OMO5 Hakodate by Hoshino Resorts — Hotel in Hakodate

Hakodate, Hokkaido Prefecture. A port city on the southern side of the Hokkaido Island. A city influenced by its spectacular dairy products, fresh seafood, mountain ranges, ocean views, and small city life. You could say that it is a little San Francisco during summer in Japan, with similar climate and weather. One of the more popular hotels in the city is the Hotel WBF in Hakodate, a hotel specialized for either business or leisure in Hakodate. WBF have many hotel branches around the country, this is our first time trying it whilst we were on our journey around Hokkaido. Here is my review of the hotel:||The Hotel WBF in Hakodate is located just a few hundred meters from the Hakodate JR Train Station. A prime location given that you’re minutes of walking away from shopping centers, restaurants, and scenic sites. For a basic queen room at the Hotel WBF, the cost can go as low as $120 USD, which isn’t a bad price at all. The only downside is that the room clocks in at 14 SQM, which is standard for Japanese Entry-Level Hotel Rooms. Should you care about the tight space, then buyer beware. ||Check-in was quick and professional, with the agent helping us get up into the room within a few minutes. ||My Basic Queen Bed Room had the comfortable bed, the desk area, a minibar, a TV, storage hooks, a bathroom with its sink, Japanese-style toilet, and shower. It is a nice space given the value you get from just the essentials, and I feel that I got what I wanted out of a two-night stay at the hotel.||Feeling like lounging in another area during the non-bed times? The WBF specially has a lounge dedicated on the 1st floor of the hotel, which is dedicated to all guests at the hotel. There you would have a comfortable seating area, a small magazine section, a soup dispensary machine, a non-alcoholic dispensary machine, a popsicle freezer, a coffee machine, and a couple of selections of wines. It is a nice and thoughtful place to socialize or get away from the boredom of your own rooms, and I certainly appreciate the touches given here.||I didn’t have an opportunity to try, but there is a hot spring SPA area at your disposal when needing a bath. It is certainly the most unlikely amenity features at this city hotel, but we’ll thought of nonetheless.||The hotel service was great, as the staff were able to help us accommodate with some of the challenges that occurred during our trip to Hakodate. One of the best specialities at this area was the cantaloupes grown on this island. I bought one at the market. The staff at my request provided a fruit knife and a board to help me cut up and serve myself some cantaloupe. This was well appreciated! I really want to thank the concierge gentlemen who personally provided his knife for me. If you’re watching this, thank you!||Breakfast was a buffet that is served on the first floor. The best features of the buffet were the donburi seafood rice, the scrambled eggs, the pastries, and the freshly grilled scallops. This was the best breakfast buffet I had in Hokkaido. It was amazing for the value I got! The atmosphere of the buffet felt like home, and the service was impeccable given the kindness I have seen in them.||Overall, I had a great two-night stay at this hotel in Hakodate! It was an incredible stay given how it was a 4-star hotel, yet it felt like it we got more than what our money was worth in a 5-star hotel. Thank You Hotel...

This hotel didn’t provide ANY cleaning service to our room and treated us impolitely! The service of Japan is deteriorating. And the customer service of this hotel is particularly poor. We stayed in the hotel of 2 nights. On the 1st day we arrived late. On the 2nd day, we left the hotel in the morning and went to the Hakodate Morning Market for breakfast. Since we prepared to come back to home after breakfast, we stick the plate “Do disturb”. After breakfast, we came back to the hotel room first for a short rest and left again for site seeing. Before leaving the hotel room, I want to put a sticker on for requesting room service. But ridiculously there is no such a plate. Then we came down to the service counter and asked if there would be room cleaning service. The young guy answered affirmative so we left. At night, we come back to the hotel and wanted to have a hot shower. But then we found the used towels were not replaced and the rubbish bins were all still full! We knew that many Japan hotels would only provide minimal cleaning service, but at least not none! My wife then came down to counter for enquiry. The staff noted that their cleaning crew should have missed our room so apologised to us. Then we waited for a long while for the clean towels. And then the same staff came up and gave us towels. In the next day we got up a little bit late and wished to go to the Morning Market again for breakfast again but it seemed insufficient time for us to check out timely at 11:00 am. Then I asked a staff at counter whether she could do me a favour for waving us the charge for extension for an hour. But the staff replied us simply no. I said your hotel didn’t provide us the room cleaning service but so mean to customer for just a favour. She answered by Google Translate that they only provide brief cleaning service. I told her no any service had been provided, even removal of rubbish and replacement of towels. And then she said coz we had displayed the “Don’t Disturb” sign. It appeared that they had a system to record the reason for not doing service. But their cleaning crew would not revisit the gutsy rooms later. They also didn’t provide signs for requesting for service. The most terrible was the attitude of the staff. They didn’t think they had any responsibility for that and remained a poker face to customers! I told them that I’d give them a poor rating on web but they just expressed not care! What a hotel of so poor services! Total not acceptable! Staff in customer services are very poor in English. Moreover, on the 2nd night we booked 2 seats in hotel shuttle bus from the Ropeway station back to hotel but there coach didn’t arrive on time so we found our way to hotel. Very disappointed...

I booked this hotel thinking that it’s a new hotel but it’s also my new bad experience staying here. We booked the hotel more than 3 months ago requesting high floor and quiet room away from the lift lobby. Arrived at about 4+pm, we were give a room exactly against our wish, on 4th floor and one sharing the same wall as the lift well. When we cited we have requested our reference, the receptionist said their computer assigned the room. When we requested to change, she said she can’t change it as it was assigned by their system. We explained that we booked our room well in advance and they should try to assign room according to our request. She then said the hotel is fully booked and no other room available. I couldn’t believe it as I do not see any guest around. The street and even the train station is like a dead town. I requested to speak with their manager, she said she is the manager. Basically whatever we asked, the answer is a NO ! Later at night, when I visited their onsen bath, there is only one other guest there. They have a nice small resting area for guests, there were only 4 to 5 family there for the entire 2 hours we were there. I could not appreciate when the receptionist’s claimed that the hotel is full ! The room is small as like many other Japanese hotel but this one do not even have space to open up my 29” luggage. No water is provided but we were instructed to get from a drinking machine on 2 designated floor using a water container in the fridge. The fridge is tiny small that I can’t even place a can of beer upright. We are totally disappointed and guess what ……. This will be the last time we are at...