Rakuten STAY VILLA Awaji

The villa-style room itself was quite nice, and I’d like to return if the smell is gone. I stayed in December 2025 during the off-season, when nobody else was there. As soon as I walked in, there was a dead, vacant-house smell. I ran the ventilation fan and left the windows wide open for about five hours, but it still didn’t clear, so it could be difficult for anyone sensitive to smells. Also, the Liwood fence on the second-floor terrace was warped and no longer separated the rooms.

Rain was coming down all morning, and the wooden deck we used for the barbecue had its rain curtains closed. We arrived getting soaked, opened them ourselves, dried the tables with towels, and ended up cleaning outside as well as inside. The kitchen smelled like sewage, and we could hear other groups nearby. Inside, there was sand and hair left in the bedroom, so I wondered whether it had been cleaned at all. I contacted staff on the tablet, and someone came later with a vacuum, but it seemed they might not show up, so I bought dry sheets at the supermarket and cleaned first. It was tourist season and the stay cost a lot, which made the whole experience really disappointing.

The barbecue setup in the courtyard worked well even at the end of January: it has a roof, so we could eat without being hit by strong winds. The food was plentiful, with meat, vegetables and yakisoba, more than enough for our group of guys, and the place felt like good value compared with the cottages and glamping spots around Awaji. We stayed in room 108 with seven people. The bedroom had four double beds and a pop-in Aladdin TV for YouTube and other content, but the living room felt small for the capacity, and the sofa only just fit four. The floor just inside the room was damaged and dented, and some of the tableware and amenities seemed a little unclean. Check-in and checkout were easy once we entered our details on the room tablet ahead of time. The instructions mentioned an alarm if noise went over a limit, but we had no trouble, and it should be fine if you don't play music too loudly.

The projector, BBQ set and especially the jacuzzi were nice parts of our two-day, one-night family stay. Still, I don't really feel like returning. We couldn't get in even with the correct password. The head office told us to wait five minutes and try again, but it still failed, and we ended up waiting around 30 minutes before calling several more times. About 40 minutes after first trying, we finally got a new password. By then the food and ice cream we'd bought had melted and spoiled. We asked the head office to cover replacements, but the amount was initially handled as 7,000 yen instead of 70,000 yen. We did get the 70,000 yen back later. There was also trash behind and in the corners of the sofa, which worried us because several children had dust allergies. When I told staff the second room was dirty and needed cleaning, they just said, “Oh, sure,” and left right away. Their attitude felt rude. I hope they improve these problems little by little.