New Akan Hotel — Hotel in Kushiro

I booked a room at this hotel through Bookings.com, where rooms at their so-called 'Crystal Wing' were the only ones offered. The room cost me 28,000 yen a night but I decided to fork out the exorbitant price for a nice resort by the lake. ||||However, as it turned out, the 'Crystal Wing' is actually an annex. It is originally a different hotel called the Crystal Hotel, which was acquired by the Hotel New Akan next door. The lobby and restaurant of this 'annex' were closed, so we assumed that only the rooms were used to accommodate guests. I don't have problems with annex rooms in other hotels, but for this one, I do. ||||The Crystal Wing is so shabby and run down. The hallways are musty and smelly. It has its own small elevator with buttons so dirty that you don't want to put your finger on. The room looks like it does in the website picture. It looks clean. What is unseen though is the stale musty air! It was so awful to be breathing in the room. The windows cannot be opened, so you are forced to inhale the stale air from the old central AC. It’s really ironic because the fresh mountain air is just outside. What's worse is that the room smells of cigarettes even when it is supposed to be a non-smoking room. Also, the door does not close properly and has to be slammed to shut.||||The bed is reasonably comfortable, but the sheets do not have the scent of freshly laundered linen, and neither were the yukatas. This gives the impression that the room has not been used in a long time. The yukatas are so worn out, I did not feel like putting them on. The toilet, though very clean, faintly smelt of the sewer.||We never saw any other guests on the same floor as us in the annex building. When we looked at the building from the outside during an evening stroll, our room was the only one lighted up. Coupled with the dark, uninhabited lower floors and the sealed-off lobby of this 'Crystal Wing', we felt like we booked a room at a ghost hotel! I complained to the hotel, but all they offered was a different room in the SAME annex building.||||I wrote a negative review on Bookings thinking it would help other unknowing guests. However, only positive reviews are being featured on the site. Bookings is still selling these Crystal Wing rooms on their website! (No rooms in the main building are available, so this misleads guests to think that the Crystal rooms are NOT the shabbier, older rooms in a different building)||||Selling these old run-down rooms in the dilapidated building next door for exorbitant prices is simply unscrupulous. Avoid these Crystal rooms at all costs if you want a good night sleep and no creepy, eerie feelings as a...

I booked a room at this hotel through Bookings.com, where rooms at their so-called 'Crystal Wing' were the only ones offered. The room cost me 28,000 yen a night but I decided to fork out the exorbitant price for a nice resort by the lake. ||||However, as it turned out, the 'Crystal Wing' is actually an annex. It is originally a different hotel called the Crystal Hotel, which was acquired by the Hotel New Akan next door. The lobby and restaurant of this 'annex' were closed, so we assumed that only the rooms were used to accommodate guests. I don't have problems with annex rooms in other hotels, but for this one, I do. ||||The Crystal Wing is so shabby and run down. The hallways are musty and smelly. It has its own small elevator with buttons so dirty that you don't want to put your finger on. The room looks like it does in the website picture. It looks clean. What is unseen though is the stale musty air! It was so awful to be breathing in the room. The windows cannot be opened, so you are forced to inhale the stale air from the old central AC. It’s really ironic because the fresh mountain air is just outside. What's worse is that the room smells of cigarettes even when it is supposed to be a non-smoking room. Also, the door does not close properly and has to be slammed to shut.||||The bed is reasonably comfortable, but the sheets do not have the scent of freshly laundered linen, and neither were the yukatas. This gives the impression that the room has not been used in a long time. The yukatas are so worn out, I did not feel like putting them on. The toilet, though very clean, faintly smelt of the sewer.||We never saw any other guests on the same floor as us in the annex building. When we looked at the building from the outside during an evening stroll, our room was the only one lighted up. Coupled with the dark, uninhabited lower floors and the sealed-off lobby of this 'Crystal Wing', we felt like we booked a room at a ghost hotel! I complained to the hotel, but all they offered was a different room in the SAME annex building.||||I wrote a negative review on Bookings thinking it would help other unknowing guests. However, only positive reviews are being featured on the site. Bookings is still selling these Crystal Wing rooms on their website! (No rooms in the main building are available, so this misleads guests to think that the Crystal rooms are NOT the shabbier, older rooms in a different building)||||Selling these old run-down rooms in the dilapidated building next door for exorbitant prices is simply unscrupulous. Avoid these Crystal rooms at all costs if you want a good night sleep and no creepy, eerie feelings as a...

Rooms are a little old fashioned but the buffet spread is plentiful, with fresh seafood, nicely cooked steak, superb DIY jingisukan/mini-BBQ hotplates, among others. Our family of six ate to our hearts' content the night we were there.

The next morning, we had a sumptuous breakfast in front of an unfettered view of the lake. However, what I found unnerving was that the guests queued up in a single file to make the rounds on the breakfast buffet. I was extremely annoyed because it was a very inefficient system and it was very tiresome to have to queue up behind tens of others when I just wanted a few select items from the spread. This phenomena occurred at around 8am but by 8.45 the queue died down and rationality returned to dining hall. I don't know if it's just the Japanese culture but it was really absurd and frustrating to me.

The hotel has separate gendered onsens as well as a shared outdoor garden Onsen on the top floor. Unfortunately, the outdoor Onsen closes quite early at 11pm and we didn't get a chance to visit it. The gendered spas are serviced with well-mannered and efficient Filipino staff who communicate in English. I found it quite surprising to find Pinoy employees in a Japanese hotel.

The rooms itself are on the smaller side. Keys are traditional metal ones, not cards. We stayed in Western-styled rooms with ensuite toilets and baths. From our rooms on the third floor, we enjoyed a decent view of the lake. All basic toiletries, including yukatas and towels for the onsens, were provided neatly in the wardrobe drawers. The beds were comfortably padded. However, the AC didn't seem to be working and the only way to get ventilation was to open the room window, exposing myself to the cold 8deg night weather. The comforter was not thick enough and I woke up achy and shivering.

All in all, it was a pleasant experience overall and I would have loved to stay another night. And perhaps ask the staff...