Shin Furano Prince Hotel — Hotel in Furano

Warning to all travellers, This place ruined the holiday for my family. We came for a five day ski trip expecting good rooms, 4+star service, and value for money. The rooms are mediocre, bathrooms tiny, non functional tv, and often dismissive service staff.

Day 2 began with a request of a to print out the 5day ski+lift pass for my son who lost it. The staff at the reception refused to re print the pass and forced me to purchase another one. After a ten minute conversation, no explanation was provided as to why a pice of paper that was paid for could not be reprinted. The conversation ended with the usual - the manager is not available and the reception staff claimed to not understand english.

I suggested that I was being taken advantage of, since there was no cost to the hotel to re print the paper ticket. No warning was given to that the little piece of paper could not be replace replaced, soaked in wet etc. This was a clear case of a business model that prays on those unsuspecting visitors who dont read the fine print (eg. ryan air).

At the ski rental, I was over-charged 10,000 yen, but after some discussion i found an english speaker who corrected the local staff and was given a the listed price for ski gear rental. This was very annoying.

After ski smoking bar was welcome, but with rude staff. I was spoken to not as a customer but as an annoyance to the bar master, dirty looks included (I am Swedish). I was on my best behavior. Foreigners are not welcomed in the same way as Japanese travelers.

Worst of all beautiful pathways out of the hotel to little shops, cafes etc were not cleared of ice and snow, no sand, no salt, no care for dangers of hidden ice on pathways. No common sense. In any other country this would have justfied a lawsuit for negligence of safety regulations.

As a result my wife slipped on ice and broke her arm and is currently spending the night at local furnao hokkaido hospital (private) with with miserable nursing service, lacking compassion, terrible rooms, comparable to Soviet era war minimalistic, spartan war hospital.

What could have been a wonderful trip turned into a nightmare which I will never forget. Aside from the 40k USD hospital bill, my wife could have broken her head instead of her arm...

So little effort, compassion and disgraceful lack of dignity on part of the hotel management of this sorry excuse of a 4 star rated hotel is shame indeed.

We will never return to furano prince in Hokkaido which sadly show disdain for foreign vistors and take advantage of foreign guests.

Avoid this place, for you own safety and sanity. I feel sorry for the good natured staff that work under this management. Shame to waste one of the most beautiful scenic view i have...

Rooms - Cosy, not extremely small like most hotels in Tokyo. I love the views so much. Huge windows facing the ski slopes, simply breathtaking. Stayed on the 9th floor. It seems like the rooms are designed in such a way that every room will have a view of the mountains. ||Buffet Breakfast - Such a wide selection and they switch it up just a little bit every other day. It has one of the best spread I’ve ever had at a hotel. There’s free-flow Ikura for people who like it. Communications were a bit confusing though, we were told we can change to the set menu FOC, but when we scan the QR to try and make a change we were told to pay $3200 JPY/person. And since we’re lazy people, we didn’t go clarify. Also, the buffet was so amazing we didn’t mind eating it for 4 days (: ||Lunch/Dinner - Since ours was not a full board package, lunch and dinner were not included but priced at $2200 JPY for a curry rice (lunch only) and $8800 JPY for buffet dinner. So we ended up buying instant noodles and rice at the convenience store in the hotel. It’s a huge straw with lots of food, drinks, snacks, and souvenir, do check it out (:||Ski/SB - The lockers are right before the doors to the outside, so it’s really easy to gear up and just ski/board out (: I think that’s what a ski in/out resort meant, but since it was our first time at a ski resort we were amazed.||Onsen - This is the most disappointing part about this hotel. I love everything else about it but they are extremely strict about tattoos. Even if you do cover up with tapes/patches, they don’t allow entry. I understand and respect the culture, though based on this alone I would not return to Furano Prince. ||Transport to/fro - Don’t be silly like us and book in advance! There’s apparently a direct bus from New Chitose Airport to Shin Furano Price Hotel (and the other direction). It’s about $5500 JPY/person. It’s called Hokkaido...

Let down by the Hot Springs. Big room with an enormous window and brilliant view of the valley. The staff were kind and proactive, the buffet was large and mostly delicious. The terrace is very interesting and everything is fairly classy. Excellent location too. One thing that really let this place down was the hot springs. First of all, it took me an absurdly long time to walk to the springs from my room. I really can't understand why they put it in such a far away corner from the guest rooms. For such a large and popular hotel, I expected a lot more than what was a very small and unspectacular set of about three identical tiled baths with no soul ir personality. Onsen should have plant life and feel organic. This place was like a swimming pool for dwarfs. Absolutely stale. I also take issue with the very large and aggressively worded "No Tattoos" sign. This is a very ignorant and antiquated idea. These dats Japan are trying to relax this attitude which is based on one with no cultural context. Half the western world has tattoos and to brand these people with Japan's own negative associations with tattoos is an extremely outdated perspective. I have been to about a dozen onsen and no others have been so rude and ignorant in such a way. Yes, this us Japan, but Japan is looking to increase its appeal to tourists and for a hotel to be so stubborn and blunt about tattoos is extremely off putting. Afterward all, Japanese onsen are world famous and are therefore a key feature in encouraging people to visit, but they won't be encouraged if they believe they will be scolded and asked to leave just because they have the their deceased relative's name tattooed on their wrists or a butterfly on their back. I went in anyway, but I would definitely not book the hotel again having seen the sign. Really left a bad taste...