We had been spending our nights at ryokans and decided to splurge for a good night's rest before leaving for Hakone the next morning. The design of the hotel is modern, being a business hotel. The room is large by Japan standards and the bathroom is nice. In the morning, the lake is a beautiful sight. The japanese restaurant upstairs serves very good sashimi, although there was a small fishbone in one of the salmon pieces. Just be within the timing for the shuttle buses.

I would recommend this hotel to any mid-range traveler. It's clean, comfortable, and the rooms are definitely bigger than average for Japan, with pleasant views across Japan's biggest lake.

I stayed here in early April, not necessarily by choice, but I decided to head to Japan pretty late in the day, and as this was peak blossom-spotting time, it was impossible to find a vacancy in central Kyoto.

I was a bit apprehensive about the travel to/from Otsu from Kyoto, and being out of the city. But once I found my barings, and knew where I was going, it actually worked out pretty well and in the end didn't really prove any additional hassle having to make the short commute into Kyoto to do my sightseeing.

The important thing is to keep across the hotel's bus schedule, which takes you to/from the hotel to Otsu station -- 5 mins drive away. From there, Kyoto is only 15 mins on the train. If you miss the bus, a taxi is around £8.00 back to the hotel.

If you bought a Japan Rail Card before traveling, you can use it on the train to/from Kyoto to Otsu so it doesn't cost you anything more. Just flash your card to the people on the ticket gate.

The hotel is definitely more for business travellers -- it has a conference centre attached. It's a big ol' glass skyscraper, so quaint Japan this ain't, and even the reception area is pretty cold looking. Still, the staff were pleasant enough, and the rooms are very big, especially for Japan. My bed was probably the size of two doubles, and I also had a seating area with sofas, as well as plenty of cupboards to store my bags and clothes.

I booked a high floor, and the views across lake Biwa are great.

The room has a TV with a few US news channels. There is in-room internet, but you have to rent a modem from reception, which works out pretty expensive at around £9.00 - 10.00 per day.

The bathroom is very Japanese, with one of those electronic toilets with a heated seat! There's a separate sink area, then a wet room type facility to shower in. The bath is also very Japanese, in that it's not very long, but very deep. It's all more practical than luxurious. The hotel supplies shampoo etc.

The room was clean and comfortable, and you can have the option to have it cleaned daily. BUT if you inform reception in the morning, to say you don't want your room cleaned -- to help the environment -- they will give you a gift voucher for the hotel shop, which will pay for any snacks you might want.

There's not much going on around the hotel, and didn't seem to be much going on in Otsu, either, so I would advise eating/having your fun in Kyoto, and then heading back to this hotel just to sleep.

The hotel bus has it's own bus stop just across the street from the train station. Cross the road near the McDonald's end of Otsu station, and you will see a road which is heading away from the station, between two office blocks -- I *think* one is a police building. The bus stop is on the left hand side of the road heading away from the station.

Also, have plenty of cash with you -- I found nowhere to get money out in Otsu, or Kyoto, and just about had enough before heading back to Tokyo. The tourist sites are largely cash only, including the gift shops and many Japanese banks do not accept non-Japanese bank cards. The only means of getting cash out was either at a 7-11 or at a CitiBank ATM.

We stayed at this hotel 3nights during the Golden Week holiday period in Japan, when hotels and flights are most busy and ultra expensive. We traveled around Hyogo, Shiga, Kyoto prefectures by train and rented car. We are very satisfied by this hotel and the entre trip.

To book this hotel, we obtained an interesting rate from hotels.com through tripadvisor link. I understand the same rate was presented by expedia but with little details of the room concerned.

Location. The hotel is in the central area of Otsu city, yet its immediate lakeside location gives a bit of resort atmosphere. Therefore convenient and relaxing at the same time. It is also convenient to visit Kyoto, which was half an hour by our rented car. By train it would be about the same to reach Kyoto station: the hotel offers shuttle bus service to the Otsu station. In addition to central and northern Kyoto, we explored both east and west sides of Biwa lake, and also chartered a boat to cruise the lake.

Room: Our room was on a sky (34th) floor).The view was stuninng and unusual: like a room on a cliff. I am not so keen on a high floor but my partner loved it. Our double room was clean, spacious enough for two of us with a 190cm wide comfy bed. Being so high, you can not open the window but the ventilation was right.

Food. We tried room service only, and it was of quality and priced right and fair, unlike other prince hotels in remote locations: expensive for average food probably because of little competition nearby. Around this Otsu prince hotel, many places to eat with a short car ride or even within walking distance.

Staff service did not dissapoint us: good service as expected to be a prince hotel.

I liked the area and hope to explore it more. We will definitely go back for the same room and rate.

Used this hotel as 'base' for daytrips to Kyoto, Nara, Koya-san and Himeji. Good quality rooms, excellent room-service, nice view over the lake (take a high floor if possible).