Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono — Hotel in Kutchan

We stayed at the Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono at the end of June 2024. We booked our room at the Residences because we wanted washer/driver but did not realize that even though we booked through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, no upgrade is give on the Residences side, only the Hotel side. At least we were told by the staff during check in. He was brand new, only 2 months into the job so I don't blame him if he had to follow the book. But I am not sure if any exception could have been made.||Other than that, everything at the hotel has been very good for us.||We stayed in the smallest residence room and it was the only room not facing the Mt. Yotei. The whole room is not small but the arrangement and dividing walls make it look smaller than it is. However we don't miss the view of Mt Yotei at all because at the lobby there are huge are where we can sit down and relax and look at Mt Yotei as much as we wanted. There was hardly any other guests during our two-day stay. I believe I met less than 5 other guests in the Residences common area beside during breakfast time. It was really quiet and empty.||Every inch of the Residence site is beautiful and I must have taken hundreds of photos and videos. The lack of guest made us feel like as if it was our private castle.||The Amex deal gave us free breakfast and US$100 to spend at their restaurant and spa. However we can't use the voucher at the two restaurant we went (the Molière Montagne and Sushi Mitsukawa). The breakfast was as good as it can get. There are items we could order from the menu, and buffet of different kind of food. From the breakfast area, we also have great view of the Mt. Yotei. The morning Sun however is a little too much sitting at the window. There are also nice parties from the hotel itself and from the nearby Takahashi Farm, as well as the yogurt from Takahashi.||While looking for place to spend the $100, we came to the Spa and had some very nice conversations with the very friendly staffs in English and my broken Japanese. They were kind enough to gave us some recommendations of close-by places we could drive to. My wife took a facial and massage treatment and she think it was one of the best facial she has ever received. I also enjoy going to the onsen right next to the Spa. Most of the time there was no people. It is necessary to make appointment online for the onsen and there are only maximum of 10 people per hour. For the two pools of different temperatures and a song, the changes of running into other person seems very small. I did not know I could enjoy onsen in the middle of the Summer and so glad I took the opportunity to go a few times.||The front desk staffs were very friendly to us. Since there was never any guest they have to server, we manage to have some conversations with them. The person who checked us in came from Kazakhstan (if not mistaken) who self thought himself Japanese in his own country. He got a sense of humor but unfortunately I didn't try to remember his name. Another staff we met was Amanda Tsai from Taiwan and immediately we felt like friend because my wife is also from Taiwan. She herself has only been in Hokkaido for a few months told stories about places she has been to and some insider stories about the hotel.||After arriving at the hotel, I found out there was going to be Mountain Light display right outside the hotel starting in a few days and we were going to miss it. We could see the optical fiber fixtures in the morning and was a little disappointed we couldn't see them lit up at night. However, to our surprise, during the 2nd evening we were there, the light was turned on. It was surreal to watch the light with some wind blowing, and no body else around because it hasn't been open to the public. We later learned that they the engineers have visited and wanted to test the light. How lucky we felt.||We had planned to go the Zipflight zip line experience right next to the hotel. But after looking at the price we hesitated a little but eventually decided to go for it. We later found out that we could get discount if we book online the day before. On the day we wanted to go, we had to wait since the earlier tour have all been taken. And we got there, it turned out that the other 8 person who signed up was late. After waiting for them for 20 minutes (5 minute passed the departure time), the crew of 4 told us they were not going to wait and brought us up the mountain via the Gondola, then a van. There were 4 of them, 3 from different parts of Japan and 1 from Hong Kong. The zip line was really exciting but the fact that we got a private tour guided by 4 staffs who were as cheerful and funny as you could get was the highlight. 15 minutes after our trip, a heavy rain started pouring down. Again we felt we were so lucky that everything just came together perfectly.||If we ever go to Hokkaido again in the Summer, we will definitely stop by Park Hyatt Niseko for a least a couple of days to just relax and enjoy great food and...

I booked the Park King Suite at Park Hyatt Hanazono for our family's first ski holiday at Park Hyatt Hanazono on the recommendation of several friends who had good experiences there. All of whom recommended booking the activities and restaurants a month in advance, especially one friend who expressed disappointment as her extended family were all beginners and needed an instructor, but had to share the only one available as they did not book in advance, resulting in most of them just waiting in the hotel for their turn for half their time there.

As we are all beginners too, I took their advice and contacted the concierge to assist in booking ski instructors, activities, and restaurants on the 7th of January (3 weeks before this review, 5 weeks before my trip). Having received NO REPLY, I sent another email to the concierge on the 11th of Jan asking if they received my email. Thinking it might be a technical issue, I emailed the main email on the 12th asking if they received my email.

I finally got a reply on the 13th stating that "Yes, we do have your email. We sincerely apologies for late replying. Our concierge team will reach you back shortly, kindly bear with us for some more time."

Given all the recommendations from my friends and all my personal experiences in Japan before where everyone was helpful and everything was efficient, I was relieved that the email was received, and assumed that they would be making the reservations for me. Despite not receiving any reply or confirmation, I did not email back again as I just assumed they needed some time to make the reservations.

