Unzen Azumaen

The room and meals were amazing, and the two-meal package was such a good experience. The staff spoke English and were really kind, helping me and my friends settle in. This was better than some four-star hotels. I’m sure I’ll book here again when I come back.

There’s a vintage feel to the place, and it’s clean and cozy. The rooms look out over the lake, which was stunning. The traditional Japanese design also means sleeping on the floor, but the futons were comfortable. While we waited to check in, the staff served tea and took great care of us.

Moe, our restaurant waitress, paid close attention to what we needed. She remembered that my dad doesn’t eat beef and made sure his servings were beef-free. The chef’s food was amazing and creatively presented, and we had a lovely stay as a family. Our room was clean, and the sunsets were gorgeous. Thank you!

We were treated very rudely before check-in, and dinner left us feeling discriminated against. We arrived just after 2 p.m. hoping to leave our luggage and visit the sights in Hot Spring Town. The main automatic doors were shut, with a note saying check-in started at 3. We went in through a small glass door beside the entrance, but the lobby lights were off. After a while, a middle-aged waitress with glasses came out looking unhappy, checked our passports, and said we could only check in at 4. The time itself didn’t matter since we planned to explore first, but her attitude made us uncomfortable. She drove us out of the hotel, which felt rude and discriminatory. Our dinner and breakfast booking came with an English menu and a very simple meal. In twenty stays at Japanese hot spring hotels, this was the smallest and simplest dinner I’ve had. We noticed Japanese guests at other tables had different dishes, with at least three more than ours. I’d previously seen a Chinese guest complain on Trip.com that the hotel only provided English menus and refused to offer a Japanese one. I photographed the Japanese menu at the next table and found it differed from ours. The hotel’s official website showed the same lowest price for a night with dinner and breakfast as the Japanese menu we saw, and its dinner photos showed several more dishes, like those served to the Japanese guests. It looked obvious to us that Azumaen was giving non-Japanese guests fewer dishes without authorization. The room change after the cockroach incident didn’t put us at ease either. After checking in, we were heading to the hot spring when my husband put on his bathrobe and shouted that there was a cockroach. We found a large dead one stuck in it. We felt sick and called the waitress right away. She saw it, called the front desk, then asked us to move to a room at the end of the corridor. That room’s air conditioner gave off a foul smell from time to time, making us worry about the room’s hygiene. We were afraid cockroaches or mice might show up again and barely slept all night. There was no further apology for the incident. It was a very bad experience, with very poor hygiene.