I stayed in this hotel for 2 nights. It's just a few minutes walk from the bus stop of nishiyama walking trail but far from downtown. Hot water supply was limited because of the small boiler. It's a owners' run hostel that front desk service was limited.
The hotel is not close to the hot spring village so it is better to have a car. The owner lady is very nice and give us lots of useful information. However, the lady didn’t speak much English so if you know a little bit of Japanese, it will definitely helps. Please note the facilities is very basic and everything (towel, fan, heating ...) is extra charge.
Mrs Koizumi is a charming lady who managed to communicate effectively without us having much common language. I only wish I had taken her up on her offer to show us the firework display that evening, but we were rather tired after a full day's cycling. The room was clean and comfortable and there is an interesting trail nearby showing recent seismic activity (quite dramatic, but nothing happened while we were there!).
To save money we picked Petit Hotel Koizumi. We read the reviews and know that there are fees for using the heater, one has to being the futon back to the loft in the morning, pay for towels and toothbrushes if you don't have yours, the lady owner speaks very limited English, etc. These are all fine. For 14,000 yen a night we didn't expect much and would have preferred spending the money on a good meal. The futon and pillows are amazing comfortable and exceed our expectations. Heater is sufficient to warm up the room. Lady owner also welcomed us with a few local snacks and bottled water on arrival. She gave us some glasses so we could use the kettle in the room. Room size quite small. Fits 2 futons on the loft and 2 in the living room. If we open suitcases on the floor there is literally no space to walk around and one has to dance around to get through. Toilet and bathroom are separate. There is no curtain in the bathroom so the bathroom floor is always wet. Onsite launderette is convenient but have to warn that this is a very cold laundry machine - semi automatic meaning one has to stay there to tell the machine to drain, to manually turn on turn off water, take out clothes to a separate compartment for spinning. There are strange rules about no shower after 11pm, not that we shower that late anyway. We also put away the futon and blankets as the lady requested ( to make it easier for her) but was disappointed that she didn't seem to have enter the room at all as our full waste basket was still full. If we had known, we would have done that at the end of our stay only. Overall this is okay. Next time if we return we would probably pay more for better accommodation. We like the lady, she is very kind. We are just lazy and want more comfort.…
The name on the building does not spell "Petit Hotel"... Wondering why. Also, Google map brought us to another location while Apple map got it right. Whole place seemed to be run by one elderly lady who does not speak English. No shops around so if you don't drive, tough luck!
Very nice Japanese host. Limited English but very hospitable. She even drive us around the Toyako Onsen area to show the town and the southern part of the Lake Toya. She also dropped us off at the Showa-shinzan and Mount Usu tourist areas. Her son operates a soft serve ice cream truck and has serviceable English. The building was a former apartment complex converted into a petite guesthouse located near the site of the 2000 Mount Usu eruption. The guesthouse is easily accessible by the local bus from the Toyako JR station to the Toyako Onsen. The bus stop is "西山遊步道" and the guesthouse is quite visible from the drop off point. The room we had was a loft with space for 2 futons in the living area and 2 more futons in the loft. Heating was provided by the kerosene heater and it was enough to heat up the entire living space. Futons were soft and comfy. Good experience here and would definitely come back. …
The good: Extremely friendly and helpful owner; she couldn't have been nicer or helped us more with transportation. She was flexible and helped us when our plans changed. (She doesn't speak any English, but our rental car company spoke with her and arranged on our behalf.) She drove us to the train station in the morning for a small fee. Very fast wifi. Nice having your own toilet with heated seat. Tea kettle and refrigerator in the room. Oil heater kept the room (but not the separate toilet or bathroom) warm. The not-so-good: This was our first futon experience and may be our last. The futons provided were more like 1/10 of the thickness of futons in the US and didn't provide much cushioning. It felt like sleeping on the rug with just a thin blanket. Pillows were the usual buckwheat pillows you find in most hotels in Japan. Two twin flat sheets were provided, but that wasn't enough to cover either the futon or the comforter. We would have preferred more or larger sheets or a duvet cover on the fluffy down comforter. No cups or mugs in the room, so couldn't really use the tea kettle. I picked this hotel because it had the private bathroom. That said, there were a few hairs in the tub, so I didn't use it. Bathroom and toilet room are separate from the main room, which is nice in some ways, but means the heat doesn't reach at all. No towels provided, though there's a little sign saying you can rent them.…
freindly and very kind non speaking English staff with hospitality, reasonable price, and simple amenity. She is a survivor of eruption of volcano and after 2 yrs evacuated life, renovated apartment to a peti hotel.
Couldn't find any directions for public transport about this hotel, so took a taxi from the Toya train station - AVOID as it costs 2200+ yen for a 15 min ride!! Instead, Take the regular public bus bound for Toyako onsen, alight at this deserted pink bus terminal right in front of the hotel (they call it the bus terminal but the real bus terminal is in the Toyako onsen itself and is much busier. Not sure what the actual name is though.) When the motherly owner saw that we came via taxi, she offered to drive us for free. Ended up taking her car to go to the Toyako onsen (where all the main attractions and the lake are), and she even circled round the whole place looking for the food we wanted; she also came to fetch us later at night back to the hotel. The next morning, she drove us to the volcano nearby so we could trek up too - all out of goodwill. No meals are provided in the hotel and there aren't many shops around, so best to plan for meals in the onsen/volcano tourist area or bring some snacks along. Hotel-wise, it's very nicely decorated and comfortable. Owners don't speak much English but are very friendly. Definitely will stay again if I visit the place!…
We enjoyed the hospitality of the host, but the place itself is very small on the whole and every additional items we wanted or needed, like towels, heat at night are additionally charged. It's basically a budget hotel.
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