiently with a double bed, a sofa chair, a shelf that doubles as a minibar,
and of course the bathroom too.
They provided two bottles of water, and if you open the drawers,
there’s a mini fridge, a hair dryer, and a few other things tucked away inside.
There was also a note saying that if something was trash,
you should put a garbage sticker on it,
probably because otherwise it might be hard for housekeeping to tell.
The bed wasn’t huge,
but it also wasn’t uncomfortably small for two adults.
The bedding was decent too.
Small, but clean, with no weird smells or anything—
a cute little hotel that worked well for us for three days.
There was a sofa, but honestly it mostly became a place to pile our stuff.
And the view outside the window? Absolutely stunning^^
A full-on air conditioner unit view.
A closer look around the room corners.
Even so, it is still a hotel,
so it had all the basics covered.
The hair dryer wasn’t in the bathroom—
it was tucked into a drawer in the main room.
There was also what looked like an air purifier,
but all the buttons were in kanji and Japanese,
and even after trying Papago, I still couldn’t figure it out, so I just didn’t use it.
Oh, and there wasn’t a separate closet either.
Near the entrance, next to the bathroom,
there was a recessed space with just a hanging rack,
which basically functioned as the closet.
The Japanese are seriously amazing at using space efficiently.
Now for the bathroom at this Hakata Station hotel.
It felt like a tiny bathroom in a regular home,
but it had everything you actually needed.
There was a bidet, and if you needed more towels, they would give you more.
There was hand wash too, and the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash were all refillable.
The brand was Provinscia,
and I liked the scent so much I actually considered buying it.
When I looked it up,
it seemed like a lot of other people had the exact same thought
and were searching for where to buy it.
From other blog posts, I saw people saying
it was a hotel-exclusive product and not sold separately,
but it does seem like you can buy it from an online shop called Pelican Soap.
Honestly, it feels like it would sell well in Korea too.
They also provided a toothbrush and toothpaste set.
This photo is suddenly messy,
but I had to take it because the heated mirror was such a smart touch.
Since mirrors fog up after a shower,
they installed a heating element behind it so it wouldn’t steam over.
The level of Japanese attention to detail is honestly wild.
There were also robes and pajamas,
and overall, you could really tell they had thought through
how to make guests feel comfortable.
That’s one of the reasons I liked this Hakata Station hotel so much.
I also took photos of the English version of the hotel information guide, front and back,
so I hope that helps if you’re planning a stay.
You probably already know what Japanese outlets look like, right?
Japan uses 110V, so you’ll need a plug adapter.
We usually bring three between the two of us, and that was enough.
If you travel with a lot of electronics,
bringing one more might be a good idea.
If you look around carefully, there are more places to plug things in,
so it’s worth scouting the room once you arrive.
The TV was also tiny,
which matched the compact room size.
We brought our usual mirroring cast device,
so we watched YouTube and listened to music in the room.
At night, we’d raid the convenience store and hang out in the room,
drop one of the bath salts we picked up on the first floor into the tub,
and enjoy a relaxing half-bath,
then head out for a late-night food crawl near Hakata Station too.
The location was great not just for sightseeing around central Fukuoka, but also for day trips to places like Dazaifu and Kitakyushu.
The bus terminal and Shinkansen were both close by,
so in terms of location, this was an incredibly convenient place to stay.
The room was quiet, and the cleaning and service
were all very satisfying overall.
On the day we checked out, we asked if they could hold our luggage while we went out to eat,
and they agreed so kindly and so willingly
that I left feeling good right up until the very end.
There was even a Korean staff member there when we checked out.
The alley in front of the hotel had a cool, slightly hip vibe,
so of course I took a few photos there too.
Such a fun summer in 2023.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.