Larrabee
Google
Beppu was one highlight of our trip to Japan. I say “one”, as there were many. And while we did not do too much in Beppu itself, we used it as a base to get to interesting areas around Beppu.|First off, the hotel was very interesting brutalist textured concrete art experiment of a hotel. A hint of squid game in terms of the stairs going everywhere. It was somewhat up the hill/mountain above the city, with good views, lots of little reflecting pools and art scattered around the hotel. It went for a somewhat “High” concept, rather than just being rooms.|Unfortunately, our first room on the first floor was musty. It appeared to have not been aired out, leaving us with a bad impression. And overall, the first-floor rooms have a view, but not as good. On the first floor you will see some pipes, some small trees, and somewhat still see the city in the valley.|We worked with the staff and upgraded ourselves to a second 2nd floor king room (it was crazy effort, but they went over the top eventually).|The room itself was great. A large room with a floating sink island in the room itself, a lounger, little table and a geothermal hot tub in enclosed glass on deck, with shower between indoor and outdoor. It had a bit of an Iceland vibe.|The tub was great, but glass hard to see through as years of condensation and fog left it a little hard to see. That said, it was hot, continuous flow and just private enough. The rest of the deck was pretty large and had chairs. A nice place to look out over the city.|The room just felt good to be in. I think it had a large super king bed. Reasonably comfortable. The toilet stall was interestingly small and dark, but had the Japanese super toilet. All good.|Despite the trouble in moving rooms, the hotel seemed to take customer service seriously, even if first line staff are not empowered to do anything it would seem. They wrote us a letter, acknowledged my wife’s birthday with a little treat, and provided a non-alcoholic welcome drink and went out of their way to take our picture (bad framing lol).|We asked for an in room early massage which unfortunately, they were not able to get the people doing it at that time. No real fault of theirs, although perhaps it does indicate the staff again, have less awareness of what can or cannot be done.|We did eat at their restaurant one night and it was very nice, we were very happy with it, although I recall the opening hours were a little limited as they had to squeeze us in at the very end of the day after we got back form our journeys and we were the last people in the restaurant. And it was not that late, maybe 8 pm.|Ordered take out and they got fried chicken confused with fries. Then much confusion about fixing the mistake. Funny|They seemed to take customer service seriously, with very friendly staff in the restaurant and a genuine interest in helping (once I think we got through to the management). They even mad a suggestion for a good Sushi restaurant in the city and helped us with a shuttle to the train-station that was walking distance. There was free parking|Overall, we very much liked this place, and would go back, however, would definitely book/request a higher room.