The Happo by HHG — Hotel in Hakuba

Amazing stay at the Happo. We have already booked our stay for next year.

Accommodation and service -Rooms size was more on the western side as opposed to a Japanese size room. -We did not use the washer and dryer but they did seem popular and in constant use on the 2nd floor. -Onsen and sauna were great and perfect after a day of skiing. We used them after 8pm when the crowds were gone. -Ski storage in the basement was perfect for our gear. -Everyone at the hotel is very very accommodating. A few weeks prior to our arrival, I contacted the hotel with places I wanted to make reservations for each night. They went ahead and made these bookings for us which was great. They also picked us up and dropped us off at the bus station for our travel back to Nagano. The shuttle would also drive us to dinner as long as we provided them with enough notice.

Location -The hotel is about a 5 minute walk to the Nakiyama lifts. Do yourself a favor and just walk to the lifts as opposed to taking the bus/shuttle. By the time you walk to the bus or shuttle for Happo, you could already be at the Nakiyama lifts. -The shuttle for Hakuba 47/Goryu stops right in front of the hotel. You are also about a 7 minute walk to the Happo Bus station to get to other resorts such as Iwatake. -Plenty of restaurants in walking distance of the hotel -Lawsons is about a 8 minute walk We did not rent from Spicy but they are located right next door.

Food -Breakfast is included and opens at 7pm- would suggest arriving as they open because it can get busy- especially if you are trying to get to the resorts early. -4 made to order options offered each day with fruit, bread, cheese, ham to select from. Coffee, Tea and various juices are also included. -Service was quick and prompt which we appreciated -The Clubhouse is attached to the hotel which is their bar- pretty popular with great drinks and bar food. Live music also on various days. Nice place to for some apres or a drink before dinner....

My friends and I stayed for 1 night in a Family Room (4 pax) on a long-weekend of Feb. In a nutshell, our stay was superb! Details are as follows.

Room: Clean, fancy ambience (especially the lights), and very comfy. There was a nice snowy mountain view from our room. The Family room had a living room, bed room (1 bunk bed and 2 beds), and a separate toilet and bathroom.

Facilities: Very clean and new. Snowboard/Skii storage area were well-maintained and spacious. Onsen was super nice and it comes with a sauna. There were some other facilities on the other floors that we weren’t able to explore. Next time!

Staff: Very friendly and helpful! They all had this refreshing cool vibe. Most of them (if not all) are English speakers. Some staff are foreigners too, which makes the hotel very foreigner-friendly. Really thankful as they really made our whole stay in Hakuba very comfortable. Hospitality at its finest! Kudos to the team, you’re all awesome!

Location: Around 3-5 mins away (by foot) from Happo Bus Terminal. They also have a free pick up and drop off service (we came from Hakuba Station). Snowboard/Ski Rentals around the hotel. There were lots of nice restaurants in the area as well. Although, just keep in mind that even if the restaurants are open until late at night, last orders for food can be quite early (mostly 7-8pm). In case restaurants are full and you can’t get a space on time, there’s a small local store 1 min away which closes at 9pm and a 24hr Lawsons (5-7mins away) close to the Happo Bus Terminal.

Breakfast: Superb and highly recommended! We thought breakfast would be this typical continental / western buffet, but it wasn’t. It was way better than we expected. You get to choose from their main breakfast menu that comes with a bread/salad/drink bar. Had the Avocado-salmon toast with sausage and a huge slab of meat (forgot the name) as recommended. And it was heavenly! Their marmalades for the bread was super nice too!

Our first time in Hakuba was a very pleasant experience thanks to all the support and assistance from the hotel staff. Would love to stay here again the next time we...

Staff: We only encountered one pleasant staff at the reception - a lady with glasses. The staff at the reception seems unaware and rude. Could not tell us about the available options to get to different ski areas or restaurants. We had this lady at the reception -who checked us in- who essentially behaved like a stroppy teenager - was rude and did not really want to help. Unfortunately, they did not have name tags so I did not get her name. But this particular lady did a terrible job for explaining the options for buses etc. The ski area around here is very spread out, so one really needs to know the options to get around. She had no interest in showing people things, never smiled, did not say hello or thank you. The driver who was suppose to pick us up from the Hakuba bus terminal basically did not arrive and then pretended he waited for us the whole time.He also showed zero interest at doing his job. I heard many hotel were stranded in different ski resorts for hours. In general, they need to a better job a hiring people at the reception and as drivers. I did not want to pay this much money and deal with other peoples’ misbehaving children/ teenagers.

Rooms: The bathroom and the room is too small for the price. Also, there is no way the adjust the temperature in your room. It’s very hot at night and opening the window will mean one will hear many drunk people on the streets.

Extra services: Their offer to help with Yamato (the luggage transfer services) was completely unreasonable and 3 times the price we paid Yamato directly ourselves. If the intention is to help foreigners around Japan with their luggage, not sure this flat fee of 6000 JPY per bag is acceptable.

Restaurant: Having the restaurant in the hotel itself is great and convenient. Food (including breakfast) was good. And more importantly, the staff at the restaurant had training and behaved properly.

Recommendation: We were recommended by the hotel to go one ski rental shop. Beware, the ski rental prices at this place are twice as much as the others. I suspect this ski rental shop is owned by the same owner...