Hakonenomori Okada — Hotel in Hakone

Hakonenomori Okada deserves based on our first time stay unfortunately only one star. Main reason for this is: very poor performance of the hotel staff (withholding information, lying, attitude towards customer) The CEO of Okada group Mr Koichiro Okada (岡田　浩一郎) hit our car and did not apologize

Let me share my Okada experience in detail with you: What was good: very nice onsen, located in the building next to Hakonenomori Okada

Poor performance: Blood on fresh bed sheets, which was exchanged by the staff after pointing it out Bed bugs: We had several bites from bed bugs during our stay. You have to expect that there are lot of insects and mosquitoes if you book a the hotel located in a forest. Bed bugs on the other side are a big no no Poor attitude of staff - 1: after ordering rice refill the motivation of the service employee went to 0, no eye contact, new rice bowl was thrown on the table Poor attitude of staff - 2: after checking out and paying the bill, staff did not share any thanks for staying in their hotel Withholding information - 1: After check out it is still allowed to use the nice onsen premises the full day. This was not shared to us by anyone Withholding information - 2: free drinks for dinner are either tea or water. Tea, we were offered only on our second day

Usually I do not comment and rate Hotel experience, neither good nor bad, as a proper and fair rating takes simply so much time. However, this experience made me change my mind. Now, if you took so much time to read until here I like to share with you the main reason why I do it this time - the peak of poor performance.

Peak of poor performance: CEO of Okada group hit our car and did not apologize: After check out we left the Hotel. There is a steep and narrow slope you are passing for entering/leaving the hotel. When we left, another car appeared on the slope heading towards the hotel. As the slope is quite narrow we stopped our car descending the slope. The other car however continued coming towards us, instead of taking the available space to stop and letting us pass (don’t forget it is a steep slope). By trying to use every single millimeter to pass our stopped car, the driver hit our side mirror two times and left several scratches. Instead of apologizing and checking the damage, the driver tried to remove the scratches on the side mirror, which actually made it even worse. After exchanging information it appeared, that the driver of the other car was Mr. Koichi Okada himself - CEO of the Okada Hotel Group, the very hotel we just checked out. I am wondering how the CEO of the hotel group you chose to spend your off-days to relax can hit your car and and don’t even apologize? Lying staff: after coming home we realized we forgot a phone charger at the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel staff themselves did not notify us that they found the forgotten item in our room after checking out, so I called them. They found the charger and offered to send it for 1,500¥. The sending fee would be charged to our hotel fee. As this sounded ridiculously expensive for sending a plug and a cable, a Japanese native speaker called on my behalf on this matter. First they insisted the sending fee is 1,500 ¥. After confronting them that the actual sending fee of the charger is actually less than half they admitted and said it would be less than 1,000¥. Nevertheless, they insisted the sending fee must be covered by us.

Unfortunately, the bad experience is covering the good performance of some staff and the great onsen facilities. This is why I am not considering going back to...

We stayed at this place for 2 nights. We booked the mixed western-Japanese room, which was really spacious. We would recommend that to other families with small children, the tatami area was great for our toddler to crawl around on and putting him to sleep on the futon definitely was also very convenient, as there's no risk of him dropping off the bed in the middle of the night. It is also spacious enough, as it has the tatami area, the area with the two western beds as well as separate toilet, bathroom and sink areas.||||We also really enjoyed the onsen and the food. (Note that for dinner there are no baby chairs provided, however there are baby chairs for breakfast). The dinner was really nice with a lot of different food items and it was not the same for the two nights we stayed. The breakfast is also nice, however be aware that it's Japanese breakfast only, so there was no toast or corn flakes.||||The one thing we didn't like about this place is the shuttle bus. We knew beforehand that the hotel is a bit hard to reach and the walk from the shuttle bus is really no issue (they can call a car for you if you ask at the hotel where the shuttle stops), but the shuttle bus itself is really horrible. We took it 3 times and every time it was very crowded. When taking the shuttle from the station, it would fill up 10-15 minutes before departure time every time and on the way down to the station it was already almost full when it reached our hotel. The bus is tiny and is definitely not made for taking any luggage. ||||So we would definitely go back here if it wasn't for the atrocious...

We stayed at this place for 2 nights. We booked the mixed western-Japanese room, which was really spacious. We would recommend that to other families with small children, the tatami area was great for our toddler to crawl around on and putting him to sleep on the futon definitely was also very convenient, as there's no risk of him dropping off the bed in the middle of the night. It is also spacious enough, as it has the tatami area, the area with the two western beds as well as separate toilet, bathroom and sink areas.||||We also really enjoyed the onsen and the food. (Note that for dinner there are no baby chairs provided, however there are baby chairs for breakfast). The dinner was really nice with a lot of different food items and it was not the same for the two nights we stayed. The breakfast is also nice, however be aware that it's Japanese breakfast only, so there was no toast or corn flakes.||||The one thing we didn't like about this place is the shuttle bus. We knew beforehand that the hotel is a bit hard to reach and the walk from the shuttle bus is really no issue (they can call a car for you if you ask at the hotel where the shuttle stops), but the shuttle bus itself is really horrible. We took it 3 times and every time it was very crowded. When taking the shuttle from the station, it would fill up 10-15 minutes before departure time every time and on the way down to the station it was already almost full when it reached our hotel. The bus is tiny and is definitely not made for taking any luggage. ||||So we would definitely go back here if it wasn't for the atrocious...