Hotel M Matsumoto

Rooms and decor

Hotel M Matsumoto is a business hotel with a capsule wing in the Fukashi district, right by Matsumoto Station. It was renovated within the last few years and looks more current than other hotels of its generation in town. There are 96 rooms in three formats. The single at 14 sqm has everything covered — bed, work desk, wardrobe, and a private bathroom. The double or twin at 18 to 22 sqm adds a small sitting area and a roomier bathroom, some with a bathtub. The capsule is a sleeping pod in a shared room with a private light, a power outlet, and a closing curtain, meant for budget solo travelers who use shared showers and toilets. Rooms are done in a modern grey-and-white palette, plain and minimal — not luxurious, but clean and fully functional, with a good bed and fresh linens. Real guest reviews agree the quality matches the price.

Food and amenities

Breakfast at Hotel M is a buffet in the ground-floor dining room, with both proper Japanese dishes (salted fish, rolled omelet, miso soup, steamed rice, pickles) and Western options (bread, bacon, made-to-order eggs, salad, fruit). It isn't as varied as the Richmond, but it's enough to start the day full, and you choose at booking whether to include it. There's a FamilyMart and a Lawson within a 2-minute walk, open 24 hours. The rest of the in-hotel amenities cover what a traveler needs — free fast Wi-Fi in every room, a coin laundry on the ground floor, free luggage hold before check-in and after check-out, and a 24-hour front desk. There's no onsen, gym, or spa.

Location and getting there

Location is Hotel M's main selling point and the biggest reason to book it — it sits in Fukashi, right by JR Matsumoto Station, a 3-minute walk from the station gate, one minute shorter than the Richmond Hotel and the closest on the list that isn't a hostel. From the station you can catch the Alpico bus to Kamikochi (1.5 hours) or Norikura Highland (1.5 hours), take the JR Limited Express to the Kiso Valley (1 hour), or connect by shinkansen to Nagoya or Tokyo. Fukashi has restaurants, ramen shops, convenience stores, and Japanese liquor shops around the hotel, open late — handy when you get back at night after a day in the mountains. For Matsumoto Castle it's about a 16-minute walk (1.3 km), or a 5-minute ride on the Town Sneaker city bus for about $1.40. Shinshu Matsumoto airport is roughly 8 km away, 18 minutes by car.

Things to know before booking

First, the rooms are small by Japanese business-hotel norms — 14 sqm for the single and 18 to 22 sqm for the double. If you want more space, choose Buena Vista or Marunouchi, where rooms are larger. Second, there's no traditional Japanese atmosphere — it's a modern hotel with no onsen and no futon on tatami. Third, the capsule rooms have shared bathrooms; if that isn't for you, book a single instead, which costs only a few dollars more.

Our take

From reading through real guest reviews, Hotel M Matsumoto is the cheapest pick among the city's hotels. It trades on being a business hotel with a capsule wing right by the station — a 3-minute walk to the Matsumoto Station gate, rooms from about $63 a night ($34 to $43 for a capsule), clean and tidy rooms, fast Wi-Fi, and an optional buffet breakfast. If the picture in your head is stepping off the train at Matsumoto Station, wheeling your bag a few steps to the hotel, sleeping over before the early Alpico bus to Kamikochi, then using it as a budget base for the Japan Alps, this is the most on-target and best-value answer. It suits budget solo travelers, couples watching their spending, backpackers who want a private room over a hostel, and anyone passing through Matsumoto on the way to the Alps — but if you want a roomy, comfortable stay or real Japanese character, this isn't it. Overall we give it 8.3/10 for the best-value budget hotel by the station in town.