Lake Biwa Otsu Prince Hotel

Awesome hotel and location with cracking view of the lake.

Only down side was that the pool and pool area were shut as it was Oct. Even if there was access to sun beds it would have been fine. So that we could have chilled out in the sun. Just no outside sitting areas at all.

The rooms were large and spacious. The view out over the lake was very nice. The buffet breakfast was very good. The shuttle to and from Otsu station was very useful and reliable.

I didn't like the charge for the swimming pool.

Everything except a delayed check-in was perfect. I've visited the Biwako Prince for various events but never stayed. I'll come again and hope to make it yearly as well as recommending it to friends here in Japan and abroad.

We were told we could check-in at 16:00 and arrived then but were told we couldn't check in until 17:00. If we had known, we would have stayed longer at the Miho Museum. We were going to Mt. Hiei the next morning, but didn't want such a big breakfast. Something less big. ¥2,000 for coffee, toast and an egg would be perfect with a view. I wanted to have a light breakfast but couldn't. That was disappointing.

Nice view from a room (that I paid extra for high floor) Close to local restaurants

Because I was on the 32nd floor, one had to plan departures carefully, as the banked elevators segregated floor locations. Waits exceeded one minute, especially during checkout. The bell staff was very condescending upon my arrival with a bicycle. I was doing BIWAICHI bike ride around Lake Biwa. He literally yelled at me in Japanese for not understanding where to park my rented bicycle overnight(out in the rear of an open parking lot), some 500' from the hotel entrance! The hotels rented bicycles were all housed, and lined up under the entrance Porte cochere. Another example of financial segregation under the Prince hotel operations. The Shiga prefecture encourages the tourist activity of riding a bike around the lake; so this action of not encouraging proximal placement of non-hotel bicycles was disappointing. This hotel utilizes checkout kiosks, which made it convenient, if one had no room charges. But, only one staff at other times due to labor constraints. For such a highly acclaimed chain of hotels, I am seriously using many of chains, or local hotels next time. I may be old, and Prince hotels can discount my comments, but they need to remember that I have accumulated MANY friends over 72 years...