Hatago Maruhachi

It was unfortunately a very bad experience. A snow storm day while we arrived at around 9:30pm. We booked two rooms for two families. The host did welcome us to the room. But literally there was no front desk and after knowing which rooms belong to us. Then there was no service at all. Most disappointing thing is there was no warm water in a freezing -10 degrees. And we ended needing to go to my friend’s room to take baths. It’s completely unacceptable. We ended up checking out the next day and one thing the host was good that they listened to our concerns and refunded the second night hotel fees to our two rooms. A very unfortunate bad experience.

Hatago Maruhachi is a slightly quirky apar**ent-hotel not far from the Iwatake ski area. Check-in (a slightly convoluted process) is via Hakuba Funny Hours a couple of buildings up the street - which appears to be more of a hostel type set up. The rooms have a good amount of space, a huge bed and a separate walk-in robe/storage area, which is handy, especially if you have snowboard/ski gear with you. The bathroom is up a small flight of stairs, which is a little problematic if you need to use it in the middle of the night. The kitchen has all the basics you need if you want to self-cater (7-11 is a 5-10 minute walk), although some more instructions in English for some of the appliances (the microwave/oven combo for instance) would be handy. There are a couple of free-standing heaters, but the electric one was noisy and not in the bedroom and I didn't feel comfortable sleeping with the kerosene one on, so it did get chilly overnight in -12 celsius outside. Not that it is the hotel's fault but the people across the passageway were a nigh**are - noisy at all hours without any consideration for other guests. They even tried to open my door at one point - they put a dampener on my experience. There are two little onsens downstairs, which you can reserve but which seemed mostly empty during my stay.

Hotel was nice. My family enjoyed the private baths. Location wasn’t good in regards to getting to the ski slopes and restaurants. If you get breakfast included, you cook it yourself- it’s just the raw ingredients. The room was huge and lovely for our family of 5. We were comfortable in the winter. We travelled with another family (of 4) who booked the same room type but theirs was much smaller and they froze because their heating was different. I loved the room and private baths (my kids loved the shower while I soaked) but the location and the amenities fell flat. We, and the family we travelled with, felt the price was far too much and would not book again. We’d stay at a resort attached to the slopes for a bit more.