All Running Onsen Matsue City Hotel Honkan

I was looking forward to a stay in central Matsue, especially with hot spring water flowing straight from the source, but it turned into the worst hotel stay I can remember. I’ve never heard of a hotel room having hot spring water coming from the faucet, and I booked expecting there’d normally be a large public bath. The room bore little resemblance to the photos the hotel provided, and I couldn’t see the city from it. I’ve never felt so misled. Honestly, I think even a hotel on a high school field trip would be better.

The retro feel, free-flowing hot spring water, and cheap cup ramen were all great. Beer that normally costs 500 yen was just 310 yen. The location, staff attitude, rooms, price, and service were all good, and the front desk staff were especially welcoming. I’ll definitely come back.

On my business trip, the elevator stopped working and the service was awful. I called the front desk, got left waiting on hold for more than 30 minutes, and still didn’t get help. It seemed like the emergency stairs might let me reach the hotel, but they said they’d look for the key and then never came back. It was upsetting and wasted my time. Many of the staff were older, so I expected them to be experienced, but their response was very slow, which was disappointing. I won’t stay here again.

The room’s hot spring bath was nice, though it was a unit bath and there wasn’t room to stretch out. We looked out over Lake Shinji, and in the morning watched fishing boats gathering clams. The hotel is old, but it was clean and well maintained.