Senkei Hotel — Hotel in Hakone

Senkei is a real ryokan, Senkei Plaza Inn is a cheap renovated 4 story building with no elevator and sterile rooms, more akin to a hospital than a hot spring ryokan. They both share hot spring facilities and the outdoor hot spring is really beautiful. But that’s as far as commonalities between the two go. The nice meals and service available in Sankei isn’t afford to those in Sankei Inn plaza.

The hotel gets one star because it presents itself with well appointed rooms: Nice bedding and drapery but the rooms are spacious but empty. They feel cheap more like a hospital than a hotel. The window outside is made from frosted glass. The reason being the rooms have dusty balconies that could have a good river view but the balconies are caged in and blocked by the hotel sign that covers the entire building.

The couch in the room picture was in the hallway and in its place a cafe table with a no smoking sign that looks like it came from the first floor diner. The beds were very uncomfortable and not well appointed.

When we asked if we were in the same room we booked and we were told quite rudely all rooms in Sankei plaza inn are the same. We even offered to pay for an upgrade but were told the hotel was fully booked. The next day the manger apologized and offered to move us to a corner room in the same building but realizing the pictures were staged and indeed any room would have the same level of appointments we asked to cancel our second day and managed to book a real Hakone ryokan.

The saving grace is the view from the top floor open Air bath. But there’s only one bath. However, It’s available for women from only 2-7:00pm while men can use it from 7:00 till midnight and in the mornings. Also the bath needs to be cleaned more often. Maybe it was the rain from the night before or the blossoming trees surrounding it. But there’s a large amount of stuff floating in the water including bugs. Also the hotel needs to provide toiletries such as soap and shampoo in the hot spring.

For the quality of the hotel the price of these rooms being almost 20,000 yen a night isn’t justified. And by not specifically specifying the difference between the two hotels and their facilities it feels like a bait and switch. If you want the Hakone Ryokan experience look elsewhere. If you want cheap basic accommodations book a hostel or guesthouse. Sadly This hotel isn’t nice enough to be the former or cheap enough to...

There are a lot of confusing negative reviews on this sight. I think some people stayed at the Hotel Senkei Plaza Inn (a Western-style hotel operated by the same company) and then wrote a review for this ryokan instead. We booked our stay through the Japanese Guest Houses website, which was very helpful for searching for and booking ryokan. This was the first time my husband and I have stayed in a ryokan, and we absolutely loved it! ||||Service throughout our stay was attentive and friendly. Hotel staff showed us to our room, gave us a tour of the room, brought us a small snack, and explained how to put on the yukata. Our room was beautiful and had a lovely view of the mountains, with couches for us to sit on and enjoy the view or read comfortably. Our room looked like a model traditional Japanese home- there were tatami mats everywhere, a low table and pillows to sit on, and futon beds were set up after dinner. Our bathroom included a squat toilet and a Western style toilet with bidet.||||We really enjoyed checking out the onsen. I visited the indoor one because the outdoor one was closed when we arrived due to rain; my husband went to the outdoor one in the morning and told me it was beautiful. The shower area in the onsen provided everything we could have needed. It felt so great to soak in the hot water after running around sightseeing so much. ||||We had a fabulous dinner that included shabu shabu, sashimi, lots of little bites, rice, miso soup, pickles, and fruit for dessert. We were given a little bit of sake and also purchased a bottle of sochu from the mini-bar. In the morning, we had a huge Japanese breakfast that included delicious fish, tofu, yogurt, more little bites, and soup, rice, and pickles. Neither of us is huge fish eaters but we loved the dried fish (I believe it was aji, or horse mackerel) that came with breakfast. Along with staying in a beautiful room and experiencing the onsen, trying so many new and interesting foods was a huge highlight for us. No, we didn’t eat eggs and toast for breakfast or have coffee, but this is Japan and we were excited to see what came in a traditional breakfast. This was a fantastic stay all around, and I highly recommend this ryokan for anyone looking for an authentic...

we arrived at hakone macho bus station about 8pm and it was pitch dark. all the shops surrounding it has closed and we did not know which way to go. went up to the train station and luckily there were some extremely helpful officers there who provided us with a printed map he searched online. ||||we walked according to the map but got lost halfway because of the fork. took us almost 45 minutes to find this place (it was a nightmare really because we were lugging massive luggages with us) but it was worth it once we found the hotel. it's actually just about 10-12 minutes away once you know your way. it's a very modest traditional hotel surrounded by hot springs and we could hear the sounds of 'waterfalls' (which was actually the sound of water gushing in the big drain right in front of the ryokan). the drain was not a typical disgusting drain but a rather clean and charming one so it was a good sight, don't worry.||||the rooms are massive especially for japan's standards! i was very very impressed. it even had two small balconies! there are two types of onsen - indoors (separate rooms for men and women) and an outdoor onsen (which is just one room but has separate timings for men and women). i went for the outdoor onsen and it felt almost like a private one with a fantastic view because there were barely anyone! ||||there are also two restaurants inside this ryokan and closes really late (12am). there's also a vending machine on the 3rd floor which is very convenient. only two things though - we were told to walk extremely softly because the floors below us could hear us and the wifi is only available at the lobby. that's not a big boo boo though so i will definitely recommend this place to people...