Itoen Hotel Matsukawakan

The onsens were amazing, and the buffet was lovely, with a good selection for such a low price.

I only made it as far as the lobby, but it was a beautiful place.

A nice hotel.

The building across from the entrance hall, the one purchased like Honganji Temple, is where I stayed. Its cheap underground passage creaked, which made me uneasy. With its wide veranda, the room might once have been impressive, but the wallpaper was peeling, the ceiling was stained, and the wooden frame around the undried bathtub felt oddly slimy. I rarely see maintenance this poor, even in budget business hotels. Before I even got into the room, there was dust and large bits of trash scattered around, apparently from a hallway storage room. I thought perhaps cleaning had run late and said nothing, but it was still there when I checked out. The breakfast started at the strange time of 7:40, too early for me to enjoy. When I asked the front desk if it could be served earlier, they just repeated the start time and gave no explanation. A mention of staff preparation would have made sense; I’ll leave it to you to decide whether they lack training or management considers this level of service enough. At dinner, the buffet was as poor as Itoen Hotels is known to be. Everything I tried was bland, and supermarket frozen food would have been much better. I don’t know how they managed to prepare it that way. I had one beer, too, but it didn’t taste as good as the brand led me to expect. I had the same experience at another Itoen Hotels property, so I guess that’s just how it is. Dust had built up by the chopstick rests, and I was surprised, though I couldn’t help a wry smile after seeing a similar review on a previous booking site. Infection control was sloppy as well, with no disinfectant or gloves in the dining area. It would have been safer and tastier to eat somewhere random near the station. Itoen Hotels seems to be running an existing property without any intention of improving its hospitality. It feels like they’re using up and destroying what was once a glorious, “authentic” Japanese inn. There were always some noisy guests in the dining area. Watching them made me think, “Oh, so that’s the kind of place this is,” and I even felt embarrassed that I’d booked a room there. It’s one thing for students who don’t care about quality on holiday, but grown-ups who travel all the way to Ito have better places they can stay. I was already very disappointed by Lake Shirakaba, and this stay made me vow never to use a hotel in that chain again.