The Westin Rusutsu Resort — Hotel in Rusutsu

In summary, we have never stayed in a|Westin hotel that is so poorly operated and managed.|Our stay was disappointing and exasperating.|Most of their front desk staff have very poor understanding of English which is not uncommon in Japan. We are ok with explaining ourselves further if needed, but they would confidently say they understood us and then often got our requests mixed up or completely wrong. The final straw was they double charged us for breakfast sets which were suppose to be part of our hotel package already.|Every staff also seems have different gaps in their knowledge and understanding of procedures or information. Hence we often get different information if we speak to different staff about the same issue.|Their resolution methods are also long and tedious. There is no follow up for any queries, concerns or issues we raised. We had to chase them at least twice before ‘some’ action is taken.|On our morning, we spent 40 minutes at check-out, trying to reason with them about the disputed charges. Luckily, we had our Japanese-speaking private tour guide speak to them for us. Otherwise if it was just us trying to communicate with them in English, I believe it would have taken much much longer.|So fellow travellers, pls check your bills carefully and thoroughly before you pay the final bill.|Issue #1: Having to request for towels everyday.|We are 2 adults and 3 children. They kept providing us with only 2 sets of towels so we had to call the front desk to request for 3 more towels. It is a minor inconvenience but made worse by having to at least 2-3 times before someone actually answers the phone.|Issue #2: Extra charged not removed for extra bed, AFTER we have requested the extra beds to be taken away.|In Japan, all children 4 years old and under are expected to share beds with their parents.|There was only 3 beds in our room. But we did request for 2 extra beds because 2 of the kids were having runny nose and cough. We were trying to keep the kids separate to prevent secondary infection and to help ensure that everyone can sleep in peace.|On the 2nd night, we requested to remove 1 of the extra bed. They came to pack 1 extra bed away.|On the 3rd night, we requested for the last extra bed removed. They were so busy that no one picked up our call from the room. My husband had to go to the front desk in person to make the request but was told that we could just fold up the bed ourselves. We had our doubts but it was getting late and we had an early start the next day so we just did as we were told.|When we checked out, they still charged us for the last extra bed.|Issue #3: 1/3 of Food Menu is ‘unavailable’ as they ‘ran out of stock’|We were trying to have lunch at The Atrium but they have ran out of a lot of ingredients for lunch. By dinner time, it was also the same issue.|They ‘ran out of’ are: Bolognese Pasta, Beef Burger, Chicken Noodle Soup and a few other ‘regular’ international fare.|Basically, the only foods are pork and vegetable based.|For a renown international hotel kitchen to run out of basics like chicken stock… I think it’s quite ridiculous.|Issue #4: Breakfast Set was double charged.|We opted for their breakfast takeaway box on the day of our check out.|We ordered only1 Japanese and 3 western.|But in the end, we received 4 Japanese set and 1 Western set, they didn’t even have time to correct the ‘wrong order’.|Furthermore, they charged us Yen. 6,600 for the ‘extra set’. The breakfast buffet itself was only Yen.4,400. The front desk staff couldn’t even explain how and why we were charged Yen.6,600.|Issue #5: Ski/Snowboard Equipment Rental|Although the rental service is management by a separate company, we had some issues with renting the equipment. The rental service staff in the South Wing actually caused us to be late for our scheudled snowboarding lessons by over 30mins.|We communicated with the front desk and requested assistance in resolving the issue. However it took 2 separate tries with 2 different front desk staff before the matter...

