LONGINGHOUSE Kyukaruizawa Suwanomori

The location was great, very close to Old Karuizawa. Free parking was a huge plus, and they even had two types of hair irons (curling and straightener), a hairdryer, and even the shower head, all from ReFa, which was fantastic. It seems the restaurant gets fully booked, so reservations are recommended.

I've never stayed in such a terrible Japanese hotel. Cons: 1. **Filthy!** For a 2600 yen-a-night hotel, I booked it specifically for the private onsen. I reserved it half a day in advance, only to be shocked when I arrived that evening: the trash can was still full of various garbage from previous guests! Pushing further inside, there were even several used towels thrown next to the bath! When I called to inquire, they said it was because all the slots were booked, so there was no time to clean. You can imagine how dirty that onsen must have been! 2. **Chaotic management!** When I called the front desk, they kept saying the problem was due to having only two private onsens that were fully booked. They completely dodged the fact that poor management and cleaning were the real reasons this incident occurred! 3. **Incapable of resolving issues!** The solutions they offered were either to bathe at 10:50 PM or for us to go to another hotel (the outdoor temperature was 3 degrees Celsius, and it was a 10-minute drive away, making it a half-hour round trip – are you kidding me?). Besides that, guests were expected to just deal with it themselves! For a 2600 RMB-a-night room, consumers are left to sort out their own problems! 4. Even after Ctrip intervened, the hotel said, "How about we let you check out an hour later?" Thanks, but no thanks. I wanted to escape the moment I woke up, not wanting to stay an extra second. Never again.