Villa Rusutsu — Hotel in Rusutsu

We stayed for a week at villa Rusutsu over the Christmas period. The cabins are located about 1.5km from the two main ski fields in Rusutsu, with free transfers provided in the morning, late afternoon and night. ||||The villas themselves are charming cedar cabins, quite spacious, and with plenty of heating. Beds are comfortable, water temperature and pressure is great, and there is plenty of light. The only thing to be aware of is that the cabins are "duplex-style", ie, there is a common wall separating you from your neighbours. Sound travels very easily through the walls, so be aware of your noise at night, pack some ear plugs, and hopefully you are paired with similar travelers (e.g. families next to families, young people next to young people etc). ||||In addition to the cabins, there is a main lodge and a sento (public bath). The bath is large, hot and lovely. Everything was always spotless, which is no mean feat with a small staff and snow everywhere! ||||Breakfast is included in accommodation costs and is a small but delicious continental buffet and a hot choice of western or Japanese style food. You can also pre order dinners from the restaurants, which are Japanese style hot pots. These are large, and very delicious. Food on the whole was fantastic, and the bar is also reasonably priced. ||||The highlight of Villa Rusutsu is the staff. Monique, Alex, Sherry, Ryoji-san and others are so friendly and helpful. Nothing was ever a problem for the staff, they were responsive and friendly, happy to provide tips and make restaurant bookings. It's really nice to feel you can rely staff to help you, and they really helped...

Stayed here for 7 nights to ski the amazing Rusutsu.

The main downfall was that the log cabins are infested with Stink Bugs. They continuously come into the cabin through gaps in windows seals, exhaust fans and cracks in the timber logs. Once these bugs are disturbed, they let off a disgusting smell.

Multiple times myself and my wife were woken up by bugs landing on us. One night, I had my skiing hood drying near the fireplace, and one of the bugs was got inside it. Once I picked up my ski hood the bug let off its stink and ruined my skiing hood for that day. It smelt disgusting, but I had to wear it due to the freezing temperatures.

The cabins have odour beads strategically placed around to try and mask the odour of the stink bugs. But they dont work.

The service was average. The employees came in once a day to do a vacuum of the stink bugs. There is the obvious 2 or 3 places they come in.

There were a couple of times we came back from skiing at 2pm to find out cabin unlocked and the room had not been serviced. I asked the staff, and they had said they had only changed the bins and will be back later to vacuum up the bugs.

The spa bath also has a leak from it and requires the tap to be on constantly to maintain the water level.

They give you a number to call if there are any issues during your stay. But there is no phone in the rooms and most international visitors dont have Japanese call coverage. Maybe a WhatApp contact could be useful?

With the bug issue that is there, I regret staying here. I will not look to book here next season. It cost roughly 91,000 Yen per night, and I wish I had spent my...

This place has loads of potential, a great location and facilities.

Firstly the villa itself was great; futon style bed, nice slightly mismatched lounge area with a good TV and nice bathroom. Only negatives would be some small native (?) beetles seemed to also enjoy the warmth, the automatic lights were annoying until turned off and the bins were not emptied for the duration of my stay (I'm sure had I asked they would have been done).

Breakfast was really solid, filling and with several options. The staff there were excellent too, happy to tweak things to my liking. I'd love for the chef to be able to freshen up the menu more often and use even more local ingredients!

The facilities were awesome too, the bathhouse I had to myself every night was hot and soothing not to mention beautiful. The main area (breakfast, reception, bar and lounge) is also really nice. Only thing I'd like would them to be more clear what happy hour entails. It may have been great but, there was no info so I went a yakitori bar near the resort instead.

The manager Yoko was fantastic from the getgo but considering the western clientele I observed they should always keep at least one native English speaker on staff (the food and beverage staff Shona was during my stay and she was a huge asset to the resort). As another review mentioned they are a little tight with their 'free' shuttle service (free twice a day) and at times could be a little more accommodating. But with a few minor tweaks I could easily rate...