Stayed at the Hotel Nikko Nara for a conference in Nov 2011. Great staff, helpful for travelers that done speak Japanese. Great Location, connected to the JR train station with bus access to any place in the city and a easy walk to the park and shopping area.

the only draw back was the size of the single room. It was very small, so small that it was difficult to find a place to put my one bag. No dresser but a small closet.

I did see into a few double rooms and they had more space.

...discounting futon sleeping. And a great location for travelers - especially if you have luggage. Use the Nara JR train station (not the other Nara station) and you do not even have to go downstairs to get from train to hotel. Drop off your bags and go sightseeing. On day you leave Nara, leave the bags again, and retrieve them just before boarding train. Of course, each person has their own bed preference - but this one felt great from the second we hit it. Breakfast was a vast buffet - the usual Japan stuff, and western style - plus an assortment of fruits, cereal, and breads. Staff very pleasant and helpful - top notch service. Public bath was very nice indeed - though no yukata is provided. A warning - the hotel restaurants are very expensive (we did not try them). Walk up Sanjo street - we recommend the curries at Pinoccio - about three blocks up on right.

I stayed in this hotel in October 2009. The best rates for this hotel (we stayed around the Health Day weekend) was on the Nikko Nara's hotel website (in Japanese). The rate also on jalan was competitive, but not as cheap as the Nikko Nara. This was very good value for money, as the rate that we paid included breakfast. I need to let you know that I got this rate only the week before I travelled to Japan, so the rates were discounted in the first week of October and one bad thing was that we had a lot of trouble confirming with the hotel that they would honour the rate that was advertised and we booked in the Japanese website using English. They did come back (eventually) and confirm that they would, but it took us at least 4 days before they did and we got the confirmation on the day before we were to fly, so we were really cutting it fine!

As people described, the staff were very helpful (gave us maps and directions to places that we wanted to see and eat at and helped us to make a reservation for lunch to try the green tea porridge at a highly recommended restaurant) and the English wasn't bad. We also used the public bath, which we also highly recommend. That was my first bath experience and it was so good, I did it at every other place we stayed in Japan (where we could). The buffet breakfast was very good - you had a choice of Western and Japanese food. I tried both types of food - what I can say was that the fruits and vegetables were fresh. I thought that the choices for Japanese were better and I must admit that I liked the Japanese more (but by then, I was getting used to eating Japanese food in the morning). The location is also very excellent - very close to the train station and very easy to find.

Room wasn't that small (from my recollection). At the price that we paid (less than 15000 yen per night for a room with breakfast), it was great value.

We recently were in Japan for 14 days visiting family and stayed at the Nikko Nara Hotel. It was amazingly clean and had a wonderful bath tub-Japanese style. The rooms have a fridge where we would keep a platypus full of cold water taken from the tap. They are small by American standards but very efficiently organized.
The location is convenient to JR Station as you can access the train station from the hotel. It is a 7-10 minute walk to Kintetsu Station and to the major outdoor covered shopping streets. The hotel while attached by walkways to JR station is very quiet. I was pleasantly surprised by how quiet and easy to sleep it was given the proximity of the train.
They have a discounted price at the restaurants for set meals in the hotel if you are staying there and that extends to any friends and family that you invite to dinner there. The breakfast buffet includes traditional Japanese and American fare. The coffee was only warm instead of hot but that was the only thing that I would improve.
The staff is incredibly helpful and even wheeled our luggage on a cart to the limousine bus stop that is located about a block from the hotel.
The hotel is in a great location for transportation. There is a bus stop a block from the entrance where you can get a bus to practically anywhere in Nara prefecture. You can buy bus passes for the buses across from the hotel. There is the limousine bus stop located there that will take you to the nearest airport. We took the limousine bus to and from the Osaka Kansai Airport.. We had our check-in luggage shipped to the airlines on the way home. This service is available by a local shipper located in the gift shop located in the lobby. The price for this service is determined by size of luggage and distance that you would like it to go. If Nara is a way point in your travels they can ship it to your next hotel or inn. You can even ship it to Narita airport in Tokyo days before you leave and just utilize your carry on to live out of if you want to travel lightly.