Kasuitei Ooya

Hotel Kasuitei is hands down the worst hotel I've ever stayed at in Japan, and definitely the worst onsen hotel, bar none. I visited during the New Year period. The room had a stale smell, which I could overlook, but then around midnight, as I was getting ready for bed, I found a black mark on the pillow (photo 2) and a short hair that wasn't ours… Then I noticed the comforter was ripped, had small holes, and was stained – incredibly unhygienic. I'm guessing they don't change them. I was going to call the front desk to get a new set of bedding, but my family said it was too late and to tell them the next day. The thought of it being so dirty kept me up all night. The next day, when I told the front desk, they just gave a perfunctory 'I'm sorry' and asked why I didn't say anything that night… The dinner was unappetizing, the cake tasted strongly of artificial cream, and I even found a piece of white plastic in my breakfast (photo 4)… I knew the staff wouldn't do anything about it, so I didn't even bother mentioning the foreign object in my breakfast. I was just speechless. The hygiene is terrible, and the food is awful. If you want to pay to experience dirtiness and poor quality, this is the place to be.

This hotel's biggest advantage is its location, right next to Nanhu Zhuang. It also has an on-site hot spring bath. The room facilities are a bit dated, but since it's a Japanese-style room, it doesn't feel too bad. However, the value for money is somewhat disappointing, and the service is far from as attentive as hotels back home. We arrived at the station at 10 PM and asked the front desk to send a car to pick us up, only to be told the shuttle had stopped running and we could walk over. Check-out is as early as 10 AM, and even extending to 11 AM costs an extra 3000 JPY. There's no laundry room or gym (outside of the rooms). Well, when you're abroad, sometimes you just have to make do.