Shirakaba Resort Ikenotaira Hotel

We stayed in a renovated Japanese-Western room on the 7th floor of the Annex building, facing the lake. There was a twin bed on tatami mats, and a round low table and cushions by the window. The renovation is old in many places, and even if you don't use the bath in the room, it's better not to look at it. We don't use it, but it's a Showa-era bathroom. There are many small children, so it might be good for families with babies who find it difficult to travel. We were a middle-aged couple, so everything was not suitable. Next time, we'll stay at a hotel with a quiet room where we can eat quietly, and a bath where the little ones don't run around. It can't be helped, since we stayed there without doing much research. The hotel itself is proactive in hiring foreigners, disabled people, and locals, and I think they've done a lot of research on the buffet menu. I think it's the winner among the hotels around Lake Shirakaba.

The food was good, but the buffet was crowded, which was a bit disappointing.

I have stayed here for over 100 nights with my children. This time, we stayed for two nights with my family of three, including a five-year-old. We were upgraded and stayed in the new main building, which just opened in April last year. The bonus of staying for consecutive nights without cleaning is a 500 yen in-house ticket. Don't underestimate it as a hotel for children, it is also recommended for students and couples who like children! The cost performance is good, but I think there are a lot of on-site charges. I highly recommend staying for consecutive nights with the pool, the huge retro game center, the indoor amusement park, the Nakamise Festival Corner, Precure Land, and many art galleries in the surrounding area, Family Land in the summer, and the directly connected Snow Park in the winter. I recommend the new main building! It's worth the charge! The food and the large public bath are easily accessible, and there is tea, boxed snacks, environmentally friendly disposable amenities, canned water, stylish and clean interior, plenty of outlets, a humidifier and air purifier installed, and almost no sound leakage! The contrast between the spectacular Shirakaba Lake view and the snowy mountains! For guests staying in the new main building, we offer a plate of abalone and other deluxe main dishes for each person at dinner, as well as rich ice cream for the number of people. The ice cream is as rich as butter and delicious! You can rent a colored yukata, which usually costs 1,000 yen, for free, and it's full of luxury, specialness, and value. There are no cosmetics in the room, so don't forget to bring your regular ones. You can get directions to the hotel, contact the front desk, and request rental items from the tablet in each room. We had two buffet meals. The plates were cleared regularly, so I was able to eat comfortably. The multinational staff were all really kind and nice. The taste was pretty average. They have crab, steak, and roast beef. This place is also fun, like a food stall, and the kids' buffet corner is equipped with baby food and a microwave. There are a lot of Chinese customers, so for some reason they have rice dumplings, and there is Chinese porridge for breakfast. My personal recommendation is the spicy curry at the curry corner for dinner. It is quite authentic, unlike the curry at the kids' corner. The aisles are a little narrow and there are some places where visibility is poor, so be careful. It takes a while for the hand towel machine to come out, so it might be a good idea to bring your own wet towel. The large bath has two separate areas, a sauna (auto-loyly, 90℃, cold bath 17℃, with chairs for outdoor bathing), an open-air sauna, a huge indoor bath like a pool, two small bathtubs at 40℃ that are safe for small children, a changing room (bed, bouncer, low shelf), a washing area (spacious, chairs for babies and children, baby foam soap) and a space for children. In the large open-air bath, men and women connect outside and can bathe together in bathing suits or swimsuits. The open-air sauna and sauna are both separate and mixed. The mixed bathing space is especially recommended for couples! If you go up the stairs to the infinity-style mixed open-air bath, you will find a mixed sauna with a spectacular view! You can do self-loyly as much as you want! Some people were getting ready on chairs in the middle of a snowstorm! It looks so nice! The hot spring water is gushing out of the pot at the entrance to the indoor bath, so I took a lot of baths. There are basic cosmetics in the powder room of the large bath. The post-bath corner is also spacious, and I ate a lot of straight apple juice from the vending machine. The kids had a great time, there was a daycare center, and you could have a drink at Nakamise, so adults could relax too. It was so good I can't describe it! It's the best family hotel in the Koshinetsu region⭐︎

There were many foreigners and newcomers, and there was almost no explanation beforehand, so we were confused as it was our first time there. I wish each person had been given a more detailed explanation. There was no hotel guide in the room, and drinks from previous guests were left in the refrigerator, which was disgusting. I thought there were many foreigners cleaning the hotel (this may be a prejudice), and I could hear the foreign staff talking to each other. Many of the meals were cold, so I would have liked to have the hot food while it was still hot. However, there was one elderly Japanese man working in the restaurant who was kind to children and always worked hard, and the children looked very happy. I would like him to be rated highly.

