Hotel Benoa Resort

The rooms are spacious, clean, and come with a jacuzzi, but the rates are high. The cheapest short stay is 4,800 yen for one hour, then another 1,200 yen for each extra half hour. There's also an unexplained 1,800 yen service fee, plus tax, so one hour in the cheapest room comes to 7,128 yen. Extend a 4,900 yen room by half an hour and it totals 8,532 yen including tax. At those prices, a higher-ranked room at a cheaper nearby place seems like much better value.

The rooms are clean, and it's easy enough to use the hotel even on your own. I'd like to return, but even on a weekday you need about twice the budget you'd need at other hotels. I used coupons and half-price late-night tickets. The discount applied to half the base rate, then they added the service charge, which alone was 3,000 to 4,000 yen. For instance, with a 12,000 yen price, half off plus the service fee only saves about 2,000 yen in the end. I asked how they work out that charge, but they only explained the half-price offer and didn't answer that part. For couples' hotels, the service charge can be lower or you can switch to an overnight stay. We checked in around 4 PM during service hours and decided to stay overnight. Overnight rates start at 6 PM, so it was the two-hour service rate plus 10,980 yen for the overnight stay, even on a weekday. When I asked about the price at night, they quoted 19,550 yen even for a standard room. It's just too expensive, so I don't think I'll be back anytime soon.

There's a lot included here. Even the standard plan has a jacuzzi and a minibus, and guests get free breakfast and drinks. During breaks, one meal and one drink are included too, so that adds up to two free meals and two free drinks. Online coupons have to be shown at the counter before you go to your room, since the automatic payment machines don't take them. If you're coming from another prefecture, watch out with Google Navigation. It told me to turn left, and I nearly ended up at a toll booth on the toll road. There's a road into the hotel right beside the booth, so I suppose that can't be helped. The multilane city roads may be tricky if you're not used to them, but avoid the one-way lanes to the toll booth and you can manage. It's a great hotel, though weekend and holiday stays come with a 20% service fee.

Everything from the free meals and room to the amenities, massage chair, big TV, and discount coupons was well done. They apparently forgot to ring when the complimentary meals arrived, so I had to call them 💢. The morning service arrived properly, right at 7 a.m., lol. Is a service charge normal around here? I hadn't encountered one before and felt ripped off. Be careful.