Hakone Suishoen — Hotel in Hakone

Avoid this hotel! I was unexpectedly scolded by a staff member and still haven't received an apology!!! My friend and I stayed at this hot spring hotel on January 14th. The price was not cheap, costing 139800yen we had high expectations for the hotel. On the day of arrival, a receptionist who didn't speak any English arranged our check-in. Communication with him was extremely difficult and relied solely on translation software, resulting in a check-in process that took over half an hour. (It was rather frustrating to later find out that several other employees at the hotel spoke fluent English and Chinese.) I requested a 9 PM massage and he called someone, saying it was already arranged, without informing us of the massage location. While dining at the hotel in the evening, I asked a waiter about it and received a clear answer that we should wait in our room and the masseur would come to us.

However, no one came to our room at 9 PM. I tried calling the front desk using the room phone but couldn't dial out. When I called the front desk number listed on the hotel's official website with my own phone, no one answered. At 9:10 PM, the room phone rang, and the person on the other end shouted loudly in unskilled English (my friend, who was five meters away from me, could hear the shouting through the phone) "Where are you?! Your reservation is at 9, now it's 9:10, why haven't you come?" In a completely accusatory and shouting tone. I didn't react right away and said, "No one told me I should go to any place. The waitress told me the masseur will come to my room. Anyway, can I come now? Where is the massage room?" She kept trying to interrupt me and repeated, "No! No coming, it's canceled!"

My friend and I were in a state of shock and found it extremely ridiculous. The next day, we went to the front desk to complain about the incident in detail, but after three employees listened to our complaint, they didn't show any intention of apologizing or addressing it. The response we got was that the manager was not available and we could send a complaint email to the official website. They then said our check-out process was complete and we had to leave.

As soon as we left, we wrote a detailed and well-formatted complaint email and translated it into Japanese using an online translation tool. It has been four days since then, and we haven't received any response. (We had previously communicated with the hotel via email about dining issues and they usually replied within half a day, so they definitely saw it.)

In addition, there was a problem with the drain in the shower room, and the water flooded up to our ankles while showering. The room layout was also uncomfortable, with two beds directly facing a large mirror, which was really terrifying and caused us to have insomnia at night.

An extremely poor stay experience, and no response to the shouting incident, even a simple apology, has been received to this day. Please avoid this hotel,...

This happened to be our fourth visit to Suishoen as we loved our previous stays but it unfortunately turned out to be one of our most disappointing. Despite having made our reservation over three months ago asking for a specific room and sending follow-up emails for confirmation but unfortunately not receiving any responses, it was only less than a week before our check-in date that we finally received a call from Suishoen to inform us that not only that our requested room was unavailable but worse, whether we would consider going to their sister hotel or mind if we need to switch rooms during our three-night stay. Only after elevating this ludicrous situation to their manager were we able to secure another room (unfortunately different from what we had requested) of similar class for a continuous stay. We have yet to receive an explanation on why they waited until less than a week before our check-in for this reservation mixup. ||We were very much hoping for a relaxing three-night stay but that turned out not to be the case. ||The room we were assigned (a precious twin suite named 藤 or Tou) not only had problems with the thermostat but also, the water quality of their prized open-air hot spring bath (wondering whether it was diluted or using abrasive chemicals while cleaning) so much so that our skin ended up more dry and parched. ||The food quality was wonderful as always but we were led to a private room that had no privacy and unfortunately suffered having to listen to very loud conversations from our adjoining room throughout our dinner for the first two nights. For some strange reason, whether they ran out of ingredients we were also served curry as part of our Japanese breakfast on our final day.||In support of sustainability, we informed Suishoen that there was no need to change bed sheets. The first and second nights were fine but when we returned to our rooms on our third day, we were surprised and dismayed that the cleaning staff didn’t even bother to make our beds! This staff also forgot to replenish our 作務衣 for which we had to call the front desk. ||For those who are still concerned about Covid / flu / RSV, do note that NONE of the staff / servers were wearing masks while several clients were. This is questionable. For comparison, we stayed at another luxury in immediately prior to arriving at Suishoen and EVERY staff member wore masks. ||We have stayed at several other luxury ryokans in Hakone over the years and our past pleasant three stays at Suishoen made it one of our favorites. We are hoping this fourth visit was...

This happened to be our fourth visit to Suishoen as we loved our previous stays but it unfortunately turned out to be one of our most disappointing. Despite having made our reservation over three months ago asking for a specific room and sending follow-up emails for confirmation but unfortunately not receiving any responses, it was only less than a week before our check-in date that we finally received a call from Suishoen to inform us that not only that our requested room was unavailable but worse, whether we would consider going to their sister hotel or mind if we need to switch rooms during our three-night stay. Only after elevating this ludicrous situation to their manager were we able to secure another room (unfortunately different from what we had requested) of similar class for a continuous stay. We have yet to receive an explanation on why they waited until less than a week before our check-in for this reservation mixup. ||We were very much hoping for a relaxing three-night stay but that turned out not to be the case. ||The room we were assigned (a precious twin suite named 藤 or Tou) not only had problems with the thermostat but also, the water quality of their prized open-air hot spring bath (wondering whether it was diluted or using abrasive chemicals while cleaning) so much so that our skin ended up more dry and parched. ||The food quality was wonderful as always but we were led to a private room that had no privacy and unfortunately suffered having to listen to very loud conversations from our adjoining room throughout our dinner for the first two nights. For some strange reason, whether they ran out of ingredients we were also served curry as part of our Japanese breakfast on our final day.||In support of sustainability, we informed Suishoen that there was no need to change bed sheets. The first and second nights were fine but when we returned to our rooms on our third day, we were surprised and dismayed that the cleaning staff didn’t even bother to make our beds! This staff also forgot to replenish our 作務衣 for which we had to call the front desk. ||For those who are still concerned about Covid / flu / RSV, do note that NONE of the staff / servers were wearing masks while several clients were. This is questionable. For comparison, we stayed at another luxury in immediately prior to arriving at Suishoen and EVERY staff member wore masks. ||We have stayed at several other luxury ryokans in Hakone over the years and our past pleasant three stays at Suishoen made it one of our favorites. We are hoping this fourth visit was...