Shikotsuko Daiichi Hotel Suizantei

open air bath and meals

the room is too small to fit 2 big luggages.

This is a highly rated place and I must say my wife and I were pleasantly surprised by the level of service on our first day. Food was excellent and the staff took special care of your requests. In room Onsen is great. The consumables in the room is great. Cold brew coffee in the mornings is great! This wonderful place is situated in a peaceful and serene environment. Great if your intention is to switch off and attain inner peace.

We are not locals so we were generally hoping for a staff to show us the traditional Japanese way of doing things. Did not happen but maybe because the staff didn’t understand English very well. The staff (male) serving us dinner on our second (last) night was pretty awful. Request for a simple tea took 3 courses and multiple reminders. He took short cuts in his serving of our food. We felt very clearly the lack of intention to serve us. The last course (dessert) took about 15-20 min of waiting. We were clearly an unwanted guest to him and we were pretty upset given the price we paid for this place. This is one of the reasons why this place did not score perfect for service. I must say the dinner in our first night was good. And the female staff was top notch despite her limited English. The second reason why this place did not score a perfect for service is because on the day of our checkout, the staff at the reception were clearly uninterested to serve us. I had to move my car to the sheltered lobby because of rain. My wife had to move all the luggage herself out with their staff just standing and looking. Very different feeling we were getting compared to the first day. Note: If this was a budget or normal hotel, the service failures would be acceptable. But this really is not.