Almeria Hotel — Hotel in Yamanakako

I chose to stay at this hotel for one night after extensive research on hotels around the area. I am a big supporter of small businesses and have never left a bad review; but my experience here was just too appalling.

At the basic level, the hotel is way overpriced considering it is not kept clean at all, and food is of low quality. On top of that, it is always important to consider unexpected accidents that might happen when traveling, and how the business deals with these incidents and customer feedback says a lot about them. In case accidents do happen, I don't think anyone wishes to be met with rude, unprofessional, dishonest, and racist behavior from any staff.

During my stay, one of their staff members was insistent on carrying my heavy suitcase out of the hotel, despite us requesting multiple times that she does not do so. As she was unable to handle the suitcase, it took an extremely bad fall down a whole flight of stairs, slid on rough concrete, and lodged into the underside of a parked van. Sadly, my brand new hard-shell suitcase was cracked and severely damaged. But I am not giving a poor review to complain about the accident, as I understand that these things unfortunately do happen.

However, I need to highlight this hotel's subsequent handling of the incident. There were no senior personnel on site, so we had to resort to speaking on the phone with the alleged "manager" of the hotel. He became extremely defensive when I only enquired if any monetary compensation or discount was possible. He became hostile and could not carry a conversation, only repeating the same word "no". He also commented that I was "behaving like a (insert-ethnicity) person", which was extremely inappropriate and racist. He denied us any contact with upper management and told us to reach out to the hotel's company (Diamond Design Japan) customer service email ourselves.

To our dismay, we realized that the company and hotel is a one-man show, solely operated by this said manager. One week after departure, there was no one reaching out at all, so I sent another email requesting the issue be addressed. All I got back was that the hotel will "replay the incident for training purposes". Disappointing to say the least.

TLDR; if you do decide to stay here, then fingers crossed absolutely nothing goes wrong during your stay. Otherwise, there is a complete lack of executive oversight or supervision of the management here that will deal with incidents responsibly. As you can see from other poor reviews, there seems to be an issue with getting a hold of a reasonable, helpful person when genuine complaints arise. I truly urge you to take this into...

TL;DR: if it was possible, this hotel would receive 6/5 stars for service. I would expect this level of quality and comfort from a hotel priced 4x as much.

My wife and I have been road-tripping across Japan starting during Golden Week for a couple of weeks so all hotels we booked were "on the fly". We always had the same price and amenity requirements. Almeria has proved to be the BEST we have stayed in all our stays.

First, the service is amazing. We were greeted promptly and shown to a table where green tea and snacks were waiting. While we checked in, the staff took our luggage up to the room. It's like they knew we were tired from the driving and wanted to make us feel relaxed.

The room was awesome. Very clean, open, with vaulted ceilings. The attached bath has a shower, but private Onsen was an option.

The bed...oh, the bed! It was huge for Japanese hotels. Queen size, comfortable... literally the best and longest night's sleep in 2 weeks!

The room in thoughtfully laid out with enough outlets, dual night stands, a table/ desk, and some coffee, tea, and water.

The on- site restaurant was amazing. The meals are served by course and are both amazing in presentation as well as flavor. A small bar features a good selection of spirits.

The whole hotel had maybe, 8 rooms. You were treated as, and felt like the hotels only guest. I can't stress enough how much of a difference there is in amenities for the price compared to other hotels.

Oh, and breakfast was included!

**edit, we loved this place so much we...

If you are searching for a Hotel in Yamanakako look no further!!! This gorgeous hotel offers beautiful rooms, a fantastic bar, and possibly the best service you will find in all of Japan.

My fiancé and I were traveling to Yamanakako for 1-day in hopes to see the famous Mt Fuji while we were on our 14-day vacation to Japan. We stumbled upon Hotel Almeria by chance and we are happy that we did.

Upon arrival you will be greeted by either Jimmy or Yamamoto and treated like a celebrity from the moment you check in until the moment you check out. If you are ignorant Americans like us and speak little Japanese, fear not!!! The two of them speak great English and were very patient and accommodating. Yamamoto gave us a great local spot to go to for dinner which was some of the best food we have had while in Japan (make sure you ask her).

If you do choose Hotel Almeria be sure to dedicate time during your stay to the onsen. My fiancé and I were able to reserve a private onsen and the experience was incredible. She was an especially impressed by the Dyson hair dryer provided for free!

All in all there aren’t enough nice things to say about this place. Although, the weather disappointed our plan to view Mt Fuji, Hotel Almeria and its staff made the trip to Yamanakako all the worthwhile. Our only regret is that we didn’t stay a...