Sekumiya — Hotel in Obama

Booked my trip from Expedia, and the reservation was confirmed 3 weeks prior to my stay. However, at the check in counter, the staff told me they couldn't find my name, and was just looking through name list over and over again. After calling Expedia, which was really expensive for the international call, Expedia confirmed my booking and said there wasn't any mistake. ||||Turns out, something happened or someone in the hotel did not bother to check the system. Left me waiting and dialing an expensive international call. And most of the staff can't really speak English.||||After all the trouble, their way of making it up to me was to give me a 4 single bed room. Which was totally useless as I am traveling alone (they were well aware of it too). I went downstairs to tell them that I only need 1 double bed. Instead of changing it strategically, they just bump me immediately to next room number, and I got a corner view of the room next door. ||||Thereafter, I also ask for lunch recommendations. They couldn't give any, and told me to go Izakaya (which only opens at 5pm), as apparently, all restaurants in Obama are closed on Wednesday. A check through Tabelog tells me many are closed, but not all restaurants are closed.||||This is an utterly disappointing experience, just the first hour in. Stay away if you are booking through OTAs and if you can't...

Booked one night for my wife, daughter and daughter's friend during Golden Week. We chose a Western-style room with four beds instead of the Japanese-style room with tatami mats and futons. First room (corner #816) smelled of stale cigarette smoke, so we asked to change and front desk was very accommodating and moved us to #716 which smelled very fresh. It's too bad this hotel doesn't have non-smoking floors.||||We changed into robes and headed for the rotemburo, or outdoor bath. The wooden outdoor bath is made of hinoki, or cypress. There was quite a bit of algae growth on the wooden slats in the bath, which shows that they haven't scrubbed it in a while. A bit of a turn-off.||||Dinner on the 3rd floor restaurant was not spectacular, but decent volume. Fresh fish was the only thing that was nice.||||I could feel the coils on my bed mattress. Could have used a thicker mattress pad.||||Next morning's breakfast seemed like a repeat of dinner.||||Pros: attentive staff, Free wifi on 1F and 2F.||Cons: Food is so-so. Rooms and linens were clean, but bed was hard. Small touches needed, like scrubbing the...

My husband and I needed to stay for 1 night in Obama during our 5 week trip. Due to difficulty finding hotels with English language web sites we decided to lash out and treat ourselves to a night of luxury at the Hotel Sekumiya. In comparison to the places we have stayed over the last three weeks of travelling in Japan, it was not good value at all. The room was smaller than apartments we have rented for less than 1/4 of the cost. We did have a view of the harbour which was nice. We asked if we could keep the room until 12 instead of 10 and were told it would be the equivalent of $30/hr. The room facilities were very basic, some powdered green tea, the fridge not turned on, no water provided, bulk bottles of body wash, shampoo and conditioner. This is what we got in hotels that cost us $50 a night, I expected more for 5...