AYA Niseko

Had a pleasant stay during the fall season. The staff I interacted with were very helpful and informative before and during my stay. My studio room was very spacious and comfortable. Will visit again if I stop by the Niseko area in the future.

When we first arrived we were blown away by how spacious and lovely the room was (1.5 Bedroom room). And of course the amazing location right by the base of the family lift. There were so many things to love about this place - |- the kitchen was spacious and well equipped (dishwasher included!) |- the main bed was large and comfortable (second double sofa bed available) |- ski valet was convenient|- all our package deliveries were brought straight up to our room when they arrived ||But as we got into our week-long stay here, we noticed there was some room for improvement - |- during the daily mini cleans (towels and bins), our waters were topped up, but not our coffee pods. We had to write a note to request more each time|- the restaurant was wasted potential. It is in such a great location but is always empty for lunch and dinner. There's also no room service, or any sort of food delivery available|- no drying facilities in the room ||We were picked up from the Welcome Centre by Aya. When we arrived at the hotel, check in was quick and smooth. And when we got to our room our bags were already there from the shuttle bus along with our suitcases we sent via TA-Q-BIN earlier. ||We used the private onsen and the public one during our stay. I much preferred the public one. The private was ¥3000 for 1h and they say the onsen is meant to be for 3 but can easily fit 4. The public one had a large indoor bath and 2 smaller outdoor ones, one warm and one cold. The kids loved that novelty, and also having snow fall on you in the onsen is pretty special. The temperature of the public ones were a bit cooler and more comfortable too (only tried the women's).||I found it a bit odd that at checkout I wasn't asked how our stay was, but maybe the staff weren't too into small talk. All staff were very kind and polite throughout our stay though. And they were very quick to load our bags onto the shuttle bus back to the Welcome Centre. They also waited for our Chuo bus with us and then brought our suitcases to the bus for us too.||While I enjoyed our stay, I probably wouldn't stay here again, mainly because I'd rather stay near the King Gondola. Aya does offer a shuttle service over there, but it means you won't get there when the Gondola opens. But if you're happy with the Ace Family, this place is lovely. And close to Seicomart too.

During non winter period, there is nothing much to do here. Very few restaurants and shops are open, and the area gets dark very early (5pm). Private onsen is quite nice though, and the rooms are very clean too.

Strange arrangement with the restaurant downstairs which was not operated well. The in-house ski hire was several times Not recommended by hotel staff- we went anyways and they were great. Very strange. You had to pay extra for daily cleaning of the hotel room. downstairs often smelled like cigarette smoke due to people smoking very close to the doors. It was ok but not amazing. Also, nothing to do for kids and relatively far to walk to restaurants with children.

The most important things when choosing a hotel is the location and the bed comfort and the Aya has both. Absolute ski in/ski out and a great Ski valet. Rooms have forest, Yotei or village view and we enjoyed our view of the village. We had a 1.5 bedroom apt - the kitchen was well equipped and housekeeping kept us stocked up with plenty of free water. Room has a lot of storage and drying cupboards. The bathroom amenities were great and the heated floors were fabulous. If I could make some suggestions - lighting in the bathroom needs to be improved. Putting on makeup was challenging. Soap bars would be a nice option although it seems this is rare now in Japan hotels.|The room needs a full length mirror and all the pillows are very soft.|Some english instructions on the washing machine would be appreciated. I know we are in Japan but almost every other device in the room had english instructions and we struggled on the w/m with google translate. Staff were very helpful though.|The best thing about the property is the location. A perfect stroll to all the restaurants and convenience stores and also close to nature with fab views and accessibility. The worst thing about the property was by FAR the breakfast. It was like a budget school camp cafeteria with plastic cups, little variety and sub-standard quality. It was not in keeping with the lux feel of the rest of the property. We only ate there twice in a week despite paying for it in the rate. |Otherwise, we would thoroughly recommend AYA and hope to go back again one day.

