mnredfox

Looking at booking next month. Of course my travel dates overalap or get near the Chinese New Year and Sapporo Snow Festival, but hotel is charging some 379K pts per night for high demand nights for the standard room. Ouch. I remember booking fo 30K/night...

mileagerunner

The hotel has basically zeroed out award nights for Jan and Feb. Last year this time, there was still some last-minute availability at 30k/night. Hotel has gotten too popular with Asian tourists.

RCTP

Yeah and this is their peak period. Just stayed with them over NYE and wasn't expecting any upgrades. Wasn't disappointed by that and it was difficult to get a table at the in house restaurants with them almost fully reserved.

The breakfast restaurant staff could use with better training. As a HH member, I was sent to the normal line. But realised that some people before and after me were sent to the normal lines too. I talked to the staff and told her I'm a HH member, and she looked around my card sleeve and was visibly confused. I had to take out my phone and show her my HH app with my HH account before she realised her mistake and brought me back to the HH priority queue.

It wasn't a big deal except they were letting in 4 to 5 groups from the HH queue for every 1 group from the normal queue.

After I used my phone, HH members in the normal queue also did the same.

One guy was so pissed he was yelling at her for wasting his time queuing in the normal line.

Another guy came in and showed his card sleeve and she told him, "sorry no breakfast". His eyes opened big and asked "what do you mean no breakfast?"

She told him "breakfast not included"

And the guy went berserk "I'm a diamond member, what do you mean breakfast not included?"

The lady was visibly shaken and too intimidated to say anything. And the guy told her "you know what? Just get me a table. I'll sort this mess out with your people downstairs later."

evergrn

These are foreigners throwing tantrum, correct? I realize half the staff and clientele at the hotel are foreigners, but nonetheless this is still Jpn. Female staff at Melt are all either Japanese or Chinese. Majority of the restaurant Japanese staff are functional with English, but certainly not fluent. Plus public confrontations over something like that are not commonplace amongst Japanese. You don't yell or go berserk at the hotel staff over something like that, esp in Jpn. You're right that the staff needs better training. But guests need to exercise some restraint.

Btw, when we've stayed there during summer, we always get to the breakfast at opening when a long queue forms, and I have never seen a separate Hhonors line.

mnredfox

After staying here for the first time back in 2010 I knew it was only going to get more crowded and more experienced wife as more and more Asian travelers found money and skiing. Still a charming place but probably the last time I get ripped off.

mnredfox

Wrapped up my third stay here. Staff welcomed me back again (though I feel this sometimes has no meaning as I’ve got this from hotels I’ve never been to before). Got an upgrade to king deluxe room (basically larger room) but the extra space was nice for all the gear we dried at night. I persistently checked availability which allowed me to reduce my stay rate from a whopping 195K per night to 60K. The hotel has good cancellation policy where you can cancel up 24 hours before. No Yotei room but it was snowing so much when we were there you couldn’t see it anyway.

Breakfast has been the same as years past, but this time around I enjoyed the crab miso soup (real crab). It seemed like the selection was slightly smaller but spread was still good. I still recommend a 630 breakfast right as they open. Onsen is the same as before in past, but there seems to be more and more tourists who simply do not understand the concept of following the rules (ie silence, not making the onsen a playground for your kids, not bringing drinks to the onsen, and no cell phones for pictures) - but I attribute this to increased Chinese tourism which I’ve seen more and more of the past 8 years.

Staff is still wonderful, and ski valet and boot valet is no exception. Enjoyed the welcome drink for diamonds.

Lift tickets are still super reasonable and the skiing still top notch. The Hilton shuttle works flawlessly to Hirafu still, just show up 10 min before it leaves as the bus gets busy.

SP03

Was there a few weeks ago. I thought th breakfast was very good. I tried to stick to Japanese items like crab soup, rice topped with furikake, smoked fish. Decent selection of bread. They have Hokkaido Apple jam too.

The onsen can get very crowded between 4-6. Mostly Japanese on weekends. And more westerners during the week.

You get a drink coupon as gold as well.

The ski valet is nice but I don’t understand why they need a ticket instead of just using room number. Seems unnecessary and a hassle. I also wish they have vents for boots overnight.

mnredfox

I think the onsen from 4-6pm is the worst time, even 1-3pm after cleaning can be busy too. 8pm-10pm is a bit more quiet. My favorite times to hit the onsen was from 530-6am, about 50% of the time no one was there.

I get what you're saying about ski valet, but Japan uses a ticket system often and it keeps things in check and is part of the rules/process society. Take for example the Airport limo buses in Tokyom any bag you check underneath the cabin has a tag they check when you get the bag back. Honestly I like the system.

RCTP

mnredfox

Well as of last week they had draft beers and house wines you could select. There's even a menu for it. Did they say no?

edloks1

Hi, Im headed to Niseko Hilton in week with 3 kids (7, 6, and 3 years old], and 2 adults so 5 of us total. We booked the deluxe family room for 40k HH points. Ive contacted the Hilton Niseko via email and they responed by offering extra beds at no cost, but said that there was no free breakfast for gold members. Ive read through this whole thread and it seems like gold and diamond members have gotten complimentary breakfasts in the past. Has anyone received this benefit recently? thanks

mnredfox

edloks1

hmmm, I was told in writing via email that I would be provided extra beds at no charge. I hope this holds up. Ill report back after my stay to update about this and the gold breakfast status.

RCTP

​​​​​​Couple of years back while staying as gold had no issue with complimentary breakfast for 2 (even though I've booked the room for 1 pax).

Over nye 2017 I did come across a DYKWIA at the breakfast queue giving the restaurant staff a hard time, asking why is he not given complimentary breakfast as a gold. Back then I thought it was a mistake on the hotel part, but now that you guys are asking about gold breakfast... Hmm.. maybe something changed .

But shouldn't be since Hilton is still providing continental breakfast for gold, unless the hotel is going rogue or the guest selected points instead of breakfast.

edloks1

In the Hilton Honors App on my phone, the reservation has a "benefits" section and in it "upgrade to preferred room" and "complimentary continental breakfast" are listed as gold member benefits for the Hilton Niseko. Ill bring this up with the hotel when I check in and see what happens.