Royal Hotel Kawaguchiko — Hotel in Fujikawaguchiko

The hotel pretends that it is high-class, but in reality it is pretty run down and tries to squeeze every penny from you. We paid $530 for two nights to stay at the start of August; however, the service is very disappointing.

1. Food. We reserved a half board which includes kaiseki dinner. It was the most awful food that we ate anywhere (we tried to recollect a worse restaurant experience, but we were unable to do so). The hotel provides a lot of food (comparable to other kaiseki that we had), but the quality of the ingredients is remarkably bad. Everything was centered around fish (which we usually really like in Japan), but the fish here was fishy in the bad sense (as if it is not fresh). All the fish dishes had this awful fishy taste, the non-fish ingredients were mediocre at best. The cabbage in the soup had black spots on it which indicates that it was not fresh to say it nicely. The pickles were just vinegary without much pickled-acquired flavor to them. We usually eat everything in Japan (even the things that are not to our taste), but this time my wife was not able to eat the dinner soup as it was too fishy. And I was not able to eat the fish cakes in the soup for the same reason + they had an awful texture. The sashimi was not fresh - tuna had the texture as if it was frozen and then unfrozen before the serving (not a very pleasant thing to eat), the other sashimi fish was mediocre at best (flavor was lacking because it was not fresh).
2. The hotel offered during the check-in to clean the room on the second day, but we thought that we did not need it, so we said that it is not needed. The next morning, we realized that we actually need it. So, we requested the cleaning at around 7:30 am in the morning (a reasonably early request time to facilitate this request), but they said that they were not cleaning one day before the check-out. Even though they offered it themselves earlier. For $260 a night rate, this is a very unreasonable thing to do to customers.
3. The room itself was worn down, there were spots on the walls in the room and in the restroom. The chair was broken. They even put a small Fuji image on the wall to mock guests.
4. The room description says “2 futon beds” and “traditional futon bedding and electric kettle”; however, there were no futon beds in our room. Our room had two mattresses on the tatami floor, but they are not futons. So, they lied to us.
5. The room does not have hot (more like warm) water turned on by default, you have to turn it on yourself and then you have to wait a few minutes before it heats. Only after that you would have warm water for a short period until it would automatically turn off.
6. You have to pay for lockers in locker rooms at onsen to secure your belongings. Again, you are paying $260 a night and they cannot even provide free lockers. They are also charging for extra towels.
7. There is not much noise isolation in the rooms, the doors have big holes in them, so you would hear everything in the hallways. Moreover, our room was above the onsen and we were able to hear noises from there (traditionally, the onsen should be a quiet place, but it was not the case during our stay here).
8. The vast majority of the staff is people on work visas. I saw only one Japanese person at the reception desk, other people at the reception/cleaning/dining were immigrants. I don’t have anything against immigration and the particular workers here, but it shows that it tries to save money on everything without much benefit to the local economy.
9. The hotel has ice cream and soda machines. Usually, in Japan most of the vending machines have the same price anywhere you go. In all our previous hotels (10 hotels) the prices in the vending machines were the same as in the street, but this one decided to charge 30%-50% more than the regular machines. Instead of 150 yen for our usual soda/juice that our son drinks, it charged around 200-220 yen; instead of 190 yen for ice cream, it...

You should not do that anywhere, but you certainly cannot do that in Japan!

Let me preface this review by saying that I have been in Japan for over a decade so I'm very familiar with customs and standards.

I'm not sure who's operating this hotel anymore but the staff appears to all be foreigners. In short, you will not get the expected "Omotenashi" experience that Japan service providers are famous for. Additionally, it was blatant how differently they treat customers depending on their nationality, which was very unsettling.

We booked a room for 1 night, at ¥ 25,000 - that's definitely pricey and far up from the "budget" price bracket (online the photos displayed beautifully renovated rooms).

1- My partner - Asian female - went to do the check-in while I was parking the car, and was given the tiniest, most unclean room I've ever gotten! I'm not exaggerating either, check the photos! What seems like more than a year worth of dust in the bedside table 🤢, a huge whole straight into the floor with exposed electrical wiring and loads of dust (simultaneously serving as entrance door for insects inside the walls and floor..), wallpapers covered in stains and smear... The bed was literally falling apart with the headboard falling off.

2- I obviously went to complain and asked for a room that's actually clean and to hotel standards, ready for guests. They came to check the dust, the whole in the floor, and simply tried to fix the situation by saying "sorry"... I told them i wouldn't leave the front desk until they get us a decent room. They said it's ok because the dust is inside the bedside table and the whole under it .... Now I'm just wondering if I'm actually hearing their answer right lol. One hour of complaining later, they finally and magically have another room. This one was meeting minimum cleanliness standards (still smeared wallpapers and some dust but ok). So we accepted it. THEY TRIED TO CHARGE US EXTRA FOR IT 🤣 to which I lost my temper a bit leading to them not charging us in the end. Additionally, poor amenities, no shower curtain, only one ceiling light in the room. So it's either full bright or full dark. No view. Futons aren't futons, just single mattresses on the floor.

3- We checked out at 5am to go hiking. Once again, my female partner did the check out while I was getting the car. Upon ringing the bell, an older member of staff nonchalantly turns up at the desk, ONLY WEARING BOXERS!! You read that right, no shirt, just boxers. He seemed bothered or whatever and dragged his feet around the counter while blabbering something she could not understand. She didn't stick around the find out and just left. I was looking from the car, and was absolutely "what the ...!!" When I saw some old guy in boxers appear from around the counter.

ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!!!!

This hotel is a ¥5,000 to 10,000 standard but first you need to fix the wholes and clean to receive guests. Plenty of better options in that bracket around there too, so I would say, don't bother and...

Actually, I definitely not recommend you choose this * hotel. Firstly, the check in and check out time is 3pm and 10am. What a **** check out time is 10am? Most of hotel check out time is 11am. Secondly, the very * is the hotel only supply one towel, if you used it in the hot spring and wanna another towel the other day morning shower, you need to pay extra. This is the * point I am very disappointed for this hotel. The hot spring is also *, very small quite dirty. You need to pay if you need locker. Furthermore, the room also very old and dirty. You can’t accept it. On the other hand, when I am there for check in, the reception is not native Japanese, I think he is from some place in South Asian descent. I am not discrimination, but these kind of people is relative impolite when serving me. He gave me he was impatient. Finally is the food, the taste is horrible I am never tasted in Japan. Dinner was shabushabu, breakfast is shabushabu. What a * almost same food in different meal? I am not full after eating it. Additional information for your reference, if you what pick up shuttles, you need to wait until 3pm and need to make a phone call first. If you need shuttles when check out, you need to make reservation first. This trip I spent $225 usd for one night. It’s absolutely not worth. Hey guys, be alerted when you choosing this hotel....