Hotel Shion no umi

It was really a nice place! The washing machine, drying machine and parking lot can be used for free! The water for shower is kinda cold and the room didn't get cleaned during our stay; also, it costs 100 yen for every clean towel during your stay.

Small private rooms with a separated bathroom and shower (very strong water pressure), beds are comfy(not too hard, not too soft), TV, air conditioner, dehumidifier, mini fridge, microwave, electric kettle, hair dryer, bath & face towels for each day, and one-time use shampoos, conditioners, and body washes as well as hair comb, toothbrushes and razors. Having all the amenities is nice but the individually wrapped and prepared sets seem like a huge waste of plastic. One razor, hair comb, and toothbrush is enough for each guest & wouldn’t it be cheaper to place big bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. I would have appreciated a more eco-friendly and sustainable approach. Can be easily accessed with a rental car/taxi, is within walking distance of a convenience store, and is located on a main road but not loud at night. There is no common area so there’s basically no interaction with other guests. I recommend for couples wanting private time or small families looking for a budget option. Laundry is free but detergent is sold for ¥100 at the front office. Lastly, the garbage can is tiny so if your eating in it’ll get full right away. Seems like it’s a “take your own garbage out” type of situation as there’re large garbage bins outside the front office. Overall, enjoyed the stay here but hoping that they make steps towards running a more sustainable hotel.

Location is a bit out of the way from the center. Advantage of that is that just next door there is the best Izakaya called Brown Sugar (highly recommended, also if not staying in this hotel). Price reasonable. Only very strange thing in our mind is that for six days we only got two very small body soap packs per person. We have stayed in easily over 1000 hotels, including 6 weeks of traveling around Japan and have never experienced that the hotel does not provide soap (or almost none). When we asked about this the staff were exptremely unhelpful, first stating that we had a ‘Room only’ booking. This normally means no breakfast, it never means no soap. Secondly they said that they only clean the room once in six days and do not provide soap because it is an Eco hotel. But when the cleaners left after cleaning and we came back hours later they had left the airconditioning running for hours while we were out. If you don’t mind staying outside of the center (where there are many restaurant options etc.), we would still recommend this place. Just make sure to bring your own soap.