Mercure Nagano Matsushiro Resort & Spa — Hotel in Nagano

Needs an upgrade desperately ... apart from the restaurant ... the rest are just OLD, mildew smell in the hallway of our floor, and falling behind the rest of the world ... let's start with the reception.

A big hotel, perfect for groups or individual travellers with their own transportation. The location is about 30 mnt from Nagano city centre, and Nagano train station, out in the middle of nowhere. There are no other facilities around the hotel, apart from some small shops; a hairdresser, a chemist (can't see a restaurant), a nursery, a gift shop warehouse, and two big supermarkets within a walking distance, where you can buy some simple Japanese food and eat in their dining area, there's a microwave too. If you want to be mobile, not just staying in the hotel, you will need some sort of transportation; public busses, taxi, hire a car, ... or use the hotel shuttle service every hour between 09:00 to 17:30 from Nagano Station.

At check-in, most staff can't speak English ... Mercure is a 4-star hotel, an international brand, and struggling with English to communicate with the patrons, using apps/mobile phones to cummunicate, thank you for technology, and that's okay. They are polite and helpful.

It's attraction is their Onsen (public hot spring, male and female) and maybe the restaurant.

It's a big restaurant, offering buffet breakfast and dinner. The buffet dinner is good for ¥8,000/person, especially if you are an Accor member, 50% discount. Good array of delicious food; mostly Japanese, some International, and Indian dishes. Lots of non-alholic drinks, and also free flow alcohol; wines, sake, hard liquor, etc, it's not the best, but adequate, perfect for groups, and there are many last night, judging by the busses in the parking lot. They have 4 sessions for dinner and breakfast to cater to these groups. Excellent service, they are polite and working tirelessly within those 4 sessions; replenishing buffet counters, cleaning those dumping trolleys, and servicing herds of loud people at every session. Some patrons must be very hungry, they jammed up, pushed around at the buffet counters, and some even screamed to each other from across the room. Relax, you have 1,5 hours to enjoy ... The restaurant staff are simply amazing ...

On the Onsen, we found out that there's no towels provided in the onsen, including the little face towels to use within the public onsen. So, we went to the reception, there's one very rude receptionist, an Indian subcontinent woman decend wearing a face mask, Minu ... speaks good English and Japanese, but she doesn't have the demeanour, finesse, or politeness ... can we get extra towels for the Onsen please? ... she said to use the ones in the bedroom to my wife??? So, I called from the room, and she said she never saw my wife, and you have to come to the reception and get the extra towels and pay extra, so we did.

You can either use your own towels from the bedroom or pay ¥200 at the reception for a spare one, strange, and we are okay to pay extra, just added to the bill, but tell us upfront. There are only two bath towels and hand towels in the bedroom, no face wash. Why so limited? Are there patrons stealing towels?

I do not see us coming back to this hotel, even if the restaurant serves good buffet food, especially at my Accor members rate of ¥4000/person, however, thank you to the pleasant, friendly, and hard-working team of staff at the buffet venue and other parts of the...

