The room on the second floor, and the entire second floor smelled like cigarettes. The staff quickly found us a different room (on the third floor) which was very kind of them. The room was also quite larger than the room we initially got.
With that being said, the overall impression of the hotel was not good.
There is no storage of luggage on departure day (in case you’d like to visit the Shirakawa-Go town on the day of departure), no clerk outside to assist with parking (there’s even a permanent sign
Outside saying “Sorry our clerk is not here today”, and the onsen facility has definitely seen better days.
The rooms also felt quite dated, but also somewhat charming in the sense that they are in the Japanese tatami style with a western twist.
Lastly the food was probably some of the worst I’ve ever tried - but note this is a subjective opinion, I’m not into eating octopus, snails, raw fish and stuff like that, which the dinner and breakfast leans heavily into. I kinda wish there was a non fish option for those like me, or at least that there was more meat. Barely ate any of the breakfast except for the yoghurt..
Compared to our stay in Hakone (where the food also was traditional Japanese), this felt like a place from a different century.
I recommmend if you want to see Shirakawa-Go to stay in either Takayama or Kanazawa and do a day trip from there instead, and get a higher/better standard.