TABINO HOTEL Lit MATSUMOTO — Hotel in Matsumoto

We stayed at Tabino Lit Matsumoto for 2 days during the week. The hotel is new and modern, and is located not far away from Matsumoto JR train station, 5 minutes south (from the East exit you walk right). The building has 10 floors. The rooms are clean and comfortable. We took a superior room which was large enough and with a small sofa, a table, a large TV. The TV also had all information about the hotel, and nearby places. Also, the view from the room, especially higher ones, is quite nice compared to similar hotels in more dense cities, you can see the mountains in the distance. On the plus side, there is a small onsen/spa with sauna (sauna only for men but not for women I understand). In the onsen there is a pool and a number of seats where you can wash with all the different soaps, in the typical Japanese style, and we used it twice after long walks and it was excellent. The staff is very kind and professional and there is also a welcome drink. The location is very good, not only close to the station but close to the center. To reach Matsumoto castle is probably a 15-20 minutes walk. The only minus (hence the 4 stars) is the breakfast. The breakfast quality is very good with a variety of Japanese and western options. The only problem is that, at least in our experience, it was very crowded to the point that at some point basics such as coffee were not readily available. The gentleman overseeing the breakfast room was very professional and was doing his best, but clearly he needed help. The reason why it was so crowded is due to tours where people would have breakfast in waves, saturating the capacity. The hotel asks you to choose between three slots, but in my view this is useless and actually a constraint. It does not solve the issue that tour groups are the likely cause for saturation. Hence the breakfast room and the breakfast kitchen capacity would be right sized in the case hotel customers were attending breakfast distributing over the 3-4 hrs breakfast window, but in case a group is present, and you attend at peak, you will have a hard time. Probably having breakfast early or later would allow to avoid this issue. In any case, the hotel is a very good option and in an excellent position to reach from the station and the center of Matsumoto. (Edit as of October 2024, the breakfast slots seems not anymore in place which in my view is the...

This sweet hotel is only a 5-minute walk from the Matsumoto Station but tucked away down a narrow street that runs off the main avenue.

The staff are friendly and welcoming. They stored my suitcase before I checked in and check-in went smoothly. When checking in, they'll explain how you'll need your card key to access the elevator and public bath.

There's a complimentary coffee service in the morning, drink service in the evening, and ochazuke (rice topped with your choice of toppings with broth made out of bonito stock poured over the rice) service at night. Down by the public bath, there's a freezer with popsicles offered after 3pm to enjoy after a nice soak in the bath.

Although the public bath isn't a natural hot spring, the bathwater is treated with milky bath salts that leave your skin feeling smooth after a relaxing soak. They supply shampoo, conditioner, body soap, face soap in the shower area. Makeup remover and skin lotion are supplied in the locker room. Guests have to bring the towels supplied in the room with them.

On the floor with the public bath, there are a couple of coin-operated washers and dryers, massage chairs that are free to use, microwave, ice machine, ice buckets, and vending machines.

Pajamas are on a shelf next to the elevators on the floors with guest rooms. Don't forget to pick up a set before you go to your room.

The rooms are bigger than the business hotels in Tokyo. The room assigned to me was rather nice, with a comfortable double bed, small couch, table, and TV stand. The bathtub was really tiny, tho, but I used the public bath so that wasn't an issue. Free wifi is available. There are plenty of power sockets to plug in your devices, two sockets with a USB socket at the table and night stand, and two over by the entrance.

I asked them to store my suitcase after I checked out so I can visit a few more sites luggage-free before I had to catch the train.

It was an enjoyable stay and I would definitely stay here again should the...

Stayed at this wonderful property for a night where we used Matsumoto as our gateway to Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. The hotel is located near the train station along a quiet street with a convenience store Lawson just at the corner of the street. A 20-minute walk to Matsumoto Castle and Nawate Street is also a short 10-minute walk away.||Booked a Standard Twin room but was pleasantly surprised that we got an upgrade to a Superior Twin room which was very spacious and it even equipped with a washing machine and microwave oven. Room was clean and the bathroom was spacious too. The room also had smart TV that could Chromecast with our own devices. Strong air conditioning and we really appreciated it as the weather was rather warm. The only gripe would be the pillows were a tad too soft to our liking.||There was public bath for both genders and we really enjoyed a relaxing soak after all the sightseeing in the day. Guests could monitor the status of the public bath crowd level through the hotel information channel on the TV. Guests could treat themselves to ice popsicles after bath and enjoy the 2 massage chairs available outside the public bath too. Guests could monitor the status of the washers through TV too. Some thoughtful services provided by the hotel included free coffee available at the lobby in the morning, free alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks available during the happy hour (one drink per guest), a light supper meal of Chazuke available at night.||Overall a very well rested but short stay, a pity that we needed to board an early train to Shinano Omachi to start our Alpine Route trip on the very next day. Would definitely recommend this exceptional property to anyone visiting Matsumoto, very...