Gekkoju Yufuin — Hotel in Yufu

We stayed here in the Hanezu for one night in December 2024. Prior to this stay, we had stayed in two other high end ryokans in Takachiho and Aso so we were able to have a good comparison across all three.

In terms of food, Gekkoju Yufuin came out superior for the sheer quality of ingredients and presentation. However, breakfast was disappointing since it was not the traditional Japanese meal ryokans typically serve. Instead, all we had was simply eggs and bacon and sausages.

Room wise, we enjoyed the indoor onsen. They very thoughtfully placed some yellow ducks for the kids to play with and that was appreciated.

The service was the most unsatisfactory part of the stay. On the day of our check-out, I asked one of the male staff to enquire at the Yufuin Stained Glass Museum for us. I showed him the webpage on my phone and requested that he called them to check for availability of the workshop. I left him to it as I prepared for check out.

To my absolute horror, he was using my phone to make the enquiry minutes later. I had to urge him to end the call and use his own landline. There was no apology made. He simply ended the call and left the room. This, to me is a big boo boo. You do not use guests’ phones without their permission. Considering they are providing ‘butler’ service to guests, this was a huge letdown.

TLDR: go for the dinner and room but DO NOT expect much from their staff in terms of service and...

They are reducing the quality of meals and service, DO NOT STAY!!!

Pros

Modern and spacious

Cons

Horrible butler service Manipulating and misleading advertisements on their website

Those pics I put—lobster sashimi/ bread choices/japanese style breakfast are NO LONGER there.

Here are the details

The butler was unhappy older male Mr.O (gave us biz card) . After we told him our request for a dinner time at 7pm, he changed his demeanor.

He presented the menu upside down. He forgot to give us back the engraved chopsticks.(hotel sent us later) He completely disregarded our order for the drinks(for the breakfast) and served us cup of coffee and tea, which was cold. He did them purposely. We informed the hotel after we checked out.

On top of that, for $1500/night, they no longer offer sashimi, the dinner is mediocre, no more all inclusive offering for the wine, removed Bvlgari amenities, etc., etc.

We absolutely recommend NOT to stay here or Gekkoju Kurokawa, which is run/own by same company.

If you are looking for a place to stay in Yufuin, there are other reasonably priced...

Wish I could give this one more stars. Worth every penny. I found this by accident as I was staying at the ryokan above it. I checked out if the ryokan early to stay here. Best decision ever. You can choose your own villa - I went with Kohaku, which means amber. It had amber tones in the gorgeous interior design. Every part of this stay was high end. Living room, kitchen, terrace, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, sauna, heated towel rack… it has it all. All the products they put in the room were high end. My fiancé is tracking down the blow dryer to buy one for herself. To top it off, the hospitality was incredible. Akaya is the sweetest person who made our stay truly special. She speaks fluent English, and helped us with everything. This is the definition of...