Hotel Emisia Sapporo

The view from our room was magical in winter, and the breakfast had lots of options for everyone. There’s a grocery store across the street, and the hotel is right by the subway and near the JR line to New Chitose Airport. The room was very spacious. The downside is that it takes a 15-minute subway ride to reach Sapporo.

The hotel’s chapel area is a really cool feature, and the gift shop inside was handy. The laundry facilities were great too. We stayed in one of the “sky rooms” and had an amazing view.

I can’t understand how this place is marketed as a 5-star hotel. To me it barely deserves 2 stars. There’s no daily room cleaning: they give you a basket for used towels to leave at the entrance, and apparently clean only once every 4 days. There wasn’t even bottled water in the room. You have to buy your own and boil it in the old, rusty kettle provided. The SPA was the worst part. I’d booked this hotel despite it being quite far from the city because I wanted a nice spa with a pool and sauna, and it looked decent. I’ve lived in Japan for a while, so I know to check whether tattoos are allowed. I read the policies on trip.com and the hotel’s website, and neither mentioned tattoos. When I went to the SPA, the staff were very rude. Three people behind the counter were barking orders at me in an aggressive tone: take off your shoes, put them there, go to the locker, read this, this costs that. Then they asked about tattoos. I said yes, and they showed me cover patches in two sizes. The large one cost something like 300JPY extra, which seemed fair. I asked to buy five so I could cover all my tattoos, but they said I could only get one. I was confused, especially since I was paying to enter the SPA too. trip.com even advertises it as free. I don’t understand why one patch is allowed but not five. I understand having a policy, but failing to display it and misleading people in the marketing to attract customers is horrible. If I’d known, I would have booked a much nicer hotel in the central area for a better price and had a better stay. I don’t recommend this place. trip.com should check whether a 5-star rating really means 5 stars. I work in luxury hotels myself, and ratings should perhaps be checked against third parties such as LQA.

We had a wonderful stay at Hotel Emisia Sapporo. The hotel was comfortable and well maintained, and the staff were friendly, professional, and always ready to help. Parking was easy and stress-free. Breakfast in the restaurant on the 31st floor came with a beautiful view of the sky, which made the stay feel special. I’d happily stay here again and recommend it to anyone visiting Sapporo.