Kawayu-Onsen Fujiya — Hotel in Tanabe

I strongly feel compelled to heed future fellow travelers to STAY AWAY!! We fell into the trap of thinking how can a place charging $200USD/person /night be so bad? Well this is the ONE hotel in my ENTIRE history of traveling that breaks the record for uncleanliness and state of disarray. Even ask we were checking in an angry customer was on the phone complaining to front desk. The old photos of what this hotel once were is a false impression of what it actually is now! There is near ZERO upkeep, repair and maintenance of the place. Cracked basin, loose faucet, pots and holes all over, you name it.

The stench!!! I’ve been in plenty of onsen hotels. Never such a wholly unsanitised, dehumidified property that outright smell of mold! Our $250USD tatami room (No meals, room only) was a completely different smell to the better aired corridor. And the elevator smelled a whole new level of moldiness! That is how you know it’s NOT the onsen air!! It’s how the places are cleaned, dehumidified, and sanitized!!

The filth!!!!! Is there no housecleaning personnel?! They claim it’s a full house most days and yet the dust everywhere! The cob webs and dead bugs!! Disturbing brown stains on the walls in the toilet!!! And stains everywhere else!! The mold in the private bathtubs AND the public ones!!! Either the tub is full of filth or they don’t even change the water/scrub the tub between customers!!! I saw floating debris all over in the bath water in the PRIVATE tub in our room! Take a look at the hot water faucet there stuck in white calcified debris and cobwebs. I would say my prior assumption seems right that they NEVER let out the water, they just keep it running between customers. Jesus!!!!!!!

Seems the manager/owner just wants to milk this property til its last drop without investing anything back into BASIC safety and hygiene standards!! If someone reported this place to the department of health I’m sure they would not pass.

I understand that hikers here for the trail may be accustomed to poor environment, and one has very little choice when restricted to a certain locale. But when taking into account the price of the accommodation, I strongly urge the average travelers to not challenge your limits of...

This place is just lovely. My partner and I spent three nights here while visiting Kumano Kodo, during a long trip to Japan. Having hiked Kumano once before, I had a vision of coming back and NOT doing the pilgrimage version where you schlep all your stuff. Instead, I wanted one fixed home base to come back to between day hikes. This was it! The hotel is charming. Delightfully old fashioned/traditional architecturally. Immaculately clean. The baths are large and beautiful — outdoor was my favorite. Very often I had the onsen to myself. Our room was a Japanese-style room with tatami mats and futon cushions on the floor. We’re westerners—never slept that way before but we found it charming and comfortable. We’re fussy sleepers too, so it’s a testament to the place that we slept well. Everyone was very nice and accommodating. And maybe the best part: the meals! Oh, the meals. Elaborate, visually beautiful, incredibly fresh, variety for days. It was truly exceptional food for breakfast and dinner, and we never had the same meal twice. What a joy to come back from a long hike to a big, delicious spread and a soak. Like much of Japan, it was also a serene, quiet environment in the hotel and the dining room. Never felt crowded. And I am pretty sure all the rooms have beautiful views of the Kawayu river. Last thing I’ll say: we had a rental car. It was easy to park here, and for that matter, easy to get used to driving in the area (we’re from the US). Car isn’t necessary but it made some things possible that I couldn’t do on my previous, bus-based visit. Anyway, I loved this hotel, would gladly come back, can’t imagine finding better food in Wakayama, and I’m frankly surprised that the rating...

If we could give this 0 stars we would. Avoid this hotel like the plague. It is literally falling apart, it’s disgusting and filthy inside. There is mould, strange smells everywhere and we wanted to leave the second we checked in.

We booked the western style room which was dusty and full of insects. Stains all over the sofa which we opted out of sitting on. There was a musty dark liquid dripping inside the fridge which clearly hadn’t been cleaned since it was installed. The bath had algae all over it and mould on the surrounding walls.

The lobby is reminiscent of a Wes Anderson movie gone wrong. It’s depressing and just plain sad. The food is of a poor standard. We were told they could cater for us vegetarians but the food contained fish stock which should have been made clear. Our food was raw and uncooked and we left most of it.

The staff are rude and quite frankly inhospitable. They woke us up with a telephone call we did not ask for and called us again 15 minutes before checkout to tell us to get out of the room.

It’s quite clear that this hotel has had no care put into it nor any maintenance in the past couple of decades. A lick of paint and a good clean could go a long way. Maybe it was magical in the past but there was nothing magical about our stay. It’s a beautiful location spoilt by a poorly run miss sold hotel. We just wanted to get out there as soon...