BEB5 Karuizawa by Hoshino Resorts — Hotel in Karuizawa

I loved my last stay last year in a Hoshino Resort so much, I decided to make this trip almost all Hoshino stays, praising it to my friends.

BEB5 got me to regret this decision. This is also my first bad review of a place, which really shows the disappointment. But perhaps it's good for ppl to lower their expectations, or consider a different place to stay.

The Good The rooms, vibes are all great. There's Japanese boardgames and areas to chill downstairs at night.

The area is somewhat convenient, especially with a car- but there are decent buses to the main city, and the Onsen and Terrace are lighted up and easily accessible.

Karuizawa, as an area to visit, is great- lovely town that I've enjoyed since 2008 till now.

The Unfortunate Laundry: the machine doesn't come with detergent, though you can buy it at the vending machine. However, the dryer is really dusty- they haven't cleaned the back of it at all. It is also not great- very small, and hard to ensure all your clothes dry.

Service: I am not sure if it's frustration from being unable to speak English, but there was one particular person who made things extremely painful to inquire anything- with many sighs at trying to explain anything in English. Even when I tried to help by saying I can speak some Japanese, he refused to use Japanese to attempt communication.

Without going into too many details, i lost a sweater in BEB5 due to, I believe, room service cos I lost it since then and I never found it. While I can get that it could be an honest mistake, there was no apology, 2 days later late replies, and an expectancy that I will wait in a hotel (another hoshino at that) to wait for the delivery.

[Edited] after a final email that resulted in this post, Hoshino replied me and offered to send it to my home country, which I do appreciate.

I'm happy that they have finally responded to arrange for what has happened, but I don't believe that such emails should have been necessary before action was taken.

While a beautiful location, I will not be recommending this particular resort ever again without first warning friends to expect a different standard from other Hoshinos. A shame that it's a part of what I thought...

We wanted to come to embrace the atmosphere that Karuizawa is famous for. Beautiful landscapes. Hotel is right next to a convenience store. And very close walk to the beautiful churches. It was walkable to Harunire Terrace, but road was a little scary to walk. Too bad this plaza closes early. That was all there was to do around this hotel without having a car.

The hotel loses a star, because the staff did not speak English too well. I guess I assumed since the sight was in English and it is a well-known resort, there would be at least 1 English speaker. And we were hoping for concierge type service for advice on sight-seeing, but the language barrier was too much. And I don't think they were too prepared on giving out that advice, too. That was a little disappointing, but would come back again.

They had a tiny cafe with little options, and too expensive. I would just go to the convenience store, which is encouraged. Great spaces to work or drink/eat with friends. They don't care. Bring your own take out and set up outside. They also have games to borrow.

For the bunk bed type rooms, the ceiling is very low. You most likely will bump your head. I would recommend not to stay in those rooms for more than 2 nights. It can put a strain on your neck/shoulders as well. But...

We booked this hotel after we heard a lot of good feedback about Hoshino Hotel Group. We were so looking forward before our stay but it turned out to be BIG let down: ||Check in:|The reception was neither friendly nor helpful . We provided her with our check in QR code. The next minute, she just handed us with two room access cards in one card folder, breakfast & onsen vouchers without talking to us. I did ask for more information about the hotel but she asked me to scan a QR code and read it on my own. The worst part is when we were about to check out, we only found out that there were 6 x1000 yen spending/meal vouchers in the room access card folder. We were totally unaware of these vouchers and the reception didn't inform us about them upon check in. As we had to catch Shinkansen back to Tokyo, we were unable to use them all. ||Breakfast: |The breakfast was not good per the reviews said. We ordered one American breakfast and one french toast (chef recommendation). The French toast was a disaster, it was too sweet and still mushy in the middle. ||We were in Japan for 10 days and staying at different hotels. Sadly to say, BEB5 Karuizawa was truly a big disappointment in terms of the money...