We had a pleasant stay at hotel Kokusai Zao. The location is right next to Zao rope way and not far from Zao bus terminal. Our breakfast and dinner was so good. The staffs were so helpful, we really appreciated their service. Our private bath onzen was the highlight of the day after coming down from the mountain. Thank you for a pleasant service during our stay.

Excellent view of room, great location and service. Especially giving a praise to a young worker Mr. Takahashi, very energetic and great Omatenashi!

Nice large and clear room, excellent breakfast and dinner, extremely helpful staff, and great indoor and outdoor bath. The hotel is also conveniently located close to the Zao Ropeway, and can conveniently drive guests to other points in Zao Onsen upon request

Not sure about this place. It has a semi-nice onsen open all hours, but the big open onsen up the mountain is much better. The place feels so outdated, it feels like you have stepped back to the '70's or '80's. Everything is so old fashioned I first thought of it is as a retirement village. But after the second night i did appreciate the calmness and easy access to the onsen. Still, i won't return. The bus drivers were super nice, especially the one who helped us Saturday, and other staff nice, but otherwise the building is all just so outdated. For the price, it is just not worth it. Nice experience, but won't return any year soon.

Absolutely wonderful experience ! We had the half pension so evening meals and breakfast included. The morning buffet is very well garnished with japanese/english/continental breakfast options. The evening meals are a show all to themselves. When you arrive at the pre-arranged time a feast is already waiting for you on the table. Appetizers, entrees, a soup and a main dish (we had sukiyaki one night and shabu-shabu the other). There's also deserts. The hit springs are also very nice, very traditional looking (the whole baths area is made of wood). The inside baths are regular hot water and the outside pools are filled with natural sulfur water. The smell takes a bit to get used to but they are supposed to be very beneficial for your health. The staff is extremely obliging as is expected in most places in Japan. The hotel is a short 10 minutes walk form the bus station (although there is a sharp climb at the end to reach the hotel). It is possible to book a shuttle to and from the hotel in advance. Zao village itself is a bit deserted in summer as it is the low season, but you won't have trouble finding a place to eat. There are several hiking trails within reach. Overall absolutely recommended, for a minimum of 2 nights to get the whole ryokan experience.

The location is great, next to the chair lifts and cable car. We stayed in the newly renovated rooms, it was very spacious and very modern. The onsen was exceptional, very traditional yet clean. The amenities in the rooms and in the Onsen were well stocked. We enjoyed the private Onsen experience and extra point for rental and locker area located inside the hotel. Although the staff spoke very limited English but they did their best to help and using google translate to ensure we understand. Highly recommend this hotel if you are visiting Zao. We stayed 4 nights.

Although I found a food box which was used by the previous guest in the room, however, I still like this hotel and would like to go again...

The system changed, the guest cannot check the reservation online, the website do ask the guest call to confirm or make changes, but they don’t want to help people not speaking Japanese. I ask can anyone speak English, one lady just said no and hang up my call, it was so ridiculous.

One of the best hotspring hotel ever stayed. Highly recommended.

Wonderful onsen facility for all guests. Huge onsen room with indoor and outdoor. Very peaceful. Separate female&male. Really impressive. 🩵🩷✨ 💯 Feel so private, quite and almost like no people sometimes. The Private onsen also available for rent too. Room is huge and functional. Nice separating area. Super relax stay. In the area also have a free onsen to enjoy which quite nice too. Free shuttle service. So recommended for all onsen lover.

Very close to the ski hill, but limited ski rental choices. Love the breakfast and dinner!

There were huge spiders (multiple) in their most expensive private onsen (¥2000 for 45min). There were extensive webs too—might have been there for weeks. Had to kill a huge wasp in the shower too. Also the free wifi is unusable. Beautiful region but find a better place to stay.

Room is clean and spacious. Comfortable stay here! However, room for improvement on shuttle bus arrangement: I told the reception staff that I would be waiting for the shuttle bus (reserved) in hotel lobby when I checked out. After 5 mins from the scheduled time, I still did not get onto my shuttle and so went to the staff again. Surprisingly, he told me that he had made the final call (maybe in Japanese?) and so the shuttle bus went off right at scheduled time. The manager quickly caught up my situation and arranged another shuttle bus to JR station. It will be better if they can take some actions to prevent this happen again such as using "English" to announce, counting reserved visitors before the shuttle bus takes off, etc. All in all, it is an enjoyable stay with good dining & onsen experience here!

Clean rooms and friendly staff. Breakfast buffet was better than expected. For an international hotel there were very little English speaking staff though.

Stayed here twice in the past few months and surely not disappointed. They provide free shuttle from and to Yamagata station twice a day; they also provide free shuttle to their 2 sister hotels' onsens. Those onsens are free, however, only the one with Rotenburo is worth visiting.

Amazing hotel and very unique, wooden onsen. Highly recommend.

Very nice hotel. Was just above the snow line during our stay -which made using the outside onsen even nicer. Dinner was excellent. Breakfast buffet was a little on the small side, but it was still good. Views outside nearly every window on the property were very nice as well. Great atmosphere.

Very cleaned and comfortable hotel with beautiful scene. I liked the convenient location and the outdoor onsen very much. Maybe I stayed here during low season(not sure). Not too much customers. It’s definitely a good place for recharging yourself before going back to work.

Very professionally run hotel, with great facilities, an amazing breakfast, and a great inhouse onsen. Front desk was always manned with at least one English speaking staff and they were always super helpful! It's an easy 10 minute walk to the bus station, but they can arrange a shuttle if you don't want to walk.

Amazing onsen. Rooms were clean and always serviced. Breakfast choices were good and for dinner surprisingly well thought of and quite alot of items. Stayed there 4 nights and each night was quite a Kaiseki feast. Personally I loved the onsen and the hospitality the most.

Very nice luxuary Hotel. A must go for Onsen lovers, their public and private onsen are amazing !

The facilities are quite old, and the customer service is not that good. Onsen is pretty much the only good thing.