사카히지리 호텔 인 니코

The property required us to contact them in advance if arriving after 6 pm. We called several times and got no answer, left messages for the to call back (in Japanese) and received no return calls. Due to their remote location we had to book another hotel in Nikko to ensure we had a place to stay. The hotel refused to refund our money. Terrible customer service. We would recommend avoiding this property at all costs!

A couple of things that are my fault but didn’t think: 1) The place is actually very far from the Nikko tourist areas, you will take 2-3 hours one way (same as Tokyo-Nikko all together!) 2) The last bit of train is not part of the All Nikko pass! 3) Nothing takes credit cards there. Ended up starving because the place requires a crazy early notice (>24h) on dinner reservations and the two only restaurants close by were cash only The ryokan itself: it felt rundown and dirty. The Japanese garden in the middle is the only nice part. But the onsen could really use some simple Japanese gardening. Put plants, lanterns there, even spot lighting. Onsen is full of black mold. In the general facilities dust and spiderwebs everywhere. Decaying from the outside. The bathroom on the floor was dirty without toilet paper and full trash can and never cleaned during my stay. The food reservation is just unreasonable: 5pm deadline for next day 6-8pm dinner and next-next day breakfast. Come on. This works if that’s just a destination visit but I just didn’t have fully planed the day yet so couldn’t commit to a NON-REFUNDABLE dinner at 6pm more than a day in advance. My biggest criticism is just the cleanliness and atmosphere: it would be easy to make things just a bit nicer by adding plants, refurbishing things a little bit

The futon for tatami is too thin. I couldn’t sleep even staked up 3 futon. The futon was too old and not in good shape. Literally was sleeping on floor. The lobby is nice and nobody at onsen during dinner time made it a plus point. Location is far away from Nikko town and lake.