Name: Berg Marukaneya
Address: Toyosato 6537, Nozawaonsen, Nozawaonsen, Nozawaonsen, 389-2502, Japan
Rating: 8

Air conditioning

Smoke-free property

Heating

Private check-in/check-out

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Soundproof rooms

Family room

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Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

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Restaurant

Vending machine

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Free Wi-Fi

Internet

English

Japanese

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Parking

Fax and copy machine

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Kids

Ski storage

Ski passes available

Ski facilities rental

Ski-to-Door Access

Skiing

Winter sports

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Berg Marukaneya

Nozawaonsen

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annex

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kitchen

We settled on ‘the Berg’ after favouring the ryokan’s proximity to the Karasawa ski slopes which has some easy green runs. Ironically, the run wasn’t open when we were there due to lack of snow, but Nagasaka is also pretty close and is around 10 minutes walk, or you can take the free shuttle bus there. Hikage is a further 5 minutes or so along, again serviced by the free shuttle. If you need ski lessons, Hikage is where you need to head to, they also have ski hire at both there and Nagasaka areas. 

Sato-san the owner checked us in and was super helpful throughout our stay, even driving us to Nagasaka runs one day and dropped us off the central bus stop on day of departure. Warm and friendly Japanese service, from both Sato and the rest of the team. 

The room itself was comfortable, and typical ryokan style where you have a small table in the room, and tatami mats on the floor. When its time to sleep, just take out the mats and blankets and make your bed for the night! The rooms have their own toilet, but no shower or bath, you can use the great onsen in the basement, and like previous reviewers, we were the only ones to see use it while we were there. 

Breakfast is served daily and the menu varies each day, usually there was fruit and some fish, but for westerners they have toast and jam. They also do dinner, and the ryokan has a washing machine in the basement, plus ski equipment fore hire at super reasonable rates, we hired skis and boots for a day and a half for 3,500 Yen. The list pass was 7,000 for same period. 

The nearest bus stop is Nakao which is about 7 minutes on foot from the hotel, you can walk back to the main bus stop in around 10 minutes and probably a better option when leaving, as the bus is usually full before leaving central stop. The buses back to Iiyama are not overly frequent, nor are the Shinkansen’s back to Tokyo/Nagano.

You can take an afternoon tour to the Snow monkeys for around 5,500 Yen which is well worth it, its an hour each way there, and you get another hour in the park and the same to walk in from the drop off point, there and back. 

Staying in Ryokan’s (or B & B’s for that matter) often make me feel like I am staying in someone’s house, but I didn’t feel like this at the Berg, which is a truly lovely establishment with traditional ryokan touches. Remember this is a cash only property so make sure you have plenty on hand for the room rates and lift passes etc. 

Love this place!

Booked this hotel based on the positive reviews in TripAdvisor and pictures on the website.  

Checked in and given a room in their staff quarters.  Room was a dismal bare room with worn out mattresses and dirty tatami mats.  Clothing lines ran across the entire area of the ceiling so this must have been the hotel laundry room.  Even with a Herculan stretch of imagination, there is nothing that resembles the picture in the website. 

As for the 'wonderful/ friendly service' that other reviewers commented on, it just mind-boggling. Makes me wonder how "wonderful" can their service possibly be when they have no qualms in giving you a storage/laundry room to stay. Sleeping in a storage room is definitely not what I had flew 14 hours from Texas for. And don't even start me on the room rate.  It doesn't matter that I was stuck with a storage room, I am still expected to pay the rate of that room in the picture. 

Don't waste your time and energy at this hotel. Find another hotel.  What is the point of going all the way to Nozawa and test your luck with this hotel?

This hotel is a joke !!!

I rarely write reviews but for the few that I do write, they are to commend the excellent services of the restaurants/hotels that I had the pleasure to experience.  However, my recent experience with Berg Marukaneya in Nozawaonsen had been so appalling that I feel it must to be shared with other travellers.  Berg Marukaneya is exactly the kind of hotel that calls for stricter controls over hotel governance and a hotel that travellers should be warned about.  

We had booked a room for 5 nights at the Berg Marukaneya, costing approximately US$215 per night. We had selected a Standard Japanese Style room because (i) the size of the room can fit our family of 2 adults and 1 child ( aged 9 years old) and (ii) the room has its own toilet.  Many accommodations in Nozawaonsen only has a communal toilet located outside the room and is shared amongst all the hotel guests.  From the beginning, we had decided that a communal toilet is not suitable for our family, so we had selected our hotel room based on this criteria. 

