Kinsui — Hotel in Toyooka

2nd Jan 2018, a new year visiting trip at Kinosaki-onsen, this is a second time for Kinosaki visit and we decided to stay one night and spare time for relaxing by onsen there. ||||After reviews many Kyokan (Japanese style) Hote,l Kinsui is our choice, Hotel is located around 500 meter from Kinosaki station, and nearby public hot bath by walking 10-15 mins. depended. We (Family at 3 pack) arrived and check-in at main building of hotel, we found that our room for 3 people shall be stay at another building, located at the narrow back alley. Need to go out and walk from main building to the back side. ||||A second building that we stay has no staff, there a two entrance doors for entering, however, in the day time until 10PM, all this two doors is not lock and freely to enter.||If you come back after 10PM, you can use a key (provided) to entering.||||Room is a standard Ryokan style, can be fitted with 4 people, a good part is balcony section with small table for your snack and enjoy outside view.||However, since the building is located on the back side of small alley, so no view at all.||||We book a hotel excluding meal (no dinner or breakfast), hence, Hotel provide you only one towel each for your stay, nothing more, no amenities, no small towel, no nothing.||also, we need to preparing our Kyokan's mattress by ourself such as make a sheet into pillows, and cover sheet into mattress items... ||||Since there no bath room, you need to go for bath at public hot bath (onsen) which is surround that area. There are only washbasin at toilet and another one at balcony.||||Staff at main building is professional whose speak English very well, however, they are not friendly and a bit of services mind. May be they are so professional. We have only got some hint and recommended to pay extra for rent a new jazzy color of Yukata (traditional Japanese casual summer kimono) and rent for towel for onsen. ||||In conclusion, I may not recommend for those who need a bit more comfortable as paying a high price (219USD per night). May this hotel is fine for guess who stay at a main building which newer and pay including meal in the package. ||||Hint: ||- Choose a main building room||- Choose a package with meal (dinner and breakfast) you may be got a good welcome and services.||||- Bring our own amenities and towel since there are no nothing but only one towel for bath.||||- Do not decided to pay extra for "rent" towel (216Y) and jazzy color Yukata (1,080Y), a provided Yukata is fine, Small Towel can be buy at 150Y to 200Y at many public hot...

I booked my room on the Kinsui website (in Japanese) online. Usually website in local language offer more information and more options in term of promotional deals and room packages. I was looking for a room package that includes both dinner and breakfast to get the total experience of an onsen ryokan. I chose the package that includes seasonal crab dinner set and the breakfast is the same i believe for all room package.||||Kinosaki Onsen is a rather long journey from our arrival airport at Nagoya. We took the train and it tooks nearly 4+ hours changing train twice to get here. With google map, it was a short easy walk on flat ground from the train station to Kinsui. It was drizzling slightly when we arrived so we had to use our umbrella while walking to Kinsui.||||Upon arrival at the entrance of Kinsui, we were met by the staff who took our luggage aside to wipe the rain off them, prepare a pair of slipper for us to change into and our boots were placed at the shoe rack at the entrance area (inside the ryokan so no worries about losing your shoes). They also took away our umbrella to dry it. Very nice service! ||||Check in was pretty easy by taking a copy of our passport and filling up the check in form and we were shown to our room that is one floor up the stair. There is no elevator so if you have problem climbing stair, be aware. Our luggage were already in the room when we came to the room.||||Room is a traditional Japanese style tatami room with no bathroom except a toilet with a wash basin. The room does not look aged or badly in need for a refurbishment. It is still has the nice traditional look and is comfortable. The futon beds were prepared ready for your sleep when you head for dinner. There are 3 different onsen rooms on the ground floor in which it will be all yours once you get inside and lock it. This is rather like a private onsen for your own use if you do not want to walk out to the various famous public onsen in which you are here for :)||||Dinner and breakfast are in the same dining room assigned to your room type. It is in an intimate setting for you only and i think this is great! All meals are served to your dining room without you moving a step :) The foods were of good quality and the presentation were simply flawless.||||Checkout was held up by some problem with the credit card machine but otherwise was pretty straightforward and professionally served by the staff.||||Overall this is an excellent ryokan for your consideration should you be coming to Kinosaki Onsen...

The saga of staying here started when we booked through Rakuten travel, and never received a booking confirmation email. At the time of booking we were also booking many other places in Japan, as well as finalising our wedding plans, so it was only once in Japan we realised we might not have our Kinosaki accommodation after all. Luckily we had the name of the place, so emailed to confirm. The email was answered promptly and politely confirming our reservation, but basically we never got any information about check in times. We emailed again to say our train wouldn't arrive until 9pm, but the reply email that they only check guests in until 8pm didn't get to us before we left the comfort of hotel wifi.||So we turned up in the dark and pouring rain to a very disgruntled owner and quite a stark room in the annex. The beds in the room were not made up (duvets not even in their cases), there was nothing in the room to make a cup of tea (there was some kind of communal kitchen down the hall, but we weren't shown it) and we just generally felt a bit unwelcome. We did apologise for our late arrival, and tried to explain that when travelling between hotels we had no internet. You would hope that of all people who might have some sympathy with those travelling their country, it would be hotel folk.||It certainly was nice to get the onsen pass for the town, but I get the impression most accommodation offers that. And yes, you have to hire large bath towels.||Overall, a bit of a strange experience staying here. Okay value for money for Japan, but not worth what we paid I...