Yutorelo-an Annex

The room was very spacious, more than enough for two people. There was a balcony with a view. There weren't a lot of people at the hotel when we stayed there.

The location of the hotel is very inconvenient and to get to the hotel we had to walked up a very steep hill with our suitcases. It was quite unpleasant. Even though the hotel offers shuttle bus services, note that the service from the train station (Hakone-Yumoto) to the hotel can only be arranged from 3 pm (at the time of check-in). The hotel did not offer shuttle bus services from the hotel to the main train station (Hakone-Yumoto station) and only offered shuttle bus services from the hotel to Gora station (with 2-3 buses in the morning till 12 pm). If you're taking public transports at Hakone, the location of the hotel will also be a concern. We had to transfer 2-3 buses to return to the hotel from the lake area. The value for money was not good at all, considering other options at Hakone. The facilities were quite old. Overall, we do not recommend staying at this hotel.

The town of Gora itself is lovely and I would recommend a visit here, unfortunately I don't have alot of good things (if any) to say about this hotel.

Unfortunately the list of issues with this hotel is long. The facilities themselves are quite rundown. The 'hot spring' onsen doesn't work (I'm not certain this is coming from a hot spring) Most of the times we were in there, the taps for the spring weren't on so the water wasn't circulating. We asked them to turn on but this wasn't successful. The rooms have facilities for basic cooking but no utensils at all are kept in the rooms, so you need to ask at reception everytime you need something for the kitchen. The hot water for the bath / shower appears to turn off later in the evening. Whilst the hotel says it has Wi-Fi - this really only seems to work in the lobby, not in the rooms. The shuttle services doesn't appear to be an ongoing / rotating service - there's only set times for it. Whilst we were there, it unexpectedly snowed (which was fantastic!) and I found myself caught out in the snow near one of the other hotels the shuttle stops at. I waited at that hotel and asked the driver if he could drop me around to my hotel. He declined and wouldn't let me on the bus - left me in the snow. I wouldn't recommend this hotel, particularly at the price being charged.