Hotel Indigo HAKONE GORA by IHG

Checkin process was not smooth. The person checking us in was arrogant/rude. Arrived at the room and pleasantly surprised how nice it was. They advertise “onsen in the room”, but it’s basically a bath tub. Had dinner and breakfast at the hotel and the food is good. Forgot my iPods and they sent them by courier to my next hotel. Staff in general were very nice and helpful, unlike the person who checked us in.

There was a nice sushi restaurant nearby. It was worth checking out. Room is ok but nothing special about the layout. Quite a distance to go to Gora station. You need to climb a steep hill. Apart from a 7-11 and the sushi restaurant there are not much options left besides what is available in the hotel. The onsen is unisex btw. I prefer a separate onsen for male and female.

Spacious room, fast-filling Onsen bathtub and little special goodies and features like an AI speaker that interacts with the hotel room or a speaker in the bathroom, so you can follow the TV while taking a bath. Very nice hotel to enjoy, like on a rainy day. Lots of activities, shops, and restaurants nearby.

Very nice view and onsen in our room and excellent service! Food at the restaurant was fantastic and we had two dinners at the hotel. Cantonese-speaking staff made us feel like home and other staff are also very helpful and professional. Highly recommend anyone who needs a weekend getaway to stay at this hotel.

The room was excellent. Clean, spacious and definitely enjoyed the private hot spring. Location wise, not the most accessible but manageable with the on demand shuttle from Gora station. Service was good in general. However, many items like razor and skincare required separate ordering. While they were free, we were told the skincare stuff was out of stock on day 3. The products received across the first 2 days were also inconsistent. Amenities wise was kind of disappointing. The public bath was aimed towards tourists, which is fine. Footbath had mosquitoes unfortunately. Laundry service was kind of expensive for us at least, priced around 700yen per piece. Other than that, the one and only restaurant was underwhelming. We ate the normal course dinner priced at around 8000 yen. It was okay. The only other food options around are sushi, pizza, Chinese food and seven eleven. We ate mainly sushi and seven eleven. All in all, it was not a bad stay, but you are mainly paying for the private bath in the room. For a five star hotel, the other aspects were slightly disappointing.