The wife and I have brought the kids out to Niseko for years, always choosing to stay at the One Niseko (I’ve posted positively about it in the past). This is definitely our last visit! In the future, we will stay at any one of the other attractive offerings (of which there are SO MANY!).
Reasons for my dissatisfaction are as follows:
1) Booking ahead SIX months in advance did not secure us a family room in the newer wing (where we have always stayed). I questioned the front staff about this upon our arrival, when I discovered the issue. The manager refused to consider a move and, indeed, did not even bother to come out of his office to discuss it with us directly.
2) The building and its amenities are run down, old and poorly maintained. Cups and utensils are filthy, walls are dirty and so on.
3) After spending the entire day out on the hill, enjoying the slopes, we returned to our room to find that the cleaning staff had left our door open. Actually, they had left it ajar! I brought this up with the hotel manager, and his lack of concern for the matter could not have been any more evident. The front desk staff were very apologetic and concerned about it, but the manager is responsible for these matters.
3) The breakfast buffet is soooo TIRED! They won’t cough up the money for a proper toaster, but expect hotel guests to spend damned near $1000/night during high season!!!! Ridiculous! A $25 BnB offers up a better variety of foods!
4) The Cigar Bar is gone! This, alone, provided me with enough grief to leave a horrible review for the One Niseko. It was the single largest contributing factor leading me to choose this location. The fact that I could enjoy a cigar, a whiskey and some good conversation after a day on the slopes made this a fantastic hotel. I walked into the now...smoke free bar, to find absolutely NOBODY in there. It appears that making it smoke free has also made it patron free.
5) The guests.....more and more of them are coming from the Mainland (China). Enough said. Unfortunately, this seems to be affecting all hotels. Now, it’s time to find one that the Chinese are not aware of!
6) The staff could only provide us with one room key.... for two adults and three kids! Seriously!
That’s all for now... and we are only on the FIRST NIGHT of our two week stay here!
I cannot wait to see what else transpires in the next while!