Lake Biwa Marriott Hotel — Hotel in Moriyama

Lackluster experience at this hotel. Great service at the beginning - we were upgraded from the onsen-in-room to the room with the onsen overseeing the lake. We also had a small bottle of sparkling in the fridge to celebrate my partner's birthday.

The hotel itself though does not match any other Marriott I've stayed in, and I've stayed in a lot across the globe. It is clearly a rebranding of an old hotel with lackluster facilities. The lobby is spacious to the point it looks like it could be a ward office. The building attached contains a sports hall, a planetarium and a pool and in general aesthetically looks like it's part of a retirement house.

We are platinum Bonvoy members which gave us pool access, lounge access and free breakfast, but if you're not platinum I just can't see any value in staying here. The lounge costs 10k, breakfast is 4.5k, and the pool is almost 1000 yen per use. I've never seen a 4/5 star hotel charge for their pool usage.

The lounge looks like a hospital waiting room and prior to the 4pm snacks offers almost nothing to recoup the 10,000 yen if you were to spend it. It's also just sitting in the lobby and has absolutely no premium feel to it.

The room was nice, minus feeling very damp due to the onsen. There was some mould on the curtains which we tried to ignore. The view from the onsen is beautiful and made the choice worth it. Without this it would have been a massive rip off. Waking up every day and hopping in the onsen was the highlight of the trip.

It's very unclear what benefits this hotel are willing to provide for platinum+ members. They do not advertise as a resort hotel (though they do come up as one on the internal database) yet they offer the lounge access, breakfast, upgrade etc. However they refused to offer the 4pm guarantee and stated 1pm was the latest they could do. The hotel was fairly empty and I confirmed through the app that there were rooms available so I'm surprised that this was their stance.

The staff member heading the lounge was incredibly rude and left a sour note at the end of the trip. We asked for a mug for the coffee machine and were told that they only provide paper cups. I quipped that this doesn't seem very environmentally friendly and they remarked "that's the sort of hotel this is", or "そういうホテルです". I asked if there were no mugs in the hotel we could use (knowing there were) and he said no, gave no reason and walked away. Everything mentioned was with an incredibly rude tone and even my partner (Japanese) who hates confrontation stated that he was incredibly rude and shouldn't be in the service industry. For this to be in a 4/5 star hotel in Japan is beyond belief.

I mentioned this through the chat and the front desk staff came over to apologise which was appreciated. We were told that the staff member was removed from his post to undergo training but he showed back up within an hour and couldn't battle his ego to at least apologise to us. I appreciate the effort the front desk staff went to.

As a note on the environmental policy, I found their use of disposables throughout the lounge incredibly ironic given that the amenities in the room (cotton buds, etc) are individually wrapped in plastic and they mention that additional amenities will cost as a measure of reducing plastic consumption. Most hotels would just switch to paper wrapping, but not this one. Can you imagine a 4/5 star hotel charging you 20-50 yen PER cotton bud?

The branding of this hotel is completely amiss. Stay for the onsen if you want, but otherwise there's no point. I give the 2 stars for that and the apology from...

