This is one of the better hotels in Jozankei and I gladly paid the extra for it. However, staying at this hotel was the worst hotel experience ever. First of all, I booked a non-smoking room 4 months in advance and via a booking agency, I made a separate request for non-smoking room. Also before I finalized my booking, I did my homework and went to the hotel’s website and checked the room type very carefully (well…this hotel has 17 different room types and only 5 of them are non-smoking) and made sure that I was booking the non-smoking room. When I checked in, they assigned me a smoking room and the smelt really really bad. Despite that I left the large window open for the entire afternoon and evening and had an air purifier at full power, I woke up in the middle of the night and had to open the window again and leave it open throughout the night. As soon as I went into the room, I asked for a room change and the hotel asked for an upgrade fee of 9,000 Yen (about $90). At first I was willing to pay extra and I asked if I could check the non-smoking room first and then decide, the hotel refused to do so. The hotel asked me to pay first and only then they could show me the room. At that point, I just gave up the...This is one of the better hotels in Jozankei and I gladly paid the extra for it.
However, staying at this hotel was the worst hotel experience ever.

First of all, I booked a non-smoking room 4 months in advance and via a booking agency, I made a separate request for non-smoking room. Also before I finalized my booking, I did my homework and went to the hotel’s website and checked the room type very carefully (well…this hotel has 17 different room types and only 5 of them are non-smoking) and made sure that I was booking the non-smoking room.

When I checked in, they assigned me a smoking room and the smelt really really bad. Despite that I left the large window open for the entire afternoon and evening and had an air purifier at full power, I woke up in the middle of the night and had to open the window again and leave it open throughout the night.

As soon as I went into the room, I asked for a room change and the hotel asked for an upgrade fee of 9,000 Yen (about $90). At first I was willing to pay extra and I asked if I could check the non-smoking room first and then decide, the hotel refused to do so. The hotel asked me to pay first and only then they could show me the room. At that point, I just gave up the room change. Of course the hotel did not do anything about the smell that I mentioned earlier.

Later that day after checking all the emails and booking details, I realized that I indeed booked a non-smoking room, so I tried again at the front desk to verify the fact that I booked a non-smoking room and pointed out (by showing pictures) that the room that I was assigned to was different from the one that I booked. However, the hotel manager kept saying that the booking agency did not request for a non-smoking room and blamed everything to the booking agency.

To make it worse, this hotel does not speak English. The person who speaks the best English does not even understand the word ‘decide.’ Luckily, I was able to speak a little Japanese and had a translation app to help me out.

Last, the service mind at this hotel is non-existent. As I was having a bit of trouble communicating with the hotel staff regarding the room change, I asked for another staff who speaks better English. I did not mean to be rude and I think my request was a reasonable one since this hotel is not a small boutique ryokan with a few rooms. This hotel has 60 rooms!! However, I guess the staff was rather offended by my request and she just snapped. Ever since, she was giving me this attitude throughout the dinner (well…we has Japanese Kaiseki Dinner and she was serving us since she was the only one who speaks English at the hotel) and refused to communicate in English and kept using Japanese.

I had a very strong feeling that this hotel neither cares nor wants foreign tourists at their place.
Please avoid this hotel, especially if you are a foreigner like I am.More