Business Hotel Takanoya

Hadano Station is very close, and the view of the empty river from the window was quite beautiful. It was cheap, and given how old the place is, I couldn’t complain, though you’d need to be okay with that. There was also a strange half-open door that wouldn’t open or close, and I could see wiring inside, which felt creepy. The automatic check-in was a frustrating mess. By 5:00 PM I still hadn’t received the email with my PIN. The mobile number posted at the front desk said it wasn’t in service. I found another number on the check-in machine, called, and got voicemail. They called back later and gave me the direct check-in number, which I entered, but then I discovered I didn’t have my room key. I called again, got another PIN, and was finally able to retrieve the key and check in. It seems some booking sites sometimes fail to deliver emails.

The room itself is very ordinary, and the station is conveniently close to Hadano Station. There’s no front desk, so you collect your key from the kiosk outside and have to call if anything goes wrong. I’d heard people describe it as having a Showa-era feel, and it definitely comes across as vintage. That doesn’t mean it’s dirty, though, and if you like that style, it could even be a plus.

The room door was a struggle from the start. The locks are old, with a keypad and a regular keyhole, and the broken doorknob needs to be pushed down quite hard. There’s usually nobody at the front desk, so after several attempts I called the emergency number, “070,” posted there. Nobody answered until my fifth try, when a young woman finally picked up. I told her I couldn’t get the door open. After a pause, she said in a listless voice that it should open if I turned it normally. I explained that turning it normally was exactly what wasn’t working, and she repeated the same thing. I asked if this really was the emergency number, whether she was an employee, and why I’d been treated that way after calling several times. She said she had work to do and couldn’t handle complaints. I told her I wasn’t making a complaint, I was stuck outside my room and needed help. There was another pause, then a man asked which room I was in. He said the doors were different by room and asked what I meant. I described the knob, keypad, and keyhole, and he again said to turn it normally. When I asked for an actual explanation, he said to put the key in and pull it down. I had to ask what to pull down before he clarified that he meant the lever. The responses were so out of step that it didn’t feel like a conversation with a guest. I said there were no instructions for the keypad, so I’d tried different things and called because I still couldn’t get in. She said it opened normally without pressing the keypad. I asked how a first-time guest was supposed to know what “normally” meant with no instructions, and pointed out that I still couldn’t enter my room. I also said that after making me wait through five calls, they should at least apologize and ask how they could help instead of repeating the same answer. She finally apologized, then said she was new and wasn’t used to it. I told her that was an excuse, since answering the emergency phone and guiding guests was her job. I asked what would happen next, and she just said sorry again and went quiet. When I asked why she’d gone silent, she said she was calling the person in charge. I told her I couldn’t know what she was doing if she didn’t say anything, and that it made no sense for me to call her mobile and pay for the call while she silently called someone else. I said I’d speak to someone else and call her back, and asked her to give the other person time to respond, but to tell me what was happening instead of going silent. She said she’d do that, then went quiet for another ten seconds, so I hung up. Nearly half an hour passed with no callback. When I asked for an update, I was told they still couldn’t reach the person in charge. I said I’d been standing in the hallway the whole time, and if they couldn’t reach anyone they should have called to let me know it might not work out. I tried the door several more times and finally got in after about ten minutes. The lock seemed badly fitted and damaged. Nobody called again. The female staff member, “Imai,” was extremely unreasonable. Once inside, I found multiple dust mites crawling on the sheets, a dusty, noisy exhaust fan over the bed, and a balcony outside the window covered in pigeon feathers and droppings. It was awful. The price was too high for such poor service and conditions. They should lower it, change how they handle things, clean the rooms, or at least do something right for the money. I think other hotels do at least one thing right.

I ended up staying here without meals after Takanoya Ryokan near Shibusawa Station was fully booked. This hotel seems to be part of the same chain, and the owner was there, so he drove me over and let me stay the night. I really appreciated the thoughtfulness. The room was fine and I had a comfortable stay, even though some reviews mentioned a moldy smell or poor cleaning. The river is visible if you open the curtains facing the station. I expected a unit bath because it’s a business hotel, but the bathroom and toilet are separate, which is a nice feature. Everything else was impeccable. My only issue was the dark bathroom curtain: with the light over by the sink, it got very dark when the curtain was closed. A more transparent curtain or moving the light would help.