Rakuten STAY VILLA Hakone Sengokuhara South Wing 102 BBQ Terrace capacity of 10 persons

We had an amazing time in Hakone. The house was a great size (perfect for our group of two adults and two kids). The kids went absolutely nuts for the projector and being able to lie on the net to watch TV. The house was spotlessly clean and very well equipped. The bath was a delight and you could adjust the temperature which was great and the washer/dryer was extremely handy.

- The beds were a little hard - The location is excellent for public transport (there is a bus stop literally right outside the villa) but you can't really walk on the main road as there is no path there so you need to take the back road to walk to the nearest Lawson and there is no where local to have dinner if you don't have a car or don't want to self cater.

Loved the set up for traveling with 2 families and our kids. Parking was close by and plentiful. Lots of spaces to eat, sleep, and hang out in. Kids could watch a movie on the projector while adults played a game on the downstairs tv. We utilized all of the amenities - footbath, bathtub onsen, bluetooth speaker, projector, etc. Fully stocked kitchen with everything we needed to heat up breakfast and leftovers. Convenient location - nothing we went to in Hakone was more than a 15 minute drive.

Checkin was a challenge. The code I was originally sent didn't work. We tried to communicate with someone over the ipad in the "checkin" area but it was difficult. He originally refused to give us the door code. I logged into booking.com to find someone to call locally and found in the "chat" section, a link fully in Japanese. I don't read Japanese but was able to use Safari on my phone to translate and eventually found a second door code. I received both an email and a chat referencing 11:00 am checkout for checking in after 4:00. I agreed to this and we began trying to check in around 4:20 pm. We started being harassed to checkout at 10:15, then again at 10:30, despite confirming the late checkout. I will be contacting the host and booking.com about this. My main complaint - the hard beds. No one in my party of 8 slept well on the hard beds.

property was great but photos online made the outdoor bath bigger than it was

the self check in was too long and complicated