Noboribetsu Onsen Kyo Takinoya — Hotel in Noboribetsu

For an onsen ryokan that is charging premium fees, they definitely do not bring the same level of service and quality to you.

Rooms: 3/5 The rooms are relatively decent in built, generally spacious and clean. But the on-suite bath feels lackluster, as you have to fill it up yourself and not continuously running unlike other premium onsens that I have went to.

Service: 1/5 Service is poor and lacking. While most other hotels feel like they have a sense of warmth in their staff attending to you, Takinoya service feels cold, and lacking in omotenashi. The lobby area felt desolate and as we have driven in, usually we would be welcome by staff members that would help to unload luggage and usher you in, there was no such services offered here.

Location: 3/5 Location is decent if you drive in, but I suppose if you take public transport, it may get a little tricky. Takinoya provides on-site parking for approximately 20 cars from what I can see, but they may have other parking lots deeper in the compound.

Food: 2/5 The food served did not have any form of "wow" factor, looking at the price that we paid for the ryokan. Although we do get a private room for my family of 4. The quality of food was mediocre at best, nothing fancy nor mouth-watering. We had a private attendant during meal who gave respectable service. So, good job to her.

Other pain-point: While the ryokan had explained to all guests that certain baths are for ladies at a particular time, it seems that their signage was not clear enough. My partner, a lady, was in the female bath when a man entered and looked around. He stood there for a good minute or so looking into the bathing area, only leaving after being told off multiple times. For other onsen ryokans, they will generally have a staff in the vicinity should any problem arise or to direct the ryokan guests, but not in Takinoya. I would have rated Takinoya better if not for this one incident, but it could have been prevented by the ryokan if they had clearly signage.

Conclusion: We paid close to 600USD per room, but the quality of service, food, and lodging do not feel up to par. There is an issue with gender distinction at their public baths which was not closely monitored by the staff. A bad experience in general, a...

Of all the ryokans we’ve visited in Japan, Takinoya has some of the best waters that really feel like they make a difference in terms of muscle relaxation and making skin softer and glowy. Perhaps it is the magical milky sulfuric waters of Noboribetsu but this is one ryokan that we will be coming back to in the future.

The ryokan is very serene, quiet, and has good service expected of a high class ryokan. We were attended to by Mari-san, who was so kind and helpful during our stay. We stayed in a room with a private onsen bath which comes with a dining room where we ate our kaiseki dinner and breakfast. The room was clean and very comfortable. We did wish the dinner menu was translated to English as it was all in Japanese but we were able to decipher most of it using translation apps.

The onsen facilities are vast with four different places to bathe that switches between women and men between day and night. The composition of the onsen waters are slightly different between each one ranging from more alkaline water to iron rich waters though our favorite was the milky sulfuric waters. There is also a sauna and cold plunge which was refreshing. The onsen facilities provide a lot of facial and body skin care amenities that were good quality.

Dinner featured very attractive dishes that tasted good, however the ingredients and preparation were not extraordinary or particularly memorable. Nevertheless the dishes still tasted good with presentation expected in a high class ryokan. Breakfast was also good.

Altogether our stay at Takinoya was a wonderful experience we will always remember. There are still some kinks the ryokan needs to work out before it can join ryokans at the highest caliber but these small shortcomings would not dissuade us from visiting Takinoya again. If you do visit Noboribetsu, there is no better ryokan you can stay at...

I have always wanted to stay in Kyo Takinoya ever since I visited Noboribetsu for the first time in 2015. That’s why we have decided to stay here during our honeymoon. We booked a Japanese style room with private onsen for our stay. |We drove for around 2 hours from Niseko. Upon arriving the parking lot, we are greeted by the hotel staff. They guided us to a parking spot and helped us to carry our luggage to the room. Before we can set foot in the hotel lobby, we need to take off our shoes.|Once we finished checkin. They took us to the hotel lounge where we were served some tea and Yokan before they took us to our room. Our room was spacious, clean and very traditional. Overall, it was quite well maintained considering the history of this hotel although we do see some wear and tear on the cabinet door. You can decide whether to set up the tatami in the living room or bed room area. A staff came in and set it all up while we were having dinner. |Speaking of dinner, it was all served inside our room’s dining area at a selected time. We just need to sit in the dining room and wait for the dinner to come. A female staff politely asked to came in from the dinning area’s backdoor on time. The food was delicate and delicious. We are overall very satisfied and we especially enjoy the sashimi. The living room is only three steps away and we just rest there after dessert. After the table was cleared, they put a pot of iced cold water there for us. It was a great addition and thoughtful after the hot in-room onsen.|There were 2 public onsen in the hotel. The onsen on 5/F is quite small but it had a nice mountain view. There were only 2 showers and I had to wait in line for shower when I visited it around 5-6pm. We visited the another Onsen in the morning before we checked out. It is located on B2/F. The onsen area is a lot larger and there are way...