I went there in the midst of a disaster-level downpour. It was Friday, but perhaps because the weather forecast was terrible, there were hardly any customers, and even though it had just reopened, it felt very lonely. The shop had almost no specialty items, and although Montbell had opened, I was surprised at how few items they had. Even though it was pouring rain, construction work was still underway around the entrance, and the sound of backhoes and rollers roaring was unbearable. As it is a famous hotel at Lake Shirakaba, I thought there would be many customers using it, but perhaps because the price range has risen considerably, it was quieter than I expected.

I'm writing from the hotel now. We booked and stayed for my daughter, who was quite expensive at ¥112,500 for 4 people per night. It's the worst. First of all, when we entered the room, two PreCure flags on the window were peeling off, and even though my husband fixed them, they kept peeling off. My child's mood plummeted. Immediately after that, I looked at the table and saw some sticky cup marks. After that, I found a bag of Ramune that the previous guest's child must have eaten, and on top of that, a ziplock bag containing baby goods that the previous guest must have left behind. There was no doubt that the room had not been cleaned after the previous guest had left. In these times of the coronavirus, it is unthinkable that they would neglect cleaning, which should be even more careful than usual. For this to cost ¥112,500, I got the impression that this hotel is only thinking about making money because they are busy. My child also said that the room was dirty and disgusting, and it was the worst trip ever. The large size yukata I had requested in advance was not available, and they said they would call me back when I called, but they never called me back no matter how long I waited, so I ended up calling them again and having to talk to a different person from the beginning, which was extremely troublesome. The hotel staff's attitude was also questionable. I will never go there again, and I cannot recommend this place. It was the first time I've had such a bad experience at a hotel, and the cheap hotels I usually stay at are much better cleaned and have better service.

First, when we arrived at the hotel, the staff helped us take our luggage out of the car. After checking in, we took our luggage and got on the bus to the annex. I was surprised that we had to get off the bus and carry our luggage to our room by ourselves. It was very difficult because we had a 0-year-old child. When we arrived at the room and looked around, we found the toothbrush bag and toothpaste used by the previous guest. We put drinks in the refrigerator. Even after 30 minutes, the drinks were not cold. I wanted the refrigerator to be replaced. In the end, it didn't feel very cold until the end. I called the front desk using my iPad, but the signal was poor and it was difficult to hear the front desk staff and I couldn't understand what they were saying. We took the bus to the main building to take a bath and eat, but it was really a hassle every time. I didn't feel like taking a bath many times. I realized that it's not the kind of place where you can take a bath casually. We had to take the bus every time for dinner and breakfast. It was really difficult with small children. We went to the large public bath. It was not an open-air bath, but rather a mixed bathing bath where you could wear a jacket. Personally, I think it would have been better to have an open-air bath. After the bath, there was a hair dryer set up near where I was getting changed (not at the dressing table), so I dried my hair there. When I tried to plug the hair dryer in, the part that plugged in was unstable. The outlets were unstable in both the rooms and some of the outlets. I hope they fix it properly. The evening buffet had roast beef and crab, which got me excited, but when I tried it, the roast beef was hard. I regretted having received three pieces. It was difficult to get the crab meat out of the crab, and there wasn't much meat, so I wish I hadn't received it. I went to the arcade to play. I was surprised to see bees flying around the arcade. I called out to the staff who were right there, but they didn't do anything and I left immediately. I went to the pool. It took me a while to figure out where to put my luggage and where to change. The pool had a slide and was very enjoyable. After getting out, I wanted to dehydrate my swimsuit, but the machine said to wait until time had passed, as someone had used it a while ago. I also found this inconvenient. It would be a shame if they stopped using this kind of machine in a facility where so many people gather. My family's swimsuits were still wet, so I had no choice but to put them away. Bowling was 700 yen per game. I had high expectations, so I was very disappointed with the hotel.