Granbell Hotel Susukino

On November 14th, 2025, at around 10:10 PM, while we were asleep, a stranger used a key to enter our room. I went straight to the lobby to report it. When I asked staff to review the surveillance footage, they said our room was in a camera blind spot, which concerned me. With three nights still left, I asked to change rooms. The staff were accommodating and promptly arranged another room for us. The staff were great, and the hotel was clean and well maintained. The public bath on the 17th floor was a nice feature, though more than six lockers were locked and unusable because their keys were missing, even though I was the only guest there.

We stayed two nights in Nov 2025, and the rooftop public bath was the reason I booked. It made the stay worthwhile: sitting in water around 40°C while snow fell on me and melted was a really cool experience. The room size was decent for Japan, and the location was good overall. Getting to and from the airport bus stop was a bit of a walk, especially with luggage in bad weather. The reception area looked great, though some staff could have been nicer. It wasn’t terrible, just noticeable. If you’re visiting in winter and want a memorable onsen experience, this hotel does the job.

I’ve stayed in Japan almost twice a year, and this was one of the worst hotels I’ve experienced there. The rooms are tiny and the parking ridiculously expensive. The staff seemed prejudiced toward foreign guests. There were no smiles or welcomes, and they acted as though they were being forced to work. The worst part is that the staff who were so unfriendly to foreigners weren’t even Japanese themselves. Maybe management thinks it’s fine to be rude to foreign guests. Oddly, the best service we got was while checking out. 😂 It almost felt like they couldn’t wait to get rid of us. I couldn’t wait to leave once we’d checked in.

The room itself was acceptable, but the lack of daily housekeeping was unacceptable and added to an already disappointing stay. Self check-in was painfully slow and terrible. Plenty of staff were standing around, but none offered help, so their presence only wasted guests’ time. Your response doesn’t change how frustrating and terrible this stay was. A verbal apology without real accountability felt empty and insincere. If you cared about the guest experience, there should have been a clear offer, such as complimentary breakfast, dinner, or some other compensation. I can say confidently that I’ll never return. I was also disappointed by your attitude toward international guests. Banning people with tattoos from public baths is discriminatory and culturally tone-deaf. Tattoos are extremely common among Western travelers, and enforcing that rule while actively marketing to foreign guests feels hypocritical. If you want to operate under strict traditional Japanese customs, be honest and stop taking foreign bookings. You can’t say you welcome international travelers while refusing to respect their cultures. The hotel failed at service, basic respect, and transparency. An apology without action means nothing.