Shikishimakan — Hotel in Kotohira

Base on Tripadvisor reviews and ranking I would have book Kotohira Kadan or Kotohira Grand, but after coming across Shikishimakan it was a no brainer to choose this hotel. First it was brand new, just opened in Sep 2019. Second it was located right at the shopping street of Kotohira and their room rate was lower than others because they are still at new opening promotion. We are a family of four and they have several type of two bedroom units for 4. We choose the 49 sq m Forth room with Private Open Air Bath which is located in the Main building. ||We drove there from Iya Valley and parked at their very spacious car park located behind the hotel. A parking attendant was there to guide us to the hotel via the back gate. Inside the hotel it was spotless clean as everyone have to take out their shoes and keep them at lockers located near the entrance.||Now about the Forth room, it was spacious but we could not find a proper space to place our luggage. The balcony face an old building(see photo) and when we try to ask for a room with a better view, the manager said that all rooms with open air bath has about the same view. However the cleanliness, layout and design of the Forth room more than makeup that disappointment.||We have dinner at the famous Kagawa Roast Chicken restaurant located just 100m across the hotel. That was definitely a cheaper and more delicious option than including dinner in the booking. ||They have two public and four private onsens. We were able to use all the onsen as the hotel is not crowded yet. After 10 pm this hotel provide free udon for hungry guest. Breakfast was semi Japanese buffet with many choices of food plus free flow of Udon and fruit juices.||Checking out was swift as we have paid the hotel in full via Expedia.||How was this hotel not ranked highly in Tripadvisor is a waste. I suggest Tripadvisor to include a category for new hotels (less than 1 year old) for every city...

The trip was planned in the last minute so basically it was nearly impossible to find a room and I had little (or no) choice but to settle with this one. The only biggest plus of the hotel is its location, right next to the Konpira Shrine. Not sure if the hotel had properly planned for having a full house but obviously they were trying to be efficient in the restaurant at the expense of quality. Dinner was the worst I have ever had in on-sen hotels with the grill dish already cold when being served. For breakfast, they ensured guests could finish within half an hour so do expect very simple food.||The size of the room was all right but I only found out that the blackout curtains were broken when I was about to sleep. I did not bother with asking for assistance for I did not think they could do anything so I got awaken by sunshine at 5-ish. The room was very cold even if I set the temperature at 26 degree, and the air conditioning was very noisy.||As for the onsens, only the indoor one comes with genuine onsen water while the outdoor one is plain water (沸し湯) as according to description in their website. Having been to over 40 onsen spots in Japan, this was the first time I came across a pool of plain water in an outdoor onsen. They also offer 4 private onsen rooms but no reservation service, so either you wait and queue or just forget about it. ||I know this hotel belong to the Dormy Inn Group but had not expected such bad experience especially when they asked for a very premium rate due to the...

The trip was planned in the last minute so basically it was nearly impossible to find a room and I had little (or no) choice but to settle with this one. The only biggest plus of the hotel is its location, right next to the Konpira Shrine. Not sure if the hotel had properly planned for having a full house but obviously they were trying to be efficient in the restaurant at the expense of quality. Dinner was the worst I have ever had in on-sen hotels with the grill dish already cold when being served. For breakfast, they ensured guests could finish within half an hour so do expect very simple food.||The size of the room was all right but I only found out that the blackout curtains were broken when I was about to sleep. I did not bother with asking for assistance for I did not think they could do anything so I got awaken by sunshine at 5-ish. The room was very cold even if I set the temperature at 26 degree, and the air conditioning was very noisy.||As for the onsens, only the indoor one comes with genuine onsen water while the outdoor one is plain water (沸し湯) as according to description in their website. Having been to over 40 onsen spots in Japan, this was the first time I came across a pool of plain water in an outdoor onsen. They also offer 4 private onsen rooms but no reservation service, so either you wait and queue or just forget about it. ||I know this hotel belong to the Dormy Inn Group but had not expected such bad experience especially when they asked for a very premium rate due to the...