Ginrinsou

We booked the best room on the top floor and spent 7 nights at this high end and extremely expensive ryokan/hotel. Here are the pros and cons: PROS: The food is amazing in terms of presentation, gastronomy and service. The place is immaculately clean. The views a fantastic! We got comfortable Yukatas and overall the place has a very nice traditional vibe.  CONS: They seem to be completely inapt in hosting people who don’t speak Japanese. No one speaks English at this place. None at all! They write that we can “press 9 and call the reception”, but once you do it – you can’t have any conversation with anyone at all. Even when you get down in person to the reception, no one can really communicate with you, even with Google Translate.  They exhibit zero flexibility. The approach is – it’s our way or the highway. All is extremely polite, but no left, no right! Can we have a laundry service arranged? The answer is “no!”. Can we communicate with you via WhatsApp or email? – No! Can we come later to breakfast? No. Can we have dinner at a later time, since we can’t come earlier just this one day? No! Basically, if you want to sleep a bit later during your vacation – forget it! Either show up at 8 or 8:30 am for breakfast, or go hungry! Can we buy your Yukata? – No! Also, we were asked to indicate every day what time we intend to go out – something that adds pressure, as  on vacation one may want to improvise, rather than plan ahead their outings.  Given that this place charges exuberant prices, the lack of the most basic hospitality features (communication, laundry, customer-focused flexibility) is astounding! We now staying at another Ryokan, 90 minutes away and see that everyone can speak some English and the place is much more focused on the needs of a foreign traveler, as opposed on preserving the holy rigidity of an existent system. 

The best hotel/ryokan in the world!

超級棒的酒店，270°無敵景觀，一面朝海，一面看小樽全市景觀。舊式日風服務，服務人員都是有年紀中老年人，特別有大宅深院的低調沉穩。懷石料理也特別講究，為了展示新鮮，先給看活動的鮑魚、再做簡單烹煮，不加任何調料，體驗極致純天然的味美。度假的絕佳境界，在這裏真正得到身心放鬆愉悦。

景色優美！日式房間寬敞舒適，温泉水温適宜且有助於消除疲勞！日式餐食非常精緻，服務周到！在繁華的都市中是一處放慢腳步放鬆身心的好去處！

非常棒的一家日式酒店，無論是服務、衞生、泡湯、餐食，無可挑剔。酒店遠離鬧市，但是有專車來回於築港站和酒店之間，非常方便。

非常有故事的酒店，在小樽築港的山頭上，所有房間都是日式榻榻米，面積很大，很衞生。可以電話請酒店派車到JR小樽築港站來接送，自己抵達酒店麻煩一些。安排的晚餐和早餐非常豐盛，都含在房費裏了。泡湯的話，除了房間內的小湯池，酒店的露天風呂對着大海，感覺太棒啦！以後還會來住