Summary: nice furnishing and aesthetics, good onsen, great ski valet, poor soundproofing and management of unruly guests, mediocre breakfast. Stayed in late Feb till March for 6 nights. We got a room near the glass access control entry and the sound proofing was poor, could often hear guests walking and talking along the corridor. This was tolerable as it happens in the morning. However, we were unlucky to have a group of thai guests as our neighbour (they stayed in the corner premium room/suite). Despite being quite far down the corridor from our room, their nightly parties and big group gatherings involving alcohol (we saw multiple guests carrying liquor in and out of the room) caused significant noise and disturbance to our sleep. We called the front desk several times over a few nights to feedback and the staff's management of the issue was not up to expectations. They went to the room to advise the guests who didn't belong to the room to leave but ultimately did not stop their gathering as the guests chose not to heed their advice. All said, the hotel staff did put in effort (and arranged for us to stay on a different floor for one night) but did not prioritise the outcome. It was quite disappointing to know that Aya's hotel did not have a zero tolerance policy towards rowdy behavior disrespecting other guests comfort. I'm not sure if that's the japanese hospitality culture, where the rudest, most aggressive guests have the upper hand at the expense of other rule abiding guests. It's sad because Aya did well on many other aspects. Ski valet was awesome, breakfast was mediocre and they did not ensure full selection of food even before 10am which is their official last walk in time of buffet breakfast (1030am end buffet, 10am last walk in). At 945am, 30% of the dishes were out and when asked, staff simply said no more replenishment. I mean if that's your policy then don't state your last walk in at 10am.

Aya is a beautiful hotel in a great location with easy access to the slopes.|The rooms are well set out and equipped for all your needs.|The staff on the Front service desk are professional and friendly and very helpful.|The only thing we didn’t love was breakfast time. The space doesn’t seem big enough for peak times so if you can avoid the morning rush it would be a lot more pleasant. The only coffee available is from an urn and it’s watery. But the fresh cooked eggs are fabulous!|We really enjoyed our stay here.

First time at Aya during early March and it was a wonderful stay! I very much appreciated the convenience of the shuttle to/from Kutchan station and to the different Hirafu gondolas. They also have a partnership with Rhythm Rental so you could just return your skis in the hotel. Staff are all around very friendly. Didn't notice the non-asian/asian staff having different attitudes during my stay so that's an improvement from previous reviews. The aussie ladies at ski valet have the best, cheerful attitude and they really brightened up our vacation. Thank you and forgot to ask for their names. There have been several reviews around lack of soundproofing. We're blessed that we didn't have this problem. It could be that we're not in peak season anymore and we're not close to an expensive suite. I too would be very frustrated and disappointed if staff decided to cater to more expensive rooms. Luckily, that didn't happen and was able to enjoy. Onsens are very refreshing and very small. For a large hotel like this, I've been in small Japanese hotels with larger public baths so it was a little bit disappointing. I have been very lucky for most of my onsen days except for one where the changing area was filthy. Hair was all over the sinks (rude guests) and towels overfilling. It was a Monday night too, so I'm not sure what happened. Too many came on Monday night or the staff was out sick. Hot breakfast buffet was nice treat. It's fairly standard. I'd take this over a continental breakfast anytime because there was hot soup, rice, meat (switches between korean), selection of fried foods, omelette/sunny-side egg, cold vegetable side dishes, bread and cheese platter. I quite appreciate the fruit platter, especially grapefruit for that Vitamin C because it seemed like every other guest was coughing so I needed that. As for the room itself, our 1.5 apartment was gorgeous, spacious, and very clean. It seemed like there was some hardwater surfaces in the shower area though so it looked less new. Our dishwasher had problems and they swiftly helped us with what looked like an on-staff technician. There are improvements that could be made. The couch looks nice but was very hard to sit on. There were times my bum was extremely uncomfortable, so it would be great if they could switch out the couches. There is no in-unit AC/heating so the rooms were very warm. Luckily, I have experience with sleeping in high heat but it was not that comfortable and something could be done about the central heating.