Lodges in Hakuba

"This trip to White Horse stayed in three hotels, run by Japanese, and European and American. This home is the most satisfying. First of all, the hotel chosen by the Japanese in Hakuba must be better than the Europeans. No matter the cleanliness of the hotel or the enthusiasm of the boss. This old Japanese couple has been running a homestay for over 30 years. At first glance, the boss has accumulated many years. The homestay occupies two single-family villas, and the boss owns a bus! The two of us sat on the exclusive bus to enjoy the pick-up and drop-off service. My chin was frightened. I never came to Baima to see the hotel's own bus. The location is great. Five minutes walk from base camp, one of Hakuba's core bus stops. If you go to Wuxi 47, it will be more convenient. Besides the room. It is very large and has its own separate toilet (including bathroom), which is not available in many Japanese-style hotels. The only shortcoming of the room was the two of us, but there were only two single beds and no large bed. A new family room was given to us when I checked in. It was also three single beds, so maybe there is no double room? The room we booked did not include meals. The breakfast was 600 yen per person. We thought it was not expensive and we tried it. Em, there was only one slice of toast and unlimited coffee milk cereal, which was too monotonous and not worth trying. It is better to go out a few hundred meters to buy breakfast near base camp. Finally the owner is very enthusiastic (this is the advantage of all Japanese homestays). There are local apples for sale at the front desk. The price of 100 is a conscience. I stayed for 3 nights and ate 5 apples. It was very sweet."

"Meteor Garden is located conveniently 5-7min drive from main Hakuba Village. One thing to note is that the main cafe in the stay is not open so need to find other dining alternatives. Rooms and amenities are clean and well maintained, the one issue is that it’s not well marked on Google map as it keeps pointing to the restaurant which was not opened and gave us a false alarm. Wifi is not the fastest and does not handle multiple devices that well especially when you are trying to work. There was some confusion when booked via Trip as the contact information was somehow truncated so hotel was unable to contact me without going through Trip thus messages were delayed. Overall it was an enjoyable stay and everyone had a great time…"

"The boss is very nice. The breakfast and dinner are also very good. However, their heating and hot water regulations are sometimes a bit troublesome. It would be much more convenient if there was a hot water bottle in the room. I had a cold for the past two days, and sometimes I felt that the room was not warm enough and I had to put on more clothes. Then because the heating is provided at night; but I did not go downstairs to ask the boss if I wanted the room to be warmer. Fortunately, I brought a kettle with me and would go downstairs to get hot water, but it would be a bit of a bother to the staff. "

"Let me start with the good parts:  - The location is convenient, with lots of restaurants, cafes, and rental shops nearby. They also work with Hakuba Lion Adventure, so we got some great discounts for rentals.  - The room was very clean and well-equipped, they also have a dry room for snow gears.  - Breakfast was freshly made every morning, with a nice variety and really delicious food.   However, our experience was tainted by communication issues with the owner. Upon arrival, he realized we had come by car and immediately scolded us for not informing him in advance. He claimed to have messaged us about it, but we later discovered he was talking about *********** while we had booked via Trip.com. Since no parking was reserved for us, we had to use a nearby rental space for 1,000 yen per night. We accepted this, understanding that parking is limited during snow season. Until the third night, our car got stuck in the snow, so we went to ask for help. Instead of assisting us, the owner started blaming us again, saying he had already sent us a message telling us not to drive because of the heavy snow. But we were very confused because we double checked all our booking platform messages and emails there was NO such message at all. So before we checked out, we brought this up again and the owner just said, “Well, that’s not my fault, and I don't recommend booking platforms such as Agoda, Trip.com or *******”. This place is quite a disappointment. The location itself is great, and the breakfasts were amazing, but the owner’s attitude completely ruined the experience. To make things even more frustrating, the owners speak Mandarin (as does one of us) and a bit of English, yet the owner insisted on speaking Japanese, fully aware that we didn’t understand it. It almost seemed like he was pretending to be Japanese. If you’re expecting authentic Japanese hospitality, this is not the place. I genuinely liked the place and even considered staying for a week to work remotely, but the owner’s behavior made that impossible. Who wants to be scolded multiple times during a vacation?"

"The host was nice and helpful. The location was good, close to the bus terminal. The pictures shown on the link are not the same as what we have seen in the hotel. The room was a bit dusty and the hot water was running out in the middle of the shower."