Excellent transfer bus from train station. Well advertised in the hotel, but tricky to find in advance as it isn’t mentioned on the English version of their website. It is on the Japanese website together with an English translation(!). Just google “kokusai 21 transfer” and you will find the timetable and excellent instructions on how to find the bus. It would be most helpful,if the hotel emailed a link to booking.com customers or added the information to the English site. The rooms are spacious, the public areas splendid, restaurants in the hotel great, and Nagano itself is a very walkable town.

Hotel facilities (Room etc.) was excellent, staff were very helpful and friendly. Excellent that they now have a free shuttle bus to the station and return. Beds were very comfortable and couldnt believe the size of the rooms, they were huge (we had the Presedential Suite)

Unfortunately the hotel is a little bit out from the station if you wanted to walk it (hard with suitcases) This is now eleviated with the free shuttle bus which we didn't know about until we arrived. Breakfast was not the best, the restaurant used for breakfast is too small and the european breakfast was very limited in it's slections and in my opinion was a waist of money.

They also have a shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel (and hotel to airport), from the hotel to the Zenkoji temple and from the hotel to onsen (and back from onsen to hotel). This was super nice!! Would be great if they can advertise this more beforehand. We only kew about this service after we walked 15 min from the station to the hotel. Rooms were big, people were nice, overall really liked our stay!

We loved our stay at this hotel. The hotel room was clean, comfortable and more spacious than most in Japan. The staff were friendly & helpful and the hotel shuttle bus ran frequently to and from the hotel and Nagano Station which was much appreciated. The breakfast was delicious with a wide variety of both Japanese and Western food. We also enjoyed a late afternoon drink in the stylish Barberry Lounge cafe. We were impressed with the attention to detail of all the staff and appreciated the large and beautiful flower arrangement in the foyer of the hotel. It was fabulous value for money.

Nothing

Huge room on ‘executive’ floor with lounge and desk area, seperate toilet, walk in shower and jetted bath. Mattress was very comfortable. Great shuttle bus from station which also goes occasionally to Temple and regularly in the afternoon to the public onsen. Find it at East exit of station. If you are staying here try out 2 local restaurants which are both within easy walking distance of this hotel 1. Best spicy miso ramen (local miso) at Men-ya Unnyan and also 2. Best pork tonkatsu at Tonkatsu Akiyama.

Pillows were uncomfortable for westerners. Shuttle bus needs to be mentioned on English website. More shuttle stops at temple would have been handy.

Our stay was excellent. I posted a video on IG @chels_is_elsewhere! If you're looking to do some sightseeing around Nagano, Hotel Kokusai 21 is perfectly located about 5 minutes driving from JR Nagano Station, 7 minutes driving from Zenkoji, and like 5 minutes from Uruoikan Onsen. They have a shuttle bus that runs multiple times a day to each of these locations, but you could also take a cheap taxi or walk on a nice day from the hotel to any of these places. We stayed in a suite and it was so spacious. The views were also great! The bathtub was large and had a small tv to watch while bathing, which was cool. Staff kept our bags after checkout so we could do a little more sightseeing before leaving Nagano. We also had dinner one night at the Italian restaurant in the basement, and it was very good and well-priced. I liked everything about this hotel and wish I could have stayed longer.

I honestly liked everything.

The room and hotel were very clean. The beds were comfortable. The free shuttle to Nagano station was a real plus. Had multiple restaurants on property and the buffet breakfast was fairly good with lots of options.

Although there was a shuttle service to and from Nagano station, I still found the location to be a bit far away from where you really wanted to be. Situated about halfway between the station and the main temple the hotel was in kind of a no man's land. Also, the restaurants book up fairly quickly so you have to reserve in advance. For a solo traveler who makes plans on the go, this wasn't ideal. The closest restaurant to the hotel is Denny's which wasn't great.

Free shuttle bus to and from Nagano Station makes the transfer from or to the station easy. The hotel also provides a number of restaurants at reasonable price though we didn't have a chance to try any due to our short stay. The room is of reasonable size with a sitting area between the bed and the desk. There are sockets next to the bed. It's within walking distance to Zenkoji temple and the hotel's shuttle also takes it guess there during certain time of the day.

Would prefer a metal kettle instead of a plastic one. Plastic is not suitable for high temperature. But it seems plastic kettles are commonly used in Japan as we have a plastic kettle in every accommodation we stayed in Japan for a week now

The staff was excellent, great service and very prompt in any assistance that we would ask. We got excellent views of the mountain from our room and that was fabulous. Loved the snow experience

Breakfast was a little average. We felt options were limited, especially for the first time we did not find japanese desserts on the breakfast menu. Italian restaurant dinner taste was great, but as vegetarians, we had less options. May be a good idea if you can add a PASTA or a RISOTTO for vegetarians.

Location is a tad far from the station but we enjoyed the walk and the hotel provides free shuttle service to and fro anyway, which is great. Appreciate the space, and when we opted out of room cleaning for a day, they left two huge tote bags of fresh towels (body, hand and floor!) and amenities like tea packs and water bottles on our door! :')

A bit more space to hang clothes would have been nice - it's probably sufficient for warmer season when you are wearing lesser and/or thinner clothes, but once you hit the colder season and start getting out the winter clothes, it suddenly eats up a lot of space.