We have been traveling around the world for the past two years and we have stayed in many hotels. I have never written a bad review of a hotel before. This is the reason I think you should reconsider your reservation at the Mecure hotel and spa. It’s a long review, but I believe it is helpful for future travelers.|We have been traveling around Japan for the past three months and we have stayed in numerous hotels in numerous cities. We absolutely love Japan and we have no complaints for any of the other hotels that we have stayed in. However, the Mecure Hotel Resort and Spa does not come close to meeting our expectations. It is the only hotel where no staff greeted us upon arrival to help with luggage. It is the only hotel that didn’t allow us to check in one hour early. Even though we know that there was only a 5-10% occupancy rate (based on the cars in the parking lot), they would not allow us to go to our room at 2 PM. - we had to wait until 3 p.m. They even kept the keys from us and we had to wait in line again to pick them up at 3 PM. One would think that they would have the welcome lounge open for people to wait for their rooms, but it doesn’t open until 3 PM. We had to lock up our luggage in order to keep it there for the hour. It was the only hotel that made us pay for ice. I did get a cup of ice in the lounge (3 cubes), but they told us we couldn’t bring it to our room. They offered us a welcome drink, but they wanted me to access the coupon on my phone on my Accor account yet they had the written coupon right there in front of them. Made no sense! Breakfast is only served from 7 AM until 9:30 AM, with the last orders being taken at 9 AM. For those of us who don’t like to get up early in the morning, that is a detrimental aspect of this hotel.|We do a lot of research before we book a room at any hotel. We chose the classic twin room with a sofa bed and the mountain view. It very specifically listed “Mountain View,” and we knew we wanted that view based on our examination of Google maps of the hotel. When we arrived at our room, we looked out to see the parking lot and then the highway, and then about 5 to 7 miles in the distance we saw some mountains (see pictures below). We went downstairs to request a room change to the side that looked at the beautiful mountains and their response was “every room has a Mountain View.” That was not acceptable for us, so we had to push until they moved our room. Interestingly, the room they moved us to had a map of the mountain range that is the view. There was no such mountain map in the other room. We just examined the hotels website, and now none of the rooms have Mountain View listed, except for the junior suite. Our guess is that too many people complained when they were put in the rooms that have a view of the mountains 5 to 7 miles away.|The bathroom is very very small. The furniture is adequate at best. The carpets are incredibly dirty. There are stains everywhere in the hallways and in the rooms. The beds a very uncomfortable.|On the plus side, the room is large. The windows open, which is nice because it allows the smell of the room to somewhat dissipate. There is a refrigerator, but you have to turn it on when you arrive. As such, it is not cold for any food that you may need to keep...

We have been traveling around the world for the past two years and we have stayed in many hotels. I have never written a bad review of a hotel before. This is the reason I think you should reconsider your reservation at the Mecure hotel and spa. It’s a long review, but I believe it is helpful for future travelers.|We have been traveling around Japan for the past three months and we have stayed in numerous hotels in numerous cities. We absolutely love Japan and we have no complaints for any of the other hotels that we have stayed in. However, the Mecure Hotel Resort and Spa does not come close to meeting our expectations. It is the only hotel where no staff greeted us upon arrival to help with luggage. It is the only hotel that didn’t allow us to check in one hour early. Even though we know that there was only a 5-10% occupancy rate (based on the cars in the parking lot), they would not allow us to go to our room at 2 PM. - we had to wait until 3 p.m. They even kept the keys from us and we had to wait in line again to pick them up at 3 PM. One would think that they would have the welcome lounge open for people to wait for their rooms, but it doesn’t open until 3 PM. We had to lock up our luggage in order to keep it there for the hour. It was the only hotel that made us pay for ice. I did get a cup of ice in the lounge (3 cubes), but they told us we couldn’t bring it to our room. They offered us a welcome drink, but they wanted me to access the coupon on my phone on my Accor account yet they had the written coupon right there in front of them. Made no sense! Breakfast is only served from 7 AM until 9:30 AM, with the last orders being taken at 9 AM. For those of us who don’t like to get up early in the morning, that is a detrimental aspect of this hotel.|We do a lot of research before we book a room at any hotel. We chose the classic twin room with a sofa bed and the mountain view. It very specifically listed “Mountain View,” and we knew we wanted that view based on our examination of Google maps of the hotel. When we arrived at our room, we looked out to see the parking lot and then the highway, and then about 5 to 7 miles in the distance we saw some mountains (see pictures below). We went downstairs to request a room change to the side that looked at the beautiful mountains and their response was “every room has a Mountain View.” That was not acceptable for us, so we had to push until they moved our room. Interestingly, the room they moved us to had a map of the mountain range that is the view. There was no such mountain map in the other room. We just examined the hotels website, and now none of the rooms have Mountain View listed, except for the junior suite. Our guess is that too many people complained when they were put in the rooms that have a view of the mountains 5 to 7 miles away.|The bathroom is very very small. The furniture is adequate at best. The carpets are incredibly dirty. There are stains everywhere in the hallways and in the rooms. The beds a very uncomfortable.|On the plus side, the room is large. The windows open, which is nice because it allows the smell of the room to somewhat dissipate. There is a refrigerator, but you have to turn it on when you arrive. As such, it is not cold for any food that you may need to keep...