Just go there, a sublime experience. The surroundings, the views, the mountains, the deers, and the hotel. The rooms are very spacious, the decoration fabulous, the ground chairs are a piece of art, no to mention the cleanliness. The bathrooms and the open rotenburo not to be missed, and the service superb. The Kaiseki was one of the best to have even in comparison to the highest standards, and everything was just made to perfection. Do not miss the experience of spending the night on the island, and the Arimoto is worth every one of the many Yen you would pay to stay there, and much more. I wish we may make it at least once more.

I stayed with my mother and sister for two nights and enjoyed a good service.
Staffs are friendly, yet some seemed a bit unfamiliar with the place and couldn't give us information about the area, where to go, how to get to places, recommendable route, etc.

Food was good, the location was great. They give free night tour of the Itsukushima Shrine. Our guide was an elderly lady with a great humor (tour is in Japanese, not sure if they have one in other language).

Room was clean & spacious but I found the Futon (Japanese mattress) a bit too hard to sleep in.

Hiking up the hill behind the hotel is greatly recommended. Of the 3 routes to the top, we took Momijidani route, which had a unique rock at the top that is worth a look.

Definitely worth staying over night instead of day trip to the island, if you have enough time to spare.

I spent 1 night at the Grand Arimoto with my husband on May 20th 09.
We caught the ferry across from the mainland which only took 10 minutes. i called them when we arrived and a bus came several minutes later to collect us. Be prepared for the slightly hairy ride to the hotel winding up mountains the narrow roads, can be daunting, especially when the bus driver has to lock it up for a rogue deer!

We arrived at the hotel at 2:15pm, and we were hot, tired and exhausted having travelled by shinkansen in the morning from Kyoto and explored Hiroshima from 10-1:30pm.
We were thirsty and sweaty and desperate to get changed and have a lie down. The front desk staff spoke hardly any english, so i called upon my broken japanese to check us in. But check in was not until 3pm. i don't recall reading this on our booking and thought it was a strange time, as most check ins are 2pm. They were very insistent that we had to wait until 3pm, and suggested a drink at the bar..which was closed. The front receptionist fecthed us 2 drinks, a beer and a coke for almost $17..ouch. The lobby is very dated, like something from 1984, mint green and gold finishes, the furniture was scuffed and looked original...from 1984.
We waited, fell alseep in the lounge chairs and it became apparent that as more people arrived to check in, we all had to wait, the lobby started to look like a airport departure lounge. The right on 3pm, bingo...your room is ready!!??!!
The room itself was nice, a traditional tatami room section overlooking the Torrii Gate which was amazing!!! But the 2 single beds in the other section was interesting, i thought i reserved a queen, but i let it slide as we just wanted to rest.
Again, the furniture and interiors were very very tired, the wood trimmings were faded and split, as this was the most expensive room rate out of all the hotels we stayed at, i was a bit dissapointed by this. The view from the bathroom overlooking the Torri Gate was amazing, picture postcard stuff, but again, very dated bathroom and be sure to turn the light off at night as people from the street stare straight up at you in all your glory!
The proximity of the hotel to the Itsukushima Shrine is literally 2 minute walk, it's great.
we had a Kaiseki dinner included with our room rate, which really was amazing!!!
The western style breakfast in the morning also had us rolling out of the room, very generous.
The staff were always very courteous and professional, i just think the appearance of the hotel let it down, its in serious need of a makeover. Then it would be a destination hotel to visit again and again!!!

I spent one wonderful night at this charming hotel during end of summer. The staff was very attentive, making sure we we're comfortable with the yukata and double checking our dinner and breakfast decisions since we chose Japanese style food. We had a traditional room with an excellent view of the red torii gate, which looks even lovelier at night. The highlights were the kaiseki dinner, fresh and seasonal traditional food and the outdoor baths, so very relaxing. I'd advise caution when if you're going to use the hotel geta as they are quite worn. And be careful when using the internet in the lobby late at night, the whole island seems to power down and my web browsing was cut short. Overall I highly recommend the hotel and hope to visit it again.