Tokinoyu Setsugetsuka

During our 4 week long trip to Japan, we reserved the Setsugetsuka Hotel via the Booking.Com platform.  The hotel was rated 8.6 "Excellent" and we trusted in the rating assigned by Booking.Com.  We arrived at the Setsugetsuka Hotel on 06 October 2025, in the early afternoon.  Our room was not ready for check-in so we deposited our luggage with the front desk and went into town for some site seeing. We returned to the hotel at approximately 17:00 to occupy our room (Standard Room with Tatami Area and Open-Air Bath).  We were appalled by the state of the hotel corridors, the rooms cleanliness and broken/damaged furnishings and hygiene (See photos) .  We immediately informed the hotel staff that the room and the hotel public spaces were in an unacceptable condition, and we had serious health concerns after seeing the grungy bathroom and the dilapidated Open-Air bath (See photos).  We informed the property staff that we would not stay in the hotel and would file a complaint with Booking.Com.  We were not given a refund by the hotel nor by Booking.Com.  Upon our return we filed a complaint with Booking.Com.  The hotel informed Booking.Com that we were a "No Show". This is false since we checked into the hotel and were assigned a room which we then viewed and found it unacceptable.  Therefore the reason for not giving us a refund was based on false statements made by the hotel staff.  The response we received from Booking.Com was: "Sie haben uns kürzlich bzgl. Ihrer Buchung bei der Unterkunft Setsugetsuka kontaktiert. Leider konnte Ihr Antrag nicht bestätigt werden und es sind keine zusätzlichen Kosten vorhanden, die erstattet werden können. Ihr Kundenservice von Booking.com" Overall a horrible and disappointing experience with both the hotel and with Booking.Com.

The establishment is pretty and well-located near the cable car. The welcome was rather friendly. The room and the private onsen were cool. If you do not book the restaurant, you are not allowed to dine, and to find a restaurant, good luck; there is only one convenience store outside, and even then, it is picked clean; we bought freeze-dried ramen. The staff does not speak English and is rather unfriendly. The Japanese breakfast is a real discovery. I think they do not want non-Japanese people. It is a shame.

It was disappointing because of the high expectations because it was a reasonable fee. ・Carry your luggage to your room yourself. I didn't see any carts or anything. ・I chose kaiseki ryori in anticipation of cooking, but there were few elaborate dishes, only ones to warm up in the seat. ・I asked for alcohol as soon as I sat down for dinner, but I had to wait for about 10 minutes. All I asked was for an order on a tablet in my seat, like a chain of izakayas. · It is good to enjoy ice cream, tea and coffee freely in the service corner, but there are no coffee cups or teacups in the room, so you can only take coffee and tea from the service corner to the room with a paper cup. ・The refrigerator does not cool down at all. Ice is not possible. · There is an ice vendor in the service corner, but the ice pail runs out quickly. There is no ice pail in the room. Also, if you go to get some ice after 24:00, even though the driving light is on, you are probably limiting it, and there is no ice at all. ・The vinyl thongs on the indoor footwear provided in your room are hard and painful when walking. ・Even though there is a veranda, there are only mono chairs and no tables. It's such a waste of a sight to see. I am happy because: I have been using this product for a long time. ・The room has an open-air bath, but it is not a hot spring. ・I was going to write the above in the questionnaire, but the questionnaire is not in the room.