Minshuku Shimada — Hotel in Shiojiri

We did not stay here, but probably the worst experience i had experience with booking in Japan through all the years. We original booked in March for a stay in June for a party of eight. The booking calendar wasn't open at this point of time, we emailed Minshuku Shimada for the booking which they responded the dates we requested was not available. That is fine, due to the high rating we decided to alter our plan so that we can stay with them on an alternate day.

Here the first fee quoted using the calculator by the website is 88,000JPY that we used as a benchmark (We do note there might be difference at this point) Minshuku Shimada later came back and informed the rates we inquired was 96,000JPY, totally fine for us and we gladly accepted the booking in March understand it might be some peak or season difference.

We moved on to book the private bath which is 5,000JPY for basic 2 person and additional 1,000JPY per person for 6 more of us that works out to be 11,000JPY in the calculation. This is the slowest email response i get from a Japanese accommodation to on this and it essentially was only confirmed after 2 months!!

When we finally got this sorted out, we asked for a final confirmation now which is only 1 month before our visit so we can use it when we pay at the accommodation which at this point works out to be 107,000JPY. Now Minshuku Shimada reverted to us citing the fee will be total 115,000JPY (104,000 + 11,000) which we did not understand. We asked for the reason of the difference, the reason stated is they made a mistake and this is a peak period with 1,000JPY additional for each person. Note this is the exact thing we see from the original 88,000JPY to 96,000JPY.

Don't get me wrong the price difference is not huge, but we are totally disappointed and disgusted by this unethical business. Shame on Minshuku Shimada.

At this point, we do not have a decent impression of Minshuku Shimada and will be rather pointless to stay with them expecting this to be an unhappy experience. We cancelled the booking and they apologized for the "confusion" Huge Thanks to Minshuku Shimada for making us scramble and look for alternate booking for the group of 8 of us just 1 month before the travel in this area or change our plan again for you.

For other travelers, i am not sure if there is any points of confirming the charges since the unethical business agreed price still fluctuates after confirmation! Good luck!

Advice to Minshuku Shimada, please think what impact you may have to other travelers or rather come clean telling us you want to have a price increase and if it is agreeable. Absolutely disgusting experience. We totally did not expect to see this especially in Japan, its even worse than dealing with people that totally do not...

We recently stayed here while touring Japan. We were hiking and carrying backpacks but it was very easy to find. We were given a choice of rooms and selected one that had a 'mini couch' so that we could relax a bit more than by just sitting on the floor. The room was relatively large, which we found surprising. There is no private bath so we had to go downstairs for the restroom and showers but that was not an issue. The room, the restrooms and the showers were all spotlessly clean. We found that the slippers provided did not fit very well and so we carried them when going up and down stairs and put them on again at the top or the bottom, as we did not feel safe wearing them on the stairs. The sleeping mats were quite thick and had warm comforters so sleeping was very comfortable. There were 4 or 5 couples here at the time and so we shared a table for another couple for supper. The food was all excellent, although we needed some help from our host as we did not recognize a lot of it. There was both coffee and tea to drink and we were offered our choice of sake or beer as well. The breakfast was also excellent (but again, we needed some help with identifying what we were eating). Our host spoke quite good English but our hostess had only limited English but we did not find communicating to be a problem. This was the third ryokan we stayed in and, in our opinion, the food served here was the best of the three. The host and hostess were very friendly and helpful and willing to do anything they could to make our stay as pleasant as possible. They came to each room later in the evening and let us know that the bridge would be lighted up for a few hours and provided directions as to how to walk there, which we really appreciated. We really enjoyed this ryokan and would stay here again if we visited Japan and this area...

We recently stayed here while touring Japan. We were hiking and carrying backpacks but it was very easy to find. We were given a choice of rooms and selected one that had a 'mini couch' so that we could relax a bit more than by just sitting on the floor. The room was relatively large, which we found surprising. There is no private bath so we had to go downstairs for the restroom and showers but that was not an issue. The room, the restrooms and the showers were all spotlessly clean. We found that the slippers provided did not fit very well and so we carried them when going up and down stairs and put them on again at the top or the bottom, as we did not feel safe wearing them on the stairs. The sleeping mats were quite thick and had warm comforters so sleeping was very comfortable. There were 4 or 5 couples here at the time and so we shared a table for another couple for supper. The food was all excellent, although we needed some help from our host as we did not recognize a lot of it. There was both coffee and tea to drink and we were offered our choice of sake or beer as well. The breakfast was also excellent (but again, we needed some help with identifying what we were eating). Our host spoke quite good English but our hostess had only limited English but we did not find communicating to be a problem. This was the third ryokan we stayed in and, in our opinion, the food served here was the best of the three. The host and hostess were very friendly and helpful and willing to do anything they could to make our stay as pleasant as possible. They came to each room later in the evening and let us know that the bridge would be lighted up for a few hours and provided directions as to how to walk there, which we really appreciated. We really enjoyed this ryokan and would stay here again if we visited Japan and this area...