Kintoen — Hotel in Hakone

I would not recommend this Ryokan.

We booked a family room with private bathroom for myself, husband and two kids travelling from London. The room had a slight fishy smell and the walls were flimsy and felt a little static caravan like.

We were upset to find that the views from the windows in the room had been deliberately obscured by wooden panels that have been attached to the outside of the building. You can see this in my attached pictures. This was not clear when booking or from reading reviews - and will affect all rooms on one side of the building, essentially all the family rooms or rooms with en-suite bathroom.

We learned that there was a previous negative review because the view on this side of the building was of a cemetery.

Their response was to block the view completely with wooden panelling. The room felt really claustrophobic and boxed in. We expected it to be small and minimalist, but with next to no natural day light and what looks like bars at the windows it felt like a secure unit in a prison!

We were unable to cancel our booking at short notice so reduced our planned stay and checked out after one night.

There is complimentary tea and coffee in the lounge, but this is instant coffee from a paper cup. The Onsen was dated and surrounded by plastic bamboo on a balcony - the pictures don’t reflect this well.

Bearing in mind that this place is extravagantly priced at £700 a night, there was nothing luxurious about it at all, and a huge/upsetting disappointment - we were looking forward to a treat.

On the plus side, the staff were very helpful and the food was...

I just want to start by saying that the pictures online are quite deceiving, especially of the room, which is very small, and the Onsen tub, which looks like a square and sizable tub online in the pictures, is basically a bathtub with a wooden basin. The view was wonderful, The hotel was rather clean. The restaurant was just OK. My wife has some food allergies, which we let them know about, but we kept getting incorrect items every meal. Our server was great and tried the best, she was struggling to help. It made for a non memorable experience at best. The management is not the friendliest. We stayed for two nights when we asked for a late checkout, nne hour later, for 11:00AM, the gentleman at the front desk rudely uttered, "Impossible!" - thanks for the hospitality, so much for omotenashi.|I find that Hakone has become a little too touristy, we had an exceptional experience two days prior, in Shizuoka; where we stayed at another Onsen hotel that was just spectacular and considerably less expensive than here. Also, in Fukushima at Date Onsen, far better experience and much cheaper. The hospitality was 180 degrees from Kintoen. I would never return here, the price is not worth the level of service and experience. Hakone has become the Hamptons of Tokyo-ites who pay whatever to get out of the city. Judging form other comments and the 3-star rating, other peoples experiences seem to be the same - pass and save your money for...

I just want to start by saying that the pictures online are quite deceiving, especially of the room, which is very small, and the Onsen tub, which looks like a square and sizable tub online in the pictures, is basically a bathtub with a wooden basin. The view was wonderful, The hotel was rather clean. The restaurant was just OK. My wife has some food allergies, which we let them know about, but we kept getting incorrect items every meal. Our server was great and tried the best, she was struggling to help. It made for a non memorable experience at best. The management is not the friendliest. We stayed for two nights when we asked for a late checkout, nne hour later, for 11:00AM, the gentleman at the front desk rudely uttered, "Impossible!" - thanks for the hospitality, so much for omotenashi.|I find that Hakone has become a little too touristy, we had an exceptional experience two days prior, in Shizuoka; where we stayed at another Onsen hotel that was just spectacular and considerably less expensive than here. Also, in Fukushima at Date Onsen, far better experience and much cheaper. The hospitality was 180 degrees from Kintoen. I would never return here, the price is not worth the level of service and experience. Hakone has become the Hamptons of Tokyo-ites who pay whatever to get out of the city. Judging form other comments and the 3-star rating, other peoples experiences seem to be the same - pass and save your money for...