Just finished a week long stay at Skye, and while our stay was not as eventful compared to other friends who stayed at the same time, I do have some comments about the hotel and advice for those who might be staying this season:

Pros:

• Hotel is brand new and hardware is quite nice. Rooms are spacious and relatively well equipped.
• Ski rental equipment was new with different brands to choose from.
• Spa was very good. Service and hardware both excellent.
• Dinner at the hotel restaurant was good for kids, not busy and reasonably priced

Cons:

• It’s definitely not real ski in/out from this hotel. You either had to walk across the road to get to the family base, or “ski” in/out down a V shape access path to get to the gondola base. No matter in or out, there will be a 5 min hike to get to the slopes! They should not be advertising this as a true ski in ski out hotel.
• No parking at all at this hotel unless you book a penthouse suite. You would think at this price level, there would be parking or even a valet service. Instead, they just tell you not to drive, or deal with the parking yourself at a public lot or on the street.
• Breakfast at the restaurant was fine and was included in the room rate. However, please be aware that coffee that you do not get yourself from the buffet is NOT free. They do not tell you that when they come around asking you if you want coffee, and you would only find out when they drop the bill on the table at the end.
• ¥1000 per keycard that you do not return when you check out. These are plastic keycards and not actual metal keys. They don’t tell you this when you check in, but try to ding you for it when you check out. I really struggle to remember any other hotel in the world that tries to charge for this.
• The Onsen is a joke. It’s tiny and you can actually see right into the woman’s onsen from the ski slopes! Very dangerous! The private onsens are in a tiny little rooms with no windows. Very claustrophobic.
• Ski valet is a zoo during the morning and afternoon rush hour. While the staff there were generally nice and knowledgeable, there was just no system for the guests to retrieve their equipment or renting for the first time. There could be 2 guys helping 10 people on boot fitting, and no-one would available to help guests with getting their equipment out.
• Housekeeping is lackluster at best. Rooms were generally not clean after they serviced it. A few times, dirty towels that were left on the floor were just folded and put back on the towel rack.

The above are just minor issues or annoyances. Nothing that is deal breaking in my mind. However, the biggest problem of this hotel, which IS a deal breaker, is their service. Granted there are a handful of staff there who did tried their best to help the guests, but even they were frustrated and shocked by some of the policies set by management and also the attitude of some the other staff. While I understand the hotel had just opened, the attitude from a vast majority of the staff were downright indifferent, disrespectful and even rude. Perhaps it is a lack of training or they are still “finding their feet”, but certainly it is not acceptable for any hotel to treat their guests like that. I have stayed at all the hotel top hotels in Niseko, AYA, Ki, Vale, etc, and I know it is hard for hotels in Niseko to attract good talent because of the seasonal nature of the resorts. It is an issue from the top down that treats people staying there as a nuisance and a source of revenue, rather than an actual guest. It was so bad that some of our friends staying there as well, tried to avoid interacting with any of the staff. It was that bad!

It is a beautiful hotel and I really wish it would succeed. However, they really need to do something with the management and staff there. Probably a lost cause already for this season. I hope that come the next ski season in 2019/20 when they get new staff and new management, things will improve a bit.