Onsen over look one of ski run next to family lift. An unique experience as you can relax in the hot outdoor bath and watch skiers down below.
The sauna is a bit small and the water does not seem to be natural mineral water. But the location and few is great.
One of the best locations on the mountain for a ski-in-ski-out Niseko experience. The facilities and set up for skiing were perfect.
The other massive hit was the in-room private onsen. A very big tick and luxury to have at the end of each day to soak out all those wears of the day.
Apart from that - the rest was average... nothing to rave about. Rooms were quite small. Very average breakfast, quite poor service....
A great ski-in/ski out location onto upgraded Family quad chair. Staff with limited English, but very helpful (special kudos to Yumene-san). Breakfast was great with a wide selection - and on-premise, multi-bath onsen (including outside bath overlooking a ski run) was the icing on the cake. Our room had a small private onsen also, but the big one was so good we tended to go down there. Rooms are very comfortable but not luxurious. If you want super-luxury this isn't for you, but it met our needs especially well.
I picked this hotel in the past because it has a very good dinner buffet and offer ski in and ski out at the Hirafu ski area.
The price is not cheap and the room is quite small.But I keep coming back because of the above reasons.
This year I find the quality of food deteriorated substantially.To be fair, the quality is still above average at Hirafu area.I remember the tempura used to be my favourite, but I can no longer say so.
Also, this year because of a big tour group, the hotel change the breakfast time to 830am, which is after the chairlift open time. On a good powder day I have to forfeit my breakfast to catch the snow.I cannot pretend that I am happy with this arrangement.
This onsen is located on the ground floor off the lobby. You purchase a ticket in a machine located next to the main desk. If you need a towel, you can purchase an additional ticket. The total for both is JPY1200.
The onsen has separate male and female areas both of which have indoor and outdoor baths or pools. It’s a lovely feeling soaking outside after a hard day on the slopes and staring out at the mountain. Doesn’t get better than this really.
I’ve stayed at this hotel twice. Once this year n another 3 years back. Nothing has changed but the prices have doubled with zero improvement. So everything is still old n Crickety, and service has become jaded and apathetic.
But because the niseko crowd keeps the hotel busy, they can afford to be careless about service standards now... Simple requests like how to get to the Bus meeting point with luggage will be met with a blank look n reply “I have no idea”. I had asked for help on how to get to the bus meeting point early in the morning as I was travelling by myself with quite a lot of luggage with skis n boots.
Kinuge the young staff at the reception counter felt it was not the hotel’s responsibility to help guests leave. “It’s your own self problem” was his reply. When asked for possibility for a taxi, he said flat out they will be busy without even trying to make a call.
As for ski in n out .... well. The locker room in another building many steps down. Plus w your skis n boots on, you have more steps to climb through a narrow stair well before reaching the slope. Rather a clumsy arrangement. It’s a bit of a palava coz u will have to remove your skis 2 min later to buy a lift pass. Maybe it’s easier to walk up to . base n start off from there to avoid the family slope crowd of kids classes in the morning which is where Prince’s Ski off leads to.
Anyway niseko is a boom town now and badly in need of more rooms. Perhaps with some competition, old establishments like this one, that is now charging 5 star prices, will start thinking about customer service, upgrading facilities and maintaining some international hospitality standards.
The bad
1) very old facilities
2) small bedrooms room
3) indifferent service staff who are rather taciturn to foreigners
4) very limited food options. Dinner Buffet closes at 8pm. And charged at uS$50 for a very cheap looking spread. There is no cafe. Only a buffet breakfast and buffet dinner.
5) ski in n out is a bit of a process n not very easy at all
6) onsen is open to public n can be busy
The good
1) on the main niseko stretch
