C C.
Yelp
We stayed at the Sea Hawk for five days for a conference. In planning the convention, our planners had lauded the affordable room rates, venue's amenities, and accessibility to Fukuoka. We were misled. While a lovely hotel, the Sea Hawk really struggled to host a conference.
Check-ins were arduous and complicated. For two days, check-in lines often stretched 5-20 people and ~45 minutes deep. Much of the problem seemed to be rooted in paperwork: Upon check-in, the staff printed and collated several documents that then had to be brought behind a partition and processed (often for more than 10 minutes) only to return with a room key. This meant average check-in time for each room was around 15 minutes, all the while more attendees arrived. Streamlining the check-in process, adding staff, and utilizing the computer systems in front of them would have been much more helpful when ~2,500 guests are known to arrive in a short time.
The logistics of hotel were challenged in other ways. Although the hotel had agreed to serve lunch to all attendees, it was not prepared to accommodate the masses (even staggered due to panel times) that inundated the lunch room on the first few days, with wait times just to get a table sometimes in excess of two hours. The WiFi was likewise spotty throughout the hotel, crippling many of the attendees who had mobile programs or need to communicate with family or work online. Both of these issues got resolved more than halfway through the conference, with additional spaces opened to serve lunch and better (but still not great or consistent) WiFi connectivity; but again this resolution took several days. Also, as the hotel is pretty remote and without competition nearby (see more below) it takes advantage of that by over-inflating its prices to abusive levels. While the room was cheap, a colleague and I spent ~US$55 on two glasses of (cheap) wine at the hotel bar one afternoon, and a round of coffee for a breakfast meeting of 10 people cost US$80. We used the laundry service for the hotel due to our lengthy travel, finding only once it was done that a bag of laundry cost us $US150--we could have bought clothes for that expense. The low cost of the hotel room was more than offset by the exorbitant nickle-and-diming the Hilton did with services while there.
Perhaps one problem facing this hotel is the culture and its desire for face-saving. No employee would admit there was a problem, and complaints were met with, "We'll look into it," with no specific plan or solution ever articulated. Concerns mostly went into the ether without a perception that it was being meaningfully addressed.
The location is lovely, as other reviewers have said, but somewhat isolated. It's great if you don't want to leave the property or are going to a Hawks game at the adjoining stadium. But otherwise, it's a 30-minute public bus into Fukuoka, a $20 taxi ride (each way), or a 15-minute walk to the nearest subway stop and then the ride in. Save for the hotel's restaurants, there are no dining options within a 15-minute walk. (I didn't even know you were allowed to build a conference hotel without an obligatory Starbucks inside.) What finally saved us and the rest of the conference goers was the Family Mart that adjoined the Sea Hawk--prepared food, coffee, beer/wine, and more were there, often for 10% of the equivalent price in the hotel. We basically lived out of Family Mart for 5 days while at the conference. (This was actually not that bad, as Family Mart offered high quality, low prices, and a surprisingly good selection. It was, however, a convenience store that we resorted to rather than our hotel.) You're basically trapped at the hotel and at their mercy.
The Hilton chain should be ashamed of this hotel. While the staff were all polite, their "helpfulness" was often limited. More care to recognize the high volume of guests in the on-site amenities, less of a chokehold on monopolistic pricing, better WiFi infrastructure, and perhaps a Hilton shuttle to/from the train station would help; but the isolated location makes this one of the worst nice hotels I've ever stayed at.
