Morinoyu Resort — Hotel in Beppu

This was bolt hole no.1 on our Rugby World Cup weekend, it was a good choice! I had already booked a nights stay here on the Saturday of England's rugby QF v Australia. We hastily arranged a Friday stay when it became clear commuting from Fukuoka to Beppu was going to be a major issue on match say. Turned out a great plan! ||||So 2 nights, we enjoyed the Spa which me and my wife made full use of. The outdoor baths range in temperatures and size. At the time we stayed there, it was the chosen bolt hole of many a rugby newspaper hack! There was Messrs S Jones and M Cleary of the broad sheets and M Samuels of the Mail, amongst others. We also had rugby correspondents from Sky Sports news. Funny choice since Oita is quite a commute from that hotel. Anyway, I digress.||||Hotel rooms are plain but comfortable plus large enough. Walk in showers and breakfast had a wide selection. Friendly staff but an odd gown and slippers rule (not strictly enforced, just as well as slippers were too small as were garments).||||For both nights, we enjoyed drinks in their basic lounge area. Beers were purchased from a vending machine. Usual fayre of Asahi type later, not great but ok.||||The place is up in the mountains about a 20 min bus ride from Beppu Station. We ate in the evening in Beppu, plenty of choices.||||All in...

Not a good experience. We booked this resort specifically (and travelled for five hours) to be able to bathe together as a family on my birthday— when we arrived we were told after check-in that the co-ed pool was closed for repairs. Naturally, we asked to cancel and receive a refund but were refused with the explanation that “you pay for the hotel room, the onsen is just a service” which makes no sense when you are paying three times a normal hotel rate for an onsen resort. As a side note, the room was supposed to have a mountain view but the most noticeable view was a big parking lot that didn’t show in the pictures. Also, we didn’t think it was great that the only breakfast option was sandwiches with fried fillings (due to Covid you get one piece of food + two drinks delivered to your room). All in all, this became a rather stressful birthday with our little son in tears. We ended up starting a case with Booking.com for a refund— they immediately understood our situation and solved it for us. Had the hotel staff been reasonable in the first place it would have saved us a...

We spent 4 nights at Morinoyu. One night extra due to the typhoon. But it is a great experience.

The hotel is medium size but clean and organized. The garden bath is special but you have to wear swimwear so bring your own or rent from the hotel. They just revamped the garden bath so it's clean and look new. It's refreshing to soak in the open air.

The indoor and outdoor bath are nice too and it's pretty clean.

The room even though basic but clean and spacious. You can have a nice view of the harbour and mountain.

Most importantly, the hotel staffs are polite, welcoming and accommodating. Though we need to extend a night due to typhoon but they helped us check for many information. Thank you to Kattori and Miki especially for helping us throughout our stay. Overall, we are happy to spent the nights at...