Yumoto Niseko Prince Hotel Hirafutei — Hotel in Kutchan

My family and I have been staying at this hotel now for around 8 years - we stay in early February for our annual ski trip to Niseko. Initially the hotel was friendly and we were happy with it. We have had bad experiences in the last two stays though and I doubt we will return. ||||First, the staff become rather aggressive if you don't comply with their rules (which I admit we breached slightly but not in any serious way - eg taking some breakfast food to our room because my wife had overslept) which I found an extraordinary way to treat someone who was such a loyal customer - it really leaves a bad taste. ||||Secondly, the housekeeping has become very poor - they forgot to leave water, towels, cover pillows with cases, "yukatas", tea and other things on several occasions meaning we had to call down for replacements etc. This never happened before - also the hotel has stopped refunding housekeeping costs if you decide on any day not to have your room cleaned. It did this for the last 8 years that we have been staying but not any more. ||||Thirdly, the rather decent onsen on the third floor has been taken over by outside guests. At peak times (say 5pm-7pm), it is full of non-hotel guests making it hard for actual guests to use all the facilities. My feeling is that this should be reserved principally for hotel guests at peak times but no doubt they are making lots of money from the outsiders.... ||||Fourthly, although this wasn't a problem for us, our friends experienced similar inflexibility from the staff as us when they wanted to get another person to use their room. They had booked for a three or four bed room in anticipation of a friend arriving a few days after them. The hotel wanted to charge an extra Y24,000 for his stay in their room. It would have cost Y13,000 for him to have his own room (admittedly a smoking room). They will also not be returning. ||||Fifthly, inexplicably, the breakfast time has been shortened to close at 9am with people being asked to leave from 9:30am. It's true that this is a ski resort and people should be out on the slopes asap, but it's also true that sometimes people want a lie in when tired or if the weather is too bad to ski. This I found very very irritating.||||On the plus side, the hotel is a genuine ski in ski out, just above the Family Lift. It now has improved ski rental and a decent massage section (which I didn't try). The downstairs onsen is pretty good (if it weren't full of backpackers). Many rooms have their own private onsen (but not the cold bath, sauna and genuine outdoors bath section of the downstairs onsen) as did ours but my wife used that mainly.||||General comment is that I will be looking...

My family and I have been staying at this hotel now for around 8 years - we stay in early February for our annual ski trip to Niseko. Initially the hotel was friendly and we were happy with it. We have had bad experiences in the last two stays though and I doubt we will return. ||||First, the staff become rather aggressive if you don't comply with their rules (which I admit we breached slightly but not in any serious way - eg taking some breakfast food to our room because my wife had overslept) which I found an extraordinary way to treat someone who was such a loyal customer - it really leaves a bad taste. ||||Secondly, the housekeeping has become very poor - they forgot to leave water, towels, cover pillows with cases, "yukatas", tea and other things on several occasions meaning we had to call down for replacements etc. This never happened before - also the hotel has stopped refunding housekeeping costs if you decide on any day not to have your room cleaned. It did this for the last 8 years that we have been staying but not any more. ||||Thirdly, the rather decent onsen on the third floor has been taken over by outside guests. At peak times (say 5pm-7pm), it is full of non-hotel guests making it hard for actual guests to use all the facilities. My feeling is that this should be reserved principally for hotel guests at peak times but no doubt they are making lots of money from the outsiders.... ||||Fourthly, although this wasn't a problem for us, our friends experienced similar inflexibility from the staff as us when they wanted to get another person to use their room. They had booked for a three or four bed room in anticipation of a friend arriving a few days after them. The hotel wanted to charge an extra Y24,000 for his stay in their room. It would have cost Y13,000 for him to have his own room (admittedly a smoking room). They will also not be returning. ||||Fifthly, inexplicably, the breakfast time has been shortened to close at 9am with people being asked to leave from 9:30am. It's true that this is a ski resort and people should be out on the slopes asap, but it's also true that sometimes people want a lie in when tired or if the weather is too bad to ski. This I found very very irritating.||||On the plus side, the hotel is a genuine ski in ski out, just above the Family Lift. It now has improved ski rental and a decent massage section (which I didn't try). The downstairs onsen is pretty good (if it weren't full of backpackers). Many rooms have their own private onsen (but not the cold bath, sauna and genuine outdoors bath section of the downstairs onsen) as did ours but my wife used that mainly.||||General comment is that I will be looking...

Excellent location, just next to the lift. You can exit from the back of hotel down to the hill and landed at the base of the lift!! So convenient. You can rent the snow board and buy lift ticket from the front desk which is cheaper than renting at the welcome center up hill. If you bring your own board. They also have can store your board. The front desk who we met is very helpful. I don’t know his name but I think he is the manager. He is the eldest among the 3 personnels. He is tall, he wears glasses. He can speak english well (but the other 2 front desks can not speak english). He helped make a phone call and reserve the bus for us. The exterior of the hotel look simple but the room inside is renovated. Our room is western style. Room is surprisingly very big. They separate the toilet, The basin, and the Japanese-style shower room in to 3smalls room. Beautiful decoration, great material for furniture and toilet and toiletries, comfortable bed, big screen TV. What I love the most is that our room has private semi-outdoor hot bath!!! The view from the hot bath is overlooking the mountain and I can see people skying/snowboarding. Finally the buffet breakfast is also excellent. Wide variety of food, Japanese and western style are available. Food are delicious. The dining room also has big windows, you can enjoy the view while eating. So over all, this is my...