Worst Marriott experience I've ever get. The staff in the front desk is very unprofessional and even threatened me during my check in which makes me feel very uncomfortable||||On the 17 Nov 2024, I went to the hotel and process my check in at around 11:00am. But the room was not ready so I just left my luggage in the lobby and left. On the same day around 21:30pm, I went back to the hotel to check in my room, but the room was not the room I reserve for. Therefore I expressed frustration and request to change back my room to the room I ORIGINALLY BOOKED FOR. But since it was very late and we still have to wait for around 15-20min for our room, which I have already been waiting since 11:00am. I requested for an extra lounge pass to stay in the lounge to wait(since we are a party of 3, but due to my membership status I only have access for 2 person), the front desk did not offer at first, and quoted me the price for the 3rd person to use the lounge, which is very ridiculous as we just want a place to wait for our room. After several conversations, the front desk finally allow our 3rd person to stay in the lounge.||||While we are waiting, a staff named Mr. HIROSHI (I'm not sure is he the front office manager) approached us and ask for my staff ID with a very rude manner (as I'm travelling with the associate rate). I wonder why do he needs my ID since I've already provided all the documents needed during check in. He claimed that I am complaining, and said ''ASSOCIATE = NO COMPLAIN'', I was shocked and threatened as I did nothing wrong. Me and my friends were very tired and needed to wake up early the next day, but the hotel had us waiting for the room from 11:00am. I explained the whole situation but the staff was still very rude and shouted at me. After that, my friends can't stand it and decided to speak up, telling the staff that we have already been waiting for 10 HOURS for the CORRECT room. And it seems that the staff did not know we checked in earlier that morning 11:00am. And left to check with his colleagues. After several minutes, Mr. HIROSHI came back with our room keys and an extra lounge pass with breakfast access and express his apologies to us ( with a totally different attitude). But I'm already very disappointed due to the experience I've got. And I was very tired so I just took the room keys and went back to my room directly without further complications.||||The staff here will straight be rude to you when you have some complains, without knowing the whole situation. I can't imagine how they handle other complaints with customers, and this is not how you treat your customers, especially for Marriott hotels. I DEFINITELY WILL NOT STAY IN THIS HOTEL EVER AGAIN AND WILL NOT SUGGEST ANYONE TO COME HERE.||||And one extra thing is, the female staff who checked me in in the morning, pretends not to know any English, and kept on speaking Japanese to me throughout the whole check in process. But it turns out that, the female staff can speak English well. When I come back to the hotel at night for check in, I saw her in the other counter speaking fluent English to a foreign guest. Why didn't she speak English to me when I check in in the morning. Can I consider that as...

Worst Marriott experience I've ever get. The staff in the front desk is very unprofessional and even threatened me during my check in which makes me feel very uncomfortable||||On the 17 Nov 2024, I went to the hotel and process my check in at around 11:00am. But the room was not ready so I just left my luggage in the lobby and left. On the same day around 21:30pm, I went back to the hotel to check in my room, but the room was not the room I reserve for. Therefore I expressed frustration and request to change back my room to the room I ORIGINALLY BOOKED FOR. But since it was very late and we still have to wait for around 15-20min for our room, which I have already been waiting since 11:00am. I requested for an extra lounge pass to stay in the lounge to wait(since we are a party of 3, but due to my membership status I only have access for 2 person), the front desk did not offer at first, and quoted me the price for the 3rd person to use the lounge, which is very ridiculous as we just want a place to wait for our room. After several conversations, the front desk finally allow our 3rd person to stay in the lounge.||||While we are waiting, a staff named Mr. HIROSHI (I'm not sure is he the front office manager) approached us and ask for my staff ID with a very rude manner (as I'm travelling with the associate rate). I wonder why do he needs my ID since I've already provided all the documents needed during check in. He claimed that I am complaining, and said ''ASSOCIATE = NO COMPLAIN'', I was shocked and threatened as I did nothing wrong. Me and my friends were very tired and needed to wake up early the next day, but the hotel had us waiting for the room from 11:00am. I explained the whole situation but the staff was still very rude and shouted at me. After that, my friends can't stand it and decided to speak up, telling the staff that we have already been waiting for 10 HOURS for the CORRECT room. And it seems that the staff did not know we checked in earlier that morning 11:00am. And left to check with his colleagues. After several minutes, Mr. HIROSHI came back with our room keys and an extra lounge pass with breakfast access and express his apologies to us ( with a totally different attitude). But I'm already very disappointed due to the experience I've got. And I was very tired so I just took the room keys and went back to my room directly without further complications.||||The staff here will straight be rude to you when you have some complains, without knowing the whole situation. I can't imagine how they handle other complaints with customers, and this is not how you treat your customers, especially for Marriott hotels. I DEFINITELY WILL NOT STAY IN THIS HOTEL EVER AGAIN AND WILL NOT SUGGEST ANYONE TO COME HERE.||||And one extra thing is, the female staff who checked me in in the morning, pretends not to know any English, and kept on speaking Japanese to me throughout the whole check in process. But it turns out that, the female staff can speak English well. When I come back to the hotel at night for check in, I saw her in the other counter speaking fluent English to a foreign guest. Why didn't she speak English to me when I check in in the morning. Can I consider that as...