The hotel was wonderfully clean, efficient and traditional in the way they lay out pajamas for their guests. We were at the tail of a family reunion of 19 people (coming from London, Taiwan, China, Los Angeles and New York) and had come to Otaru for one night from a ski holiday in Niseko. The reception staff were wonderful and incredibly helpful with accommodating all of our ski luggage. The catering staff on the other hand, were a different story. In the breakfast room, they were surly and diffident almost as if they viewed the guests as something they had to put with which is unusual in Japan, a culture known for its efficient service. The biggest surprise and shock was the bar manager at the hotel's top floor bar that has a beautiful view. He was rude when some of the children in our group came up to say "good night". Instead of saying children weren't allowed, he kept saying, "there's smoking up here" all the time glaring at my sister-in-law to remove her children. When my niece who I only see twice a year came to give me a box of sweets because they were going back to the US early the next morning and were leaving before breakfast, the bar manager became incensed. He came over to our table, put his hand on the box of sweets and started shouting, "not here, no not here." My husband who is 1/2 Japanese says that touching someone else's possessions without their permission in Japanese culture is considered incredibly rude. So great hotel with a great location, too bad about the catering staff. The bar manager's behaviour that night cast a long shadow on me that night. I didn't sleep well as a result.

The room is big and spacious in comparison to other hotel room size in Japan.
The service is good as well. The front desk personnel are so hardworking to serve customers.

There is only one complaint. The temperature controller in the room is somehow not working. The room is kind of old, furniture are old.