Hotel Sunshine Kinugawa

The hotel sits right by the Kinugawa River, with a suspension bridge leading to a beautiful viewpoint. There is free parking, the staff were friendly and helpful, and we enjoyed the views from our room. We also liked the indoor and outdoor onsens and the charming café with its warm foot bath. The hotel is older, though, and it shows. Our wallpaper was patchy, the bathroom floor was peeling, and the onsen area sometimes had an unpleasant sewage-like smell. Breakfast was decent but nothing special, and there aren't many places to eat nearby unless you drive. With those issues, the price felt a bit high. Overall, I'd give it a solid 7/10: a lovely setting and some nice features, but aging facilities and a few problems keep it from being truly great.

The hotel is family friendly and has useful, thoughtful amenities. It feels a bit lived in, but that's not a bad thing. Everything was clean and neat, and the staff were friendly and helpful. The onsen is on site, and the views are beautiful. Breakfast and dinner buffets were good, though we ate dinner out most of the time. The shower in our room was lackluster, so we learned to shower at the onsen. It's right by the suspension bridge and not too far from the train station. The relaxed atmosphere made us very satisfied.

We came in November for the autumn leaves and they didn't disappoint. The views were incredibly beautiful, and the rooms were massive and well attended, especially for the price. It's a long walk from public transport, which is rough with big suitcases, but you can arrange shuttle bus service. Breakfast and dinner buffets were very expensive for food in Japan, but there was a huge variety and the quality was great, so we didn't mind in the end. We booked an amazing private onsen, and they also offer massage packages. Out back there's a foot bath and cafe overlooking the nearby gorge and bridge, both a lovely short walk away. I'd imagine this hotel would be perfect if you come by car.

The natural surroundings were nice, especially in autumn, and the hotel is about 30 minutes by car from central Nikko, which helps avoid the morning crowds. We also found a small arcade with about 15 machines, where we ended up emotionally coping with how disappointing the stay was. The private onsen, Akane, was new, clean and pretty, and we could relax there together as a mixed-gender couple. It cost 3850 yen for 45 minutes and was a bit overpriced. A machine or pump was loud the whole time, and the advertised Bluetooth speaker wasn't there, but the bath was pleasant overall. We booked two nights for November through Booking.com, expecting a warm, charming four-star spa hotel with traditional rooms and good food. Instead, Hotel Sunshine Kinugawa felt stuck in the 80s, poorly maintained, and overpriced for its worn Japanese-style rooms. We saw three rooms, all in terrible shape. Even in the best one, the walls and furniture were stained, wallpaper torn, air vent covers broken, and cables hung everywhere. The bathrooms were archaic, with yellowed surfaces, a corroded toilet that wouldn't flush cleanly, and a bidet that stopped working after a few seconds. The water system was so outdated that we had to mix hot and cold water by hand. It took 10 minutes to warm up, then suddenly became scalding, and we couldn't use the shower and faucet at the same time. There was no shower gel or shampoo in the room. The tatami were thin and cheap. The balconies were ugly and dirty, with dead insects, so we couldn't even enjoy the nice view. The buffet was large, but the quality was low. Fried food was lukewarm, sashimi was above room temperature and chewy, and salad ingredients seemed straight from a convenience store. Tomatoes still had their stems attached, which we had to remove ourselves. Dessert was artificially sweetened convenience-store mochi, juices were cheap concentrates, and the coffee was instant, with little cream packets for takeaway. It felt like quantity over quality in every way. Out of all the hotels we stayed at in Osaka, Atashika, Kyoto, Nagano, Nikko and Tokyo, including three- and four-star hotels, a guesthouse, and a ryokan with multi-course Kaiseki and unlimited private onsen, this was by far the most expensive. We paid around 30000 yen per night, about 190 USD. Everything else, even the ryokan, was around 20000-25000 yen per night, or 130-160 USD. After seeing the property's actual condition, I can't understand how Hotel Sunshine Kinugawa justifies its prices. We had to complain twice about the unbearable cigarette smell in the first room. The reception staff handled it professionally, apologized repeatedly, and moved us twice until we found a room with less odor. Buffet staff were mostly non-Japanese and probably underpaid. Their service was fine, though noticeably below typical Japanese standards. By the end of the two nights, the stay had progressively worsened, and we'd uncovered so many problems that it frankly felt like a rip-off. We calmly raised our concerns about the terrible value for money and asked to speak with a customer satisfaction manager about a refund or compensation. The manager never appeared. Instead, reception staff gave several poor excuses for why compensation was impossible. First they said credit card payment was non-refundable, which is simply false. Then they said we should have reported every problem immediately, as if it were our job to be their quality control during our vacation, after they'd already wasted our time finding a normal room. In the end, it was clear that management didn't care about customer satisfaction. Avoid this tourist trap.