Otaru Kaplıcalı Otelleri

We booked the best room on the top floor and spent 7 nights at this high end and extremely expensive ryokan/hotel. Here are the pros and cons: PROS: The food is amazing in terms of presentation, gastronomy and service. The place is immaculately clean. The views a fantastic! We got comfortable Yukatas and overall the place has a very nice traditional vibe.  CONS: They seem to be completely inapt in hosting people who don’t speak Japanese. No one speaks English at this place. None at all! They write that we can “press 9 and call the reception”, but once you do it – you can’t have any conversation with anyone at all. Even when you get down in person to the reception, no one can really communicate with you, even with Google Translate.  They exhibit zero flexibility. The approach is – it’s our way or the highway. All is extremely polite, but no left, no right! Can we have a laundry service arranged? The answer is “no!”. Can we communicate with you via WhatsApp or email? – No! Can we come later to breakfast? No. Can we have dinner at a later time, since we can’t come earlier just this one day? No! Basically, if you want to sleep a bit later during your vacation – forget it! Either show up at 8 or 8:30 am for breakfast, or go hungry! Can we buy your Yukata? – No! Also, we were asked to indicate every day what time we intend to go out – something that adds pressure, as  on vacation one may want to improvise, rather than plan ahead their outings.  Given that this place charges exuberant prices, the lack of the most basic hospitality features (communication, laundry, customer-focused flexibility) is astounding! We now staying at another Ryokan, 90 minutes away and see that everyone can speak some English and the place is much more focused on the needs of a foreign traveler, as opposed on preserving the holy rigidity of an existent system. 

I really love this winkel village! It's just a short walk to Asarigawaonsen Ski Resort for skiing. We can enjoy BBQs even in winter and the private outdoor onsen right outside the room is a huge bonus for my family. Definitely planning to return! Great value for the money. Note: We took a taxi from Otaru Station to Winkel Village and it cost around 5,000 yen. The price was reasonable too.