Hinode Hills Niseko Village — Hotel in Niseko

We are Hyatt Globalists and originally booked a stay at the nearby Park Hyatt but settled for Hinode Hills after PH was unexpectedly closed due to a COVID outbreak. Hinode Hills is a nice property but there were key elements of the stay that should've been communicated in some fashion prior to arrival. This is what we have come to expect with top tier status with both Hyatt and Marriott, especially during COVID. We would not choose to stay at this location again in the future.

TL;DR They don't provide lift tickets or private ski lockers as advertised on their website. The nearby lifts are not operating and you have to walk 0.8 miles (1.6 miles round trip) to the Hilton for equipment rental, overnight storage, and access to the nearest lift. The restaurant is only open for breakfast and lunch/dinner reservations must be made a day in advance. Room service is advertised as 24/7 but it wasn't available.

1. The main website page states "As a guest of this ski-in resort you'll have a lift ticket and private ski locker" and "private ski locker and lift pass" is advertised under Hotel Features. We asked for our lift tickets during check-in and the staff was unaware that this was advertised. After checking with their supervisor we were told that it's listed on Hyatt's website and not their's. They would not honor this and told us it was something we'd have to talk to Hyatt about. Not providing the advertised service cost our group about $400 that we weren't expecting to spend. We were able to connect with the Hyatt Globalist call center and they advised us that the website did advertise lift tickets for all guests but the hotel staff said it was false advertisement by Hyatt. There's no way we're the first guest to have this issue.

2. The hotel is advertised heavily as ski-in/ski-out but the ski lifts near the hotel are not operating and you have to walk 0.8 miles to the Hilton to get to the main gondola and the nearest (and recommended) ski rental shop and the same distance back at the end of the day (if you're lucky one of the community shuttles can take you but they come extremely infrequently that you need to plan for them). We were told during check-in that the lifts right next to Hinode Hills open at 0830. After noticing from our room around 0900 that they weren't running yet we inquired with the front desk and was told they opened at 0830. After sharing that they were not running the front desk checked the status of the lifts and said they were closed due to weather. After walking 0.8 miles to the Hilton to rent our gear we inquired about the lifts near Hinode Hills with the main lift ticket sales staff and it was shared that those lifts had been closed the entire season. We asked other sales agents in Hirafu and Hanazono throughout the weekend and the same statement was shared. Why wasn't this shared in prior to our arrival?

They have a complimentary one time shuttle to take you to the Hilton for ski rental but it is not round trip and future shuttles only take you to a small lift nearby that connects you to a run to the Hilton. Since there was no place to store our equipment at Hinode Hills we couldn't ski-in at the end of the day, had to drop our equipment off at the Hilton and then walk back 0.8 miles to Hinode Hills. Since we couldn't store our skis at the hotel in the private ski locker it made no sense to offer a shuttle to a nearby lift if your equipment was stored at the Hilton.

3. There's not much going on around the hotel for food and it would've been nice to know in advance that restaurant reservations for lunch and dinner needed to be made in advance (it was closed if not made a day in advance) and 24/7 room service wasn't going to be offered at any hour. The advertised coffee shop was a coffee bar within the restaurant and it was only available during...

First of all, the hotel is clean and delicately furnished - the furniture and appliances in our one-bedroom suite were brand new and trendy. We especially liked the washer/dryer in the room, every skier knows how convenient that would make your skiing trip:)

That being said, rest of the experience is AWFUL. Better avoid if you are neither white or Japanese (we are Chinese residing in the US). In general, the hotel staff were very arrogant and unhelpful during our stay. Below are the three things that annoyed us the most during our Christmas stay.

1. For the first few days when we were having breakfast, none of the staff members in the restaurant offered us to see the breakfast menu (other than the food that was laid out in the open area, they have a menu which contains breakfast set). Until the 4th day of our stay, we noticed an American family coming into the restaurant, and they were immediately handed over the menu. We then asked one of the staff for the menu ourselves. We feltvery discriminated against - if you have a breakfast menu, why would you tell that to American families and not us??

2. One day it was particularly windy at Niseko Village skiing area, and the Niseko Gondola was closed, so we couldn't get to the other mountains via lift. It was during lunch time, so the shuttle was running very infrequently (every 90 minutes or so). Therefore we kindly asked the front desk if they could help give us a 10-minute ride to Hirafu, when we noticed there was a minivan from the hotel parked outside. Even none of the staff members was helping other hotel guests, we were given a firm no. We then asked the minivan driver ourselves, and he said he could actually give us a ride. The most ridiculous thing then happened - one of the hotel staff went to talk to the minivan driver and explicitly told the driver not to give us this 10-minute ride. Furthermore, none of the hotel staff offered to call a taxi or arrange pick-up service for us. They were just all standing there, doing nothing at all! In the end, I called our ski rental company, who were kind enough to pick us up. This is not the type of service you would expect at a luxury hotel at all, and I am very angry and disappointed with how the staff handled the situation.

3. Coming from the USA, we expected late checkout (2pm) as a norm at luxury hotels. However, we had to ask 5 times before someone finally reluctantly extended our checkout time to 12:30pm. We were told if we were to check out at 1pm, we would be charged 20,000 yen. Excuse me?! The hotel stay was 80,000 per night and you would charge 1/4 of that for a not-so-late 1pm checkout?!

We were very disappointed with how we were treated by the hotel staff - this is not the type of service you would expect at luxury hotels. I would say this is the worst five-star hotel stay I have ever experienced, and I have been to quite a lot luxury hotels in Asia, USA, and Europe. Be aware, and choose SKYE or AYA at Hirafu- they are much closer to the Hirafu (main mountain of the ski area), and you would encounter much better service attitude. We would definitely not...

I highly recommend avoiding this hotel. They the absolute worst customer service I have ever dealt with. I booked room 5 months out with points. I had to cancel not long after I booked it. I contacted them to cancel with still nearly 5 months away from the stay. It was a non-refundable reservation.

The lady on the phone told they would not charge me a cancelation fee. But I needed to send an e-mail to the person's info she gave me. That way I would definitely get my points returned. It was over a week until someone finally responded to my e-mail.

That person said that they would not be returning the points. I asked for them to pull recording of the call. It has been 2 months and they still have not replied to my e-mails. Also, they still have not even cancelled the reservation.

I have spent over 4 hours talking with Hilton's corporate support people. Each time they tell me they will send an e-mail to HInode Hills. That I need to wait 5 business days and if Hinode does not respond... They would help me.

I have called 3 times and and waited the 5 days each time. Hilton still will not help me!!!! They just keep making me wait over and over. Hinode does not even respond to Hilton corporate e-mail.

This hotel is a scam and they should not be trusted. They refuse to work with anyone and they have the worst customer service experience I have ever ever dealt with. The hotel is even nearly sold out for the dates and it is over 3 months away for the dates I booked. They would lose zero dollars from me cancelling because the room will be sold anyway.

Hilton corporate will not support anyone for this hotel because it is a 3rd party resort. If this is my experience before even staying there. It is a good thing that I won't be staying there. Because this instance shows how little they value their customers.

I wish it didn't come to me leaving them and honest poor review. But they won't respond. So I have to leave this review. They should be ashamed of even being...