Inatori Ginsuiso

The big Izu ocean-view ryokan once voted No. 1 for hospitality 15 years running: simmered kinmedai, an all-day free lounge and suites with their own spring-fed open-air baths — but unrenovated rooms, recurring corridor smells and a dated main bath drag it down

Inatori Ginsuiso opened in 1957 as a 13-room inn, drilled its own hot spring in 1962 and was rebuilt in 1983 as a 10-storey, 101-room ryokan above the sea; the travel trade's 'professionals' choice' ranking put it first for hospitality in 1984 and then 15 years running from 1996. Since 2010 it has been renovating floor by floor: the Gin-no-Shiori suites on the top floors, sixth-floor luxury suites (2018) beside the Gin-no-Umi dining room and an all-day lounge, and fourth-floor suites in 2023 — 17 rooms in all with a free-flowing open-air bath on the inn's own sodium-calcium chloride spring. Japanese guests rate it 4.5 across 2,910 reviews on one major site and 4.48 across 3,556 on another, praising the warm staff, the lounge with free drinks and desserts, sea views, a breakfast buffet with grilled dried fish made in front of you, and kaiseki built around kinmedai simmered in a broth kept going year after year, with spiny lobster and abalone. The weak spots are just as consistent in 2025–2026: a musty or sewage-like smell in the lobby and some corridors (raised in many reviews; the inn says it is checking the equipment), old unrenovated rