Livemax Resort Kawaji

Highly recommended. I enjoyed the baths. Had lovely walks around the village. The room was spacious and clean. My reservations was without meals, and do advise that you do book with meals. (depending on the season, the village was very quiet) The staff did refer me to a ramen shop (delicious food) and they were able to accommodate me with meals on the second day of my stay. The hotel offers a buffet with a wide variety of food.

This is the worst hotel I have seen in Japan given I have stayed at over 100+ hotels here. Even brands like Toyoko Inn and Smile hotel chain offer way better (cleaner and newer) rooms and facilities. The wall and curtains in the room and public areas are full of stains, super disgusting. The room has a weird smell, not sure if that was from smoking previously or mold in the room. Lucky the location is quiet so I opened the window all night. The hotel also have insufficient parking. I parked in the middle of the driveway. Buffet is terrible. Food quality is bad ( as simple as rice is very mushy and miso soup is super salty, I dare not even try their sushi), while the line up was long and chaotic. Floors are uneven and they offer very strange (think bottom, non Japanese style) slippers which I almost tripped in the uneven floors a couple times. Will not recommend and never go there again! I drove an hour there expecting a nice get away, may as well stay near one of the stations and book Toyoko inn instead!

Some staff were helpful especially the dining hall staff. There were stains on the duvet cover and on the dining hall table cloth. This put me off eating and the food selection was great! The rental bath was expensive and only one bath was available, the other bath was out of order which we were not informed of by the front desk staff. Also the stairs leading to the rental bath was in terrible condition, we had to be careful going down as to not trip on the peeling floor veneer. There was also empty cans on the bannister going down to the bath and I questioned this facilities cleanliness.

I stayed in a renovated, japanese style room in this oldish hotel; comfortable full bathroom with, in addition, an external ceramic bath tube attached to the bedroom. Room rates vary greatly. Public baths pools alternate btwn men and women access. The one I attended was very ordinary. Breakfast was purely Japanese food, not bad but not for everybody. The main problem is the location, a ghostly onsen town where most hotels have shut down and there is hardly any eatery.