In summary, we have never stayed in a|Westin hotel that is so poorly operated and managed.|Our stay was disappointing and exasperating.|Most of their front desk staff have very poor understanding of English which is not uncommon in Japan. We are ok with explaining ourselves further if needed, but they would confidently say they understood us and then often got our requests mixed up or completely wrong. The final straw was they double charged us for breakfast sets which were suppose to be part of our hotel package already.|Every staff also seems have different gaps in their knowledge and understanding of procedures or information. Hence we often get different information if we speak to different staff about the same issue.|Their resolution methods are also long and tedious. There is no follow up for any queries, concerns or issues we raised. We had to chase them at least twice before ‘some’ action is taken.|On our morning, we spent 40 minutes at check-out, trying to reason with them about the disputed charges. Luckily, we had our Japanese-speaking private tour guide speak to them for us. Otherwise if it was just us trying to communicate with them in English, I believe it would have taken much much longer.|So fellow travellers, pls check your bills carefully and thoroughly before you pay the final bill.|Issue #1: Having to request for towels everyday.|We are 2 adults and 3 children. They kept providing us with only 2 sets of towels so we had to call the front desk to request for 3 more towels. It is a minor inconvenience but made worse by having to at least 2-3 times before someone actually answers the phone.|Issue #2: Extra charged not removed for extra bed, AFTER we have requested the extra beds to be taken away.|In Japan, all children 4 years old and under are expected to share beds with their parents.|There was only 3 beds in our room. But we did request for 2 extra beds because 2 of the kids were having runny nose and cough. We were trying to keep the kids separate to prevent secondary infection and to help ensure that everyone can sleep in peace.|On the 2nd night, we requested to remove 1 of the extra bed. They came to pack 1 extra bed away.|On the 3rd night, we requested for the last extra bed removed. They were so busy that no one picked up our call from the room. My husband had to go to the front desk in person to make the request but was told that we could just fold up the bed ourselves. We had our doubts but it was getting late and we had an early start the next day so we just did as we were told.|When we checked out, they still charged us for the last extra bed.|Issue #3: 1/3 of Food Menu is ‘unavailable’ as they ‘ran out of stock’|We were trying to have lunch at The Atrium but they have ran out of a lot of ingredients for lunch. By dinner time, it was also the same issue.|They ‘ran out of’ are: Bolognese Pasta, Beef Burger, Chicken Noodle Soup and a few other ‘regular’ international fare.|Basically, the only foods are pork and vegetable based.|For a renown international hotel kitchen to run out of basics like chicken stock… I think it’s quite ridiculous.|Issue #4: Breakfast Set was double charged.|We opted for their breakfast takeaway box on the day of our check out.|We ordered only1 Japanese and 3 western.|But in the end, we received 4 Japanese set and 1 Western set, they didn’t even have time to correct the ‘wrong order’.|Furthermore, they charged us Yen. 6,600 for the ‘extra set’. The breakfast buffet itself was only Yen.4,400. The front desk staff couldn’t even explain how and why we were charged Yen.6,600.|Issue #5: Ski/Snowboard Equipment Rental|Although the rental service is management by a separate company, we had some issues with renting the equipment. The rental service staff in the South Wing actually caused us to be late for our scheudled snowboarding lessons by over 30mins.|We communicated with the front desk and requested assistance in resolving the issue. However it took 2 separate tries with 2 different front desk staff before the matter...

I am a platinum member and stayed over 150 nights a year for multiple years, this in my view is one of the best SPG properties.

I had organized this five nights-trip four months in advance for my family and two other families, all of us had kids 3~5 yrs old who has yet to ski or play with snow. As a SPG Platinum I had strong preferences to book an SPG property and successfully lobbied the group to do so. As the group agreed to stay with Westin, I had called multiple times to ensure we had received one large bed (our kids needed to sleep between us), ski classes were booked in advance, and the right airport pick ups were booked. The hotel assigned Masako to be the single contact who spoke perfect English and took full ownership of my reservation. Masako proved to be extremely helpful throughout the entire trip, and she meticulously provided all the details and her advice in a very polite manner. Masako's great hospitality service, took care of all of our request in a timely manner and was a major reason why this trip turned out so well. Kazune at front desk was also very helpful in answering some of my questions. The hotel staff at front desk were all English proficient.

The service all around was awesome, during my 5 night stay, I was greeted upon arrival by the GM Mia in-person. Mia was very accessible as he is always in the lobby area every morning and had his signature black outfit and was always keen to share the weather conditions and suggestions on when is the best part of day to ski. Upcon checking into the rooms, I also found a hand-written welcome note from Mia. And it appeared throughout our stay that everyone in the lounge, frontdesk and restaurant were aware that we were platinum guests. Takama was super helpful at arranging tables for our large group at breakfast, Hiro Sato kindly brought us ice cream when we indicated that none was available at the buffet. Ria was super kind in serving us at dinner and Miura at dinner was so kind to remind us to order our last drinks five minutes before happy hour was over. Overall I give this property a full five star rating for service, the staff really goes out of their way to make sure you are most comfortable.

Westin Rusutsu is a unique property that is situated in a scenic valley with ski slopes accessible on both sides. Hotel offers astonishing views of the valley and ski resort, there are no bad views from this hotel if you have a high floor. The hotel had recognized my Platinum status and upgraded me to a higher floor, which I enjoyed gazing every morning with my morning beverage. The layout of the rooms were unique given all rooms were lofts, and all rooms were identical so don't knock yourself out if you don't get an Platinum upgrade. The heavenly beds here were king size, and fit a family of three comfortably, which was very important to us given our four year old rolls around all night. It was delightful to find our rooms equipped with two humidifiers, which we filled with water twice a day as the rooms were extremely dry due to the heaters. The rooms were in excellent condition,clean and spacious, which was a surprise as most Japanese hotel rooms were extremely small.

The hotel Atrium offered free drinks & select snacks for SPG Platinum members, and also served alcoholic drinks at 5pm~7pm. This was an awesome perk and we enjoyed the free latte every morning and free wine before dinner every evening.

For the kids, the highlight was the snow park which offered a toys & facility for them to make a snowman, build a snow castle or simply slide down with bikes or flatboard. My four year old boy ended up telling me that he did not want to ski and simply wanted to with snow each day. The reindeer sled was also a great treat.

All-in-all I was very pleased with my 5 stay experience at Westin Rusutsu. The facility was family friendly, and an excellent ski resort at the same time. However it was the service that made it unique...