When we checked into the Berg, we were assigned a room located in a building across the road from Berg. The building is called the "Annex".  We were given a small windowless room, measuring around 3 meters x 3 meters.  The room could barely fit in 3 mattresses and our 2 suitcases.  There was only 1 toilet and 1 hand basin in the building and is shared amongst all the guest (both males and females).  There is no bathroom in the Annex, so to take a shower/bath, guest are required to walk outside and across the road to the Berg and use the bathroom facilities there. This is extremely inconvenient as it is snowing outside.  The condition of room and the mattresses in the Annex are very old.  There were stains on the wall and the poor ventilation made the room suffocating.  I am shocked that Berg finds it acceptable to offer this as a "hotel room".   

Of course, we immediately complained to the hotel front desk and told them that this room is completely different to what we had originally booked and the condition of the room is unacceptable. We had spoken to 2 staff members and 1 of them was the manager.  We were told that the hotel is overbooked and they cannot offer us any alternative room.  The only "help" they can offer is to allow me to use their staff toilet in the Annex, as an alternative to the communal toilet. After long talks with these staffs, it was clear that the hotel will not offer any help or alternative. 

As it was impossible for us to stay at the Annex for 5 nights, we immediately had to find another hotel. To make matters worst, it was the busiest time in Nozawaonsen and we could not find any available accommodations online. We had no option but to drive around Nozawaonsen in the night and in snowing conditions, from hotel to hotel, looking for accommodation.  We ended up finding a hotel in Kijimadaira, a 30 minute drive outside of Nozawaonsen. This being a huge inconvenience as we had already booked all our activities and ski lessons in Nozawaonsen

Upon returning back from Japan, we immediately submitted a complaint to Booking.com, the online platform we had used to book Berg.  This matter is now being investigated by Booking.com.  We learnt from Booking.com that Berg had denied we had made a complaint to them after checking into the room and they are unaware of our dissatisfaction. This is a blatant lie from the hotel and is outrageous. We are able to provide several witnesses who were present at the time I made the face to face complain to the them.

As we had booked the Berg through Booking.com, we expect Booking.com to protect its customers and not promote untrustworthy hotels on its platform. It will be very interesting to see how Booking.com resolves this matter.  The outcome will surely reflect on how well Booking.com is protecting its customers. 

I am a frequent traveller and understand problems arises that are beyond anyone's control. Therefore, we just need to make best of the situation and focus on the positives.  However, with Berg, from the start, when it overbooked its rooms, to offering sub standard rooms that differs vastly to what is advertise and finally to their response of our complaints (both face to face and via Booking.com) has been handled by them with dishonesty and lack of professionalism.

AVOID- Unprofessional and Dishonest

This was our first stay in a Ryokan style hotel and I cannot fault Berg Marukaneya. It is a family run business and we were greeted on our arrival by Sato who spoke good English and was very friendly and helpful throughout our 5 day stay. Our room was very clean and pleasant and had a private toilet and basin. As with pretty much all of Nozawa Onsen's hotels/Ryokans bathing at the Berg is done in the hotel's private onsen's (men’s and women’s). We never made in there before 6pm and had the onsen's to ourselves every evening. Great way to relax after a day on the mountain. We had breakfast in the hotel, which included plenty of well prepared Japanese and western options, which we really enjoyed. There is also a very large and warm ski/boot room to dry your kit off overnight. A few minutes walk to the nearest ski lift and a pleasant 10 minute walk into the village centre. However, one of the best restaurants in town is only about 20 metres from Berg. It is called Tonkichi and specialises in Okonomyaki (cabbage pancakes). You'll need to book though as it is popular. When we left to spend a few days in Tokyo Sato organised for our snowboard bag to be sent to Narita Airport as we didn't want to struggle around Tokyo with it. We were able to pick it up from a baggage storage office right by our check in desk. Easy! Will definitely stay at Berg Marukaneya when we return to Nozawa Onsen.

Fantastic hotel

We loved our experience here and Saito-san was very accommodating when we arrived late after being caught at the airport after a snow storm. We were assisted with lift tickets and served a delicious breakfast (both Japanese and Western) every morning! The lodge was immaculate and very comfortable. The Kawasaka lifts were just up the road and the best Onsen just around the corner. Thank you Saito-san for a truly wonderful stay!

Berg Marukaneya

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