The familiar white building with a triangular roof on Hikone’s lake shore has been a stand-out structure since 1981 when it opened as Hikone Prince Hotel. Ohmi Railways operated the hotel under the well-known Prince Hotel brand. In recent years, the hotel has struggled financially and we wondered what would happen to it. First I thought the neighboring Japan Center for Michigan Universities should acquire the property to expand the school and offer dormitory facilities.

Well, the hotel has been sold and it is being operated by a Tokyo-based company called Study, Co., Ltd. The hotel is now part of the Itoen Hotel Group, and on March 1, 2009, it was renamed Hikone View Hotel (彦根ビューホテル). I think it’s a good name, the hotel certainly gives a great view of Lake Biwa. However, it is not related to the View Hotels Group (viewhotels.co.jp) as in Asakusa View Hotel and Narita View Hotel.

In Oct. 2007, Ohmi Railways announced that it was looking to sell the Hikone Prince Hotel (along with three ski resorts) due to red ink.

The Itoen Hotel Group is a chain of over 30 hotels and ryokans mainly in the Kanto area (especially the Izu Peninsula). The company is known to acquire struggling or closed hotels and hot spring ryokan inns and offer cheaper rates to customers.

Indeed, the hotel rates at Hikone View Hotel is now cheaper than before. It costs only 7800 yen for one night and two meals. Whereas Hikone Prince charged 12,000 yen for the same deal. The hotel rates remain the same throughout the year as well. They don’t raise the rates during peak periods such as Golden Week and summer vacation. Lower rates are of course, very welcome. The hotel is also the place for people in northern Shiga to hold weddings, etc. I’ve attended a few wedding receptions there too, for my cousins. Let’s hope the company can turn around  the hotel’s fortunes.

Hotel Web site:
http://hikone.in/