Hakone Retreat före — Hotel in Hakone

I’m very conflicted…

Pros:

The property is beautifully located in the forest, away from the crowds. There’s even a small pond. The breakfast buffet is excellent: freshly prepared egg dishes, smoothies, muesli, avocado, and more are available. There’s a café open daily from morning 7 am until 10 pm, offering free tea, coffee, and coffee specialties, even to-go. Cakes (in a patisserie style), soft drinks, and beer must be paid for separately. In the afternoon, there’s a free sake tasting for about two hours. The view from our Superior Double Room overlooking the forest was amazing. In the morning, at sunrise, the birds were chirping — very idyllic.

Cons:

The biggest issue was the food! The dinner is French cuisine — why?? And why is this not mentioned anywhere during the booking process? We had booked half-board because there are supposedly few dining options in Sengokuhara. In the evening, they serve a six-course meal focused on fine dining, which is really not our taste. There is no à la carte menu, only room service from 3:30 PM (with an extra charge, of course). Unfortunately, we couldn’t cancel the half-board afterward. During the week, no lunch is offered, only on Saturdays and Sundays — and even then, you must pre-order if you want it. Meaning: from 10 AM (when breakfast ends) until 5:30 PM or 7:45 PM (fixed dinner times you must choose in advance — quite inconvenient if you want to be spontaneous), there’s nothing to eat. In the evening, the portions were incredibly small. We were never full and had to order extra fries. After some discussion, they were at least provided free of charge and I mean dinner for two costs around 130 euros! So I guess you can expect to be full.

The wine prices were another issue: Water is free with dinner, but they offer only four wines by the glass, priced between €8.50 and €18 per 100 ml — and unfortunately, none of them tasted very good. A bottle of wine costs at least €60, plus a 10% service charge.

There are only two different dinner menus, so the food repeats itself quickly.

The Rooms: At first, we weren’t sure whether the rooms were just outdated or if the raw concrete style was intentional. There are cracks in the walls, it’s very noisy, and overall the rooms feel rather bare and cold. And here and there in the rooms are a lot of dust and spiderwebs.

Service: The staff are really trying hard, but there are frequent communication issues. Some employees, like Yien and Kawasaki, were very friendly and kind. On two evenings, we mentioned that the portions were too small and that we didn’t feel full. As mentioned, after 10 AM there’s no more real food available — only cake. On our last evening, they kindly upgraded our dinner without us asking, offering better and higher-quality fish. Very kind of them, but it didn’t solve the portion size problem.

At check-out, no one even asked whether we enjoyed our stay.

Summary: Price/performance ratio regarding the dinner (half-board) is absolutely not right! Not value for the money. We would not recommend staying here at this high price (450 euros per night for two people with half-board in mid-April).

If anything, we would suggest booking only with breakfast included, if at all. It’s a pity because the property itself has a lot...

Guys, if you consider yourself to be somewhat of an inner-north hipster from Naarm, or a down-to-earth trust fund baby from Erskinville, do not fall for the marketing materials for this hotel. Based on the website, photographs and affiliation with designhotels.com, we believed we were checking in to a high-end wellness retreat, with a focus on healing, nurturing and a respect for impeccable design. Yes the buildings were stunning. Specimens of late 80s brutalist architecture, nestled in the hills of a japanese rainforest. However, the rooms were very dog-eared and in need of a complete overhaul. On arrival to our room, indeed it was spacious and grand, but the curtains had been kept open all day, and the sun had been beaming in, and the air conditioning was cranked, but there was no way the temperature in the room was going to get below 27degrees. And this was in the middle of a heat wave. You could also recognise the distinct smell of old cigarettes (something i’m used to every now and then when visiting Japan, but not at a wellness retreat 🥴). I noticed the walls were very scuffed, and decided it wasn’t going to cut it, so we asked to move to a different room. We were downgraded to a smaller room (and not offered any compensation for the downgrade), but the air conditioning worked and it was in a less exposed spot, not getting heated up during the day by the sun. However the first thing I noticed when entering the bathroom was a big fat black hair on the shower wall. Let’s talk about the cuisine. The only onsite restaurant offered one option only. A 7-course french degustation menu every night at a cost of $150 per head. I am talking Foie Gras, crème brulee, Wagyu beef. We are at a wellness retreat, why are we eating this food? To top it all off, we thought there might have been some group yoga classes, or stretching sessions. Their version of this was a pile of rolled up yoga mats in the corner of a room that said, here are the yoga mats, feel free to use them, but please clean and return. This is a tourist trap. Actually it’s a hipster trap. And everytime we shuffled past another family from the inner-north, we shared an awkward exchange, knowing we to had been sucked in to the clever pr consultants dirty work. We spent $2500 AUD on 3 nights of “they are lovely staff but gosh this is...

Unfortunately, Google doesn't allow ratings below zero. We booked this place for our honeymoon and I’m deeply disappointed with the service and hospitality at this hotel, especially considering its high standards, the good reviews I found here, and the steep price. I was not ready for the worst experience of my life.

We arrived at the hotel around 11 a.m., but there was no golf cart to pick us up. We had to walk in the rain with our luggage to the reception. That's Ok we are young and full of energy but still this kind of service is expected... Especially seeing that it was available for other guests. Once there, we were greeted with a cold, unwelcoming response: "Check-in is at 3 p.m." No "good morning," no offer of water, or even a place to sit while we waited. Not everyone’s travel schedule matches your check-in time.

To make matters worse, we discovered that lunch was not available, a detail that should be communicated ahead of time so guests can plan accordingly.

The first impression was already poor. We waited until 2:30 p.m. for our room to be ready. When we walked in to the room, words can't describe the condition of the room—we’ll let the photos speak for themselves. We paid around 178,000 Yen for two nights. When we raised the issue with the staff, they simply said, "All rooms are like this," but we knew that wasn’t true after talking with other guests whose rooms were fine. The hotel agreed to refund us 100%, and it was only after we complained to Agoda that they suddenly offered us a villa to make up for our experience. We politely declined and moved to the Hyatt, which was lower priced but offered a far superior experience and service.

We wonder if there may have been some discrimination involved, as my wife (an Indian national) made the booking. It seemed that European guests were given better rooms, while we were stuck with the worst option at the hotel.

Make sure you check out other recent reviews on Google before booking as there have been others with a...