Benesse House Oval — Hotel in Naoshima

You’re paying for exclusivity and the privilege of staying in a beautifully designed hotel. Amenities are lacking. Interiors are uninspired (3 star bathrooms). We stayed 2 nights for around $1000 per night (2 people). You need to book 6 months in advance to get a spot here (bookings open 6months in advance).

Only 6 rooms available here, so you feel a world apart from everyone else. You arrive by funicular (basically a horizontal elevator). A truly unique arrival experience. The building itself is impressive. Tadao Ando shows his brilliance with the way the building is oriented and designed (see the photos).

Room: 3/5. Beautiful view (we stayed in 406), but standard room. Twin room. Dated furniture. Very dated bathroom (no separate toilet and shower). No separate shower and bathtub. Shower curtains…hello 1990s. Not sure I’ve ever paid $500pp to have shower curtains before…

Service and Food: 4/5. Presented very beautifully, but very impersonal service who didn’t have any expertise or interest in the food they were serving. Bell staff also quite impersonal. Our bags were brought to our room by a young gentleman and when we went down to ask for information 30 mins later, the same person asked if we were staying at the hotel…

Amenities: 3/5. Lacking. Free DIY laundry, which was useful. Good Thann toiletries. There was a “free gift” of 2 x $5 half-bottles of generic red and white wine. We don’t drink so the staff arranged us a different gift—a $10 candy from the gift store. It was our honeymoon and while we don’t expect free stuff, this was pretty underwhelming. We had previously stayed at Gora Kadan before visiting Benesse House Oval and the difference in hospitality was shocking (though, admittedly Gora Kadan was slightly more expensive).

Unique features: you get to visit the Benesse House Museum exhibits at night without the public crowds. Elevates the whole experience. But if you want this privilege, I’d recommend just paying for the museum price, not the oval.

Value for money: 2/5. Service quality needs to be improved. Also rooms need to be updated to justify the price.

I think other 5 star reviewers try to rationalize the fact they paid for the privilege of...

​To go all the way and enjoy Naoshima, most w​ould​ stay for at least a night on the island. We stayed two nights in the Oval, thinking ​we could complete Naoshima, and island hop to Teshima and Inujima. Two days ​were barely​ sufficient to ​cover artworks in Naoshima ​Chichu Art Museum, Lee Ufan Museum, ​​Benesse House Museum and Art House Project.

The architecture of The Oval is impressive and exclusive, as access is ​only ​limited to the guests staying in Oval by a funicular from the Benesse House Museum (except for Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights, other guests could go to the Oval Lounge).

The Oval Twin room is pretty basic and quite dated for the price. Each has its own theme, and ours is of Bernd and Hilla Becher​, displaying photography of 'Framework Houses, Industrial district of Siegen from 1959-1973'.

​The surrounding view of the Oval was spectacular, especially the sunset.​​ The best part of staying in the Oval or Museum is, you could still enjoy the artworks ​in ​Benesse House Museum​ till 11pm.​ So plan to visit the rest of the works and other museums during day time, and do Benesse House Museum​ at your own leisure before or after dinner.​ During your period of stay in Benesse House, free re-entry to all museums.

Complimentary Continental breakfast was provided at the Oval Lounge.​ For dinner, only ​two ​hotel restaurants ​were available - Etoile de la mer​ (away from Museum, near to the beach)​​ & Issen (within the museum), which we hope they could improve at the prices charged. Regardless, please make your dinner reservation​​​ before you arrive or during check-in, as they were sadly popular.

If you are planning to visit, please try to avoid Monday, as most of the museums are close except for ​​Benesse House Museum​.

For hotel pickup from the Miyanoura Port, ​​​proceed to their website and search for Guest Shuttle Bus timetable.​ Some of the items are exclusive to the museums and locale, may wish to buy...

This was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience. There are only 6 rooms in this extremely exclusive property which is only accessible to Hotel guests. If you have the chance, the money, and the luck to be able to find an available room here you should absolutely take the opportunity to do so. The service is incredible the food at the French restaurant is amazing and the views from the property as well as the architecture are unparalleled. You cannot access this building unless your hotel guest and you access it by a monorail that is built just for these six guest rooms. The monorail is quite incredible and the sense of arrival is amazing. The only thing that I would recommend is that they renovate the Interiors of the guest rooms every 36 months as they do appear quite dated, the furniture is scratched and in terrible condition, and there is rust throughout a lot of the property. Still this is probably one of the rarest hotels that you can stay at...