Xplore by Active Life

The property is very dated with no lift only stairs. Basic 3 star and in need of a re fit. Staff were good

Pros: 1. Location is super good as it’s close to the ski lift. 2. Bed is very comfy and room is big. 3. Breakfast is good! 4. Staff are in generally nice. Cons: 1. The front desk lady talks too fast! 2. No Yukata (bath robe) provided in the room even thou they have onsen (hot spring), that makes it hard to go to onsen. And the opening hour of the onsen is very limited, only form 4-9pm. 3. Room is kind of too hot and no control to adjust the air con or heat. 4. No socket in the washroom so that u can’t use your hair dryer in the washroom but have to come out to use it. 5. No tall mirror for clothes matching purpose.

The stay was amazing! Lisa and her team at Xplore were always ready to help. They were a pleasure to interact with. The room was huge, clean, and comfortable. Wifi signal was strong in the room. There was a made-to-order breakfast free every morning, with a choice between a smoked salmon or mushroom plate with eggs (your choice of cooking style). There was also a free laundry machine in the basement (dryer costs 100 yen per use). Large drying room was available for the ski equipment 1 floor down. Unfortunately the snow was too high to ski out of the back door, but it was a short 5-10 min walk to the slope, so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. Would definitely stay here again if we return to Madarao Kogen!

Great staff, fantastic location about as close to the run as you can get in private accommodation. Closer to a hostel in my definition but that is the Japanese way. Good food with lots of options close by. Shuttle bus to town and near by resorts made the whole trip very smooth. Definately recommended.

Great location, great facilities and free yoga! Good breakfast and helpful staff. Oh and nice traditional style rooms but with the comfiest beds in japan. Will be back!

The employees are uber helpful. The rooms are slean, quiet, and spacious

Very close walking distance (and ski out) to the Madarao slope. Onsen bath is wonderful. Room is comfortable.

Unfortunately there are a few bad things to say about this place. On hotels.com, it advertises toiletries in the room but you don’t get any. There’s some shampoo and conditioner in the onsen but nothing like what Japanese hotels usually provide in rooms. There are no staff in the hotel at all after 7pm so if you need help after that time, you may struggle. The showers were 3 floors below our room (with the onsen) - we’d expect a shared bathroom to be on the same floor as the room, at the very least. Not sure why but the elevator and area around it smells like an engine room. There seems to be a cafe in the hotel but it’s not actually manned after breakfast so no coffee or other hot drinks are available after 10. Supposedly guests are meant to take snowboards etc. to the drying room in the basement and not walk through the lobby but people were constantly bringing wet equipment and snow covered boots through the lobby and staff didn’t seem to care. The hotel is advertised as ski in/ski out but it is not. You have to leave the hotel and walk 5-10 minutes up the road to the nearest ski lift. All in all, the hotel just feels like a slightly run down hostel for mostly young Australians - it’s certainly not an upmarket hotel. Breakfast wasn’t very good but it was complimentary so it’s hard to complain about it. The lobby area is the only place to relax in the hotel (outside of your room) and it can get quite cold. The wifi is

had a wonderful time here, place was clean and social, great breakfast, close to the slopes, and service by Lisa and Stuart and the rest of the staff was so friendly and attentive. i particularly appreciated that the hotel can arrange pickups to and from the train station. the onsen is also a bonus. Madarao is a true gem and these guys will make sure you have the best time.

All staffs are nice and friendly. The room I stayed was clean so I enjoyed the stay.

Great location, great staff. Lisa, Manager was so helpful. Breakfast was good. Hotel could use a bit of work, missing some things - ski rack at entry, drying room desperately needs work, no mini fridge or safe in room.

Don’t be fooled by website. This property feels like s poor university dorm. Extremely old & run down although rooms have been given minimal update with new beds & carpet. Included breakfast is sparse, cheap and other than an egg offers nothing nutritious. Also take note this property offers no shuttle service to get on or off bus down the mountain requiring one to drag bags through the snow up a grade which could be considerable effort if you had kids in tow. Compared to other properties on mountain this place has a long way to go to even come close to consideration for us. Stayed another night at a different property with outstanding customer service and incredible breakfast for same cost as this dismal experience.

It's a hotel renovated from an old building. They were open for just a few days so many things weren't ready. Don't expect luxury conditions from the hotel, but it has all the basics, good bed, good sheets, good bathroom, good breakfast (simple but good). It is what you pay for, it is a no-frill hotel. The hotel staff is extremely helpful and nice. The staff is almost exclusively non-Japanese speaker, which is quite unique in Japan. Pros and cons as a result. Easy to communicate to for non-Japanese speakers, but difficult if you need some local help. Hotel is very close to ski lifts, a bare 5 minute walk. Overall, we are happy with the hotel and will return.

Boiler wasn't working and no one couldn't take a bath. Our room wasn't clean enough, tatami mats were too old. I prefer other Active life hotels.

This hotel just renovated & opened under new management in Dec 2018. Rooms are nice, super comfy beds & staff are fantastic. Great location - only a 5 min warm-up walk to the slopes.

I liked the bathroom in the room the most. Very big and clean. It was very nice to be able to take a nice & relaxed bath in my own room after snowboarding all day. Washers and dryers were a little dirty. I think hotel stuff should check them more often.

I enjoyed the overall feel of the hotel and the staff was wonderful. It is really close to other restaurants and only a 3 minute walk to Madarao Ski Resort which was really convenient.

We had an amazing time there! The hotel was ran by a couple young Australian people who were great!! It was so nice to go to a hotel in japan and have people who spoke English easily! The food was westernized, which was amazing!!! The Onsen doesn’t fallow Japanese rules, they allow tattoos and you have to wear swimwear! 11/10. Totally recommend

Staff was very nice, but that does not make up for the horrible cost-performance of the hotel. Parts of the building are shut down, the onsen is half disassembled (joint male-female onsen), sauna shut down, rooms very basic, breakfast with bare minimum buffet, yet is priced at double any nearby lodge and at 1.5x the much better Madarao Kogen Hotel. Guess the investors have to get a high IRR on their investment to buy and minimally renovate the hotel.

Room is very very small, when I made the booking I saw 2 double bed in the pictures and I have booked for 2 adults and 1 child. However once we checked in we found out there is only a queen size bed avail in the room. The worst thing is you have to share one male and one female toilet with 12 other rooms. That’s insane. Dry room is useless there is no heat at all during my stay, the heater has no oil at all . Breakfast is included but allow yourself a hour for breakfast , there is only 2 staff serving 50-100 guest per day and you have to wait for your breakfast at leat half a hour