Ibusuki Onsen Hotel Shougetsu

We booked a western twin bedroom. The hotel is a bit old, but it is acceptable. As long as the room is clean and I slept well. I enjoyed the outdoor onsen very much. After a long day going around in Ibusuki, I stayed at Ibusuki Coral Beach Hotel for just a night. Because I need to catch up a ferry to Yakushima early morning next day. It is only 10 mins walk to the pier. The breakfast is tasty and the restaurant is facing the sea and comfortable. I am happy staying at the hotel

The only nice things was the genuine friendliness and helpfulness of the staff. But the hotel is old and badly worn down. Apart from one significant natural asset (the sand bath), the whole town is miserably drab. Our bento breakfast on departure day was a bad joke: three packs of rice with nothing else in the box. Overall, very bad value for money.

We booked a western room but on being shown to our room it was the worst room we'd seen in all of Japan - small, dated, horrible fittings, pink bathroom, stained carpet - everything just felt old and unpleasant. You could see the mountains from the window but it was textured safety glass so there was no view without opening the window. We asked for an upgrade to a Japanese room which was very pleasant and probably the nicest room we've had in Japan! It was light, spacious and much more clean and pleasant. We had to pay a little more but it was worth it - we had a sea view, balcony table and chairs for two and the usual tatami mat setup. The hotel in general has a bit of an old and needs-updating kind of feel - I get the impression it, and the town in general, has seen much better days. The lobby is modern and spacious and I hope they are in the process of updating as some parts of the hotel badly need it! Breakfast was substantial although not to our tastes (fish, bacon eggs on a stove, miso soup, pickles etc). The onsen was good - male and female swap sides between morning and evening although the times are slightly unfair - women have to get up early and/or miss breakfast to use the better baths, whereas men get it all afternoon and evening. The staff were all very nice and friendly, with varying degrees of English spoken. We didn't try the restaurant - there's a decent (and cheap) chinese restaurant a couple of streets back. The hotel operates a shuttle bus to and from the sand baths which are nearby and worth experiencing - cost about 1200yen. They also have a couple of electric bicycles for rent (500yen for 2 hours or 2000 for the day) - we rented for 4 hours and I think that was enough for the batteries. Wifi - it was only available in the lobby, in the rooms would have been a great improvement.