Hoshino Resorts KAI Beppu — Hotel in Beppu

A Deeply Disappointing Stay (July 6–7, 2025) (All communication with KAI Beppu was documented)

We traveled with over 20 family members and stayed at KAI Beppu. Given the reputation and premium pricing of Hoshino Resorts, we had high expectations — but the experience was deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable. With service like this, we’ll never return.

🔹 Check-In Chaos: Wrong Guest List, No Prior Confirmation

When we arrived, a staff member boarded our bus and handed out a completely incorrect rooming list — five rooms were listed under the same name. One week before our stay, I had submitted the full list of guest names through the official booking system and by email. I even received written confirmation that everything was in order.

And yet, this very basic error happened, forcing our entire group to wait on the bus for nearly 45 minutes while staff tried to fix it.

According to the hotel staff, the booking system and front desk weren’t properly connected — and even worse, they casually told us, “This has happened before.”

Seriously? That’s your excuse? If this is a known issue, why hasn’t it been fixed? Why should guests continue to suffer because of your internal communication problems?

🔹 No Cultural or Health Consideration for Meals

Before our stay, we submitted a full list of allergies and dietary restrictions. The hotel replied, saying: "We can accommodate allergies, but not personal preferences."

We respected that, and we didn’t expect them to customize every dish. But when it comes to health and cultural needs, the handling was unacceptable. For example: some of our elderly family were advised by doctors to avoid raw food, but the hotel offered no alternatives.

Several people of my family do not eat beef due to Taiwanese cultural beliefs. We’ve stayed at many other hotels and restaurants in Japan that were happy to make substitutions — why was that impossible here?

Even worse: One of our family members has a severe milk allergy. He sat in his assigned seat, and everything seemed fine — until one dish was served with dairy. Only after he ate it did staff come over to say they had made a mistake. That is completely unacceptable. Thankfully, he had medication on hand — if he hadn’t, this could have ended very badly.

What’s most frustrating is that all of this was clearly communicated before our arrival and confirmed by the hotel. These weren’t last-minute requests. This shows a serious lack of sensitivity to guest health and cultural needs — and poor risk management for a hotel that welcomes international travelers.

🔹 No Manager Ever Apologized

Despite everything that happened, no manager ever came to speak with us, explain, or apologize. There was a clear lack of responsibility or sincerity — and none of the “OMOTENASHI” (Japanese hospitality) that Hoshino Resorts constantly advertises. Honestly, it was ridiculous.

🔹 Huge Gap Between Brand and Reality

I’ve stayed at many hotels all over Japan — even small local inns — and they’ve consistently provided better service than what we experienced here. For a brand as well-known and expensive as Hoshino Resorts, this was shockingly poor service.

⚠️ I would not recommend KAI Beppu or Hoshino Resorts to anyone. I sincerely hope this feedback is taken seriously and leads to real changes — because no other guest should have to go through...

Visited via car. Small car park in front of hotel. We stayed for 2 nights with breakfast and dinner on both nights.

Meals For the meals, even if you stay 2 nights, the food will be different. The first dinner was hotpot style with noodles. The 2nd dinner was rice. Even breakfast ingredients were slightly different. In terms of food, the quality was great with lovely presentation. In terms of taste, it was good and a typical Kai standard.

Rooms Rooms were big with sea view. Mushroom team, coffee, and ginger tea are provided in each room once. Amneties are provided, and if you stay a 2nd night, they will provide you with new towels, toothbrush, etc. (I'm not sure if the other Kai I stayed at was an exception or the rules changed, but when you stay at Kai, they provide you with a piece of fabric that you can collect different colours from different Kai locations. In my previous Kai, they gave us another one on the 2nd night, but this wasn't the case at this Kai). The beds were comfortable, and the shower was big. No usb charging ports. If you require, you can ask them for a phone charger. Only 1 jug of water is provided in the room during the stay. If you want more water, you can grab some from the lounge (at least that's what I did).

Onsen Men and women onsens don't get swapped around, unlike other ryokans. There are a total of 3 baths, 2 indoors, and 1 outdoor. Outside the onsen, they have 2 types of tea (i really like the yuzu honey tea) and ice lollies for you to enjoy after the onsen. You can also check the onsen traffic via a link, but every time I checked, it was always green.

Activities We attended the onsen mist session, and it was basic but nice. The session is carried out in Japanese, and they kindly printed out the slides in English for us. At the end of the session, each room can get 1 stamp booklet for free (normally, you have to buy it). The night market was basic but entertaining. Ramen was self-serve, and the hell spicy sauce is VERY spicy, so be warned. Onsen eggs are also available next to the ramen section.

Location We came by car so it was fine. 5-10 minutes walking distance from shops such as Daiso/Seria, uniqlo, gu, don qioutje etc.

Service I would say the service here wasn't as good as the other Kai I stayed at or other high-end ryokans. Dont get me wrong, the service is still good but not exceptional, especially if you have high expectations. Service during dinner and breakfast was also not too great on the first night, but it improved a lot on the 2nd day/night.

Other They have a lounge/library area where there's tea and coffee 24/7. I believe between 3pm-5pm, there is also sparkling wine available. 1 thing that I didn't enjoy were the wooden sandals they provided us to wear around the hotel (optiomal). They were digging into my toe and causing a lot of pain even with socks on. I don't remember the shoes at the other Kai ever being...

It was unfortunate that I did not read the reviews probably before making the booking. If I had, I would not have booked this hotel. As many others have pointed out, this is essentially an average Japanese business hotel standard of service (maybe worse than the standard as they are understaffed and staff seem disinterested in general), but charged at 4 to 5 star price. Of course rooms are big and the view is great, with good food provided. But that’s all I can say about the positive things about this hotel. However, if I am paying several hundreds of dollars for a night, I would expect a lot more than these. At the bare minimum, we are in Japan, and the service should at least meet the standard of business hotels. But in Kai Hoshino Beppu, I was denied simple requests such as 1) to have extra bottle of water as I finished drinking the bottle in the room (not mineral water, it is a refillable bottle of water. I was told to drink directly from the tap in the toilet instead, as Japanese tap water is drinkable. Of course I know some countries have drinkable tap water (I come from one myself), but people have their preferences and I think I deserve to be respected in that matter, especially in a hotel! And 2) I was told not to play the game in the lobby as I did not bring the “map” given at check in and I am not allowed to play unless I bring the map down. Well, I just shrugged my shoulder and left. It’s not a super fun game that I would bother to go up and down just to play it. If I am walking around in their lobby in their own room wear, I don’t see the point of presenting the map to them to prove that I am a hotel guest. Examples are plenty and I shall not write too long. Bottom line: do not stay in this hotel unless you have nowhere better to spend your money, but even if that’s the case, there are much better other options in beppu or yufuin where your money will be better spent. This hotel has no proper service, the attitude of the staff (especially those in the reception) is lukewarm and occasionally cold. I will NEVER visit this hotel again. And this in fact has a negative impact on my impression of Hoshino...