As my trip is approaching and I still did not receive any confirmation, I emailed again on the 20th of Jan asking if there were any updates. To my horror, they replied that they would be assisting with the reservations THEN, and that the restaurant most of my friends recommended is already fully booked. Still, I replied not to worry, and just to confirm the ski instructor and activity bookings.

On the 21st of Jan, I received this reply "Please allow us to sincerely apologize for the delay in our response. Thank you very much for you high expectations for our hotel, and we will do our best to keep up with your expectations from now on." (Little did I know this would be the last reply I ever received from them.)

And I fully expected that they would finally proceed with my reservations.

One week later, having STILL received NO REPLY nor confirmation, I sent another email asking for updates on the 26th of Jan. NO REPLY. I remembered I previously got a reply by emailing the main line, so I resent the reminder to both the concierge and the main line on the 27th of Jan. NO REPLY. I spoke to the interactive assistant on the website and requested for them to reply my email and received a positive response.

Most unfortunately, on the 28th of Jan (today), more than 3 weeks since my first email and 2 weeks from my stay, I still have NOT RECEIVED ANY REPLY NOT CONFIRMATION of my reservations, and the hotel has gone COMPLETELY UNRESPONSIVE. I have no idea if we will have a ski instructor at all, or will we spend 3 days at a ski resort staying in our hotel room.

I can understand that manpower issues or peak periods may lead to delays in replies for days, but to receive no reply for weeks over a simple reservation request tells me that the hotel is completely uninterested in her guests and couldn't care less if her guests had a good experience - or even got to ski at all.

I'm sure its a nice hotel - my friends couldn't all be wrong - but on hindsight I would much rather have booked a hotel that showed her guests some basic professionalism, courtesy, or respect, instead of arrogance, hubris, and complete disinterest. I have no idea how my 4 days in Niseko is going to be or whether we will even get to ski at all. I have never in my life had a worse experience with a hotel, and it is truly a shock that it would...

Stayed here for 3 nights. During my stay, rate for the hotel was ~$1,300 per night. The review is based on what should be expected of the Park Hyatt brand and any hotel charging that rate.

Arrival:

Arrival to the hotel was a mess and left a very sour experience. I was arriving at Hirafu by bus and was looking to catch the hotel shuttle. I emailed the concierge to notify them about this a few weeks before my stay and got a shuttle schedule.

Upon arrival, the shuttle was nowhere to be seen and I had to call the hotel. Apparently, they had changed the schedule a few days ago without giving me any update. I sent an email to them earlier that morning to reconfirm but got no.

When the shuttle was supposed to arrive at the newly scheduled time, I didn't see it despite waiting outside in the cold. Apparently their drivers do not go into Welcome Center building to look out for guests. This is completely unacceptable as all the other hotels with shuttle service all had very proactive drivers who made sure they didn't miss anyone.

Checking in:

After being apologetic, the assistant manager offer me and my fiancée complementary coffee at the lounge while they got the room ready. During this time, I was asked by for my room number (which I didn't yet have) no less than 3 times by 3 different people despite the assistant manager apparently notifying the lounge staff and me saying that I've just checked in. This is a common theme during our stay. There's such a huge disconnect between hotel staff in different departments.

Room:

The rooms here are gorgeous and huge. The view of the slopes outside the window is a constant reminder of the premium location of the hotel and the bliss of a ski in ski out resort. I have nothing bad to say about the room. They really hit the mark here. During our stay, they sent some sweets from Pierre Herme. A sweet touch.

Concierge:

Concierge service has really been the low point of our stay. I think when you're paying this much for a hotel stay, service is the area that makes or breaks your stay, and in our case it was bad enough that we would explore other luxury options for out next Niseko trips.

Firstly, the concierge team apologized for the non-response to my email during arrival day. They didn't try to make up for it in any way. No manager apologized to us.

The hotel has an in house ski rental and a ski valet. You could book lessons at the ski valet in the hotel but to have it charged to the room, the concierge needs to do it for you (an inconvenience that shouldn't happen but did because, again, huge disconnect among the people in this hotel). When I told the concierge to book our lessons, she was confused - "oh, you cannot book lessons downstairs, only rental gear".. OK…

When we wanted to collect our ski passes, my fiancée was mistaken for another guest (the concierge just assumed without asking) and there was confusion because our ski passes were actually ready but the other guests' weren't.

Dining:

We had dinner one night at the in-house French restaurant, which is highly acclaimed. This was probably the highlight of our stay. The service level inside the restaurant was on a whole different level to the disjointed effort elsewhere in the hotel. You can tell these are staff trained at the main branch of the restaurant (they were all Japanese) and the service was phenomenal. The food was also to die for.

Overall feel of the hotel:

This part is highly subjective but it's an important area to address. This is a development that's obviously targeted to a non-Japanese audience, as reflected by the small number of Japanese staff in the hotel. The service lacks the Japanese polish and the staff in this hotel tend to be pretty junior in comparison to other Hyatt properties in the country. The lack of follow up on our complaints and the lack of effort in trying to make things right...