Hosonokan — Hotel in Hakuba

Excellent location, with the Happo bus terminal, convenient store Lawson, and the stop for the shuttle bus to ski resorts (called Phenix, in front of the Phenix store just 2 buildings downhill) just within 1 minute walking distance.

The owner is very warm and friendly, and the staff are very helpful and courteous.

The room is very accommodating, with a change of towels, hot drinking water in a thermos, and bedsheets every day. There is central heating, but if that’s not enough for you, there is an extra radiator you can plug in. I highly recommend it to keep you toasty at night. If you’re a large person and am not a fan of tiny bathrooms, don’t worry - there is an extra sink outside the bathroom in your room that you can use instead. I also suggest you shower at the onsen room, and do number two in the bathroom on the first floor bc it’s the only toilet with the bidet function (aka “smart toilet”).

The meals are plentiful without making you hungry or too full for skiing, and the onsen with hot sauna room on the 5th floor is legit. There is a washing machine and a dryer which you can use when inserting coins. So all in all, an excellent place with everything you need and great location. Would definitely stay there again.

Warning: Please note that other tenants might smoke in their rooms, so the hallways might have a smell, but my room had no smell whatsoever during the entire stay of 6 days, even when the hallways had a strong smell. The smell completely clears the next day, so it’s not a big issue. Enjoy your stay!...

A friend and I stayed at Hosonokan for 7 nights and couldn’t stop talking about how amazing the location was. Metres away from the bus terminal so visiting different ski resorts with all our ski gear was incredibly easy and minutes walk away from loads of great bars and restaurants.

The room was huge and warm with a beautiful view of the town and Happo One mountain. 2 futons, 1 table and chair set next to the window and another traditional Japanese tea table with seats on the floor. We absolutely loved experiencing tradition Japanese accommodation.

Plus having the onsen in the hotel is a treat, making is so easy to enjoy and recover after a massive day on the slopes.

Our absolute favourite part of our stay was our host, Hiro. Always greeting us with a smile and a “welcome back”, helping us book taxis and restaurants and giving us morning chocolates to take with us up the mountain and for our long travel day home. He was just the best!

I can’t recommend Hosonokan enough, I would...

Booked a room on Agoda well in advance of the trip. Hosonokan decides 2 weeks before my trip that the price listed was not set by them and that I have to "reschedule" with the hotel at nearly triple the price. Not to mention the fact that I had already made my train and rental bookings with a set budget. It is not the customer's responsibility to know what the price of the hotel is. Contacting the customer weeks after the reservation was already paid for just to tell them that their reservation needs to be changed or cancelled with zero context and no good explanation is completely unacceptable. Now the hotel has left me with extremely limited options at very high prices since they only decided to contact me so close to my trip. They weren't transparent on whether I could get a refund forcing me to go through customer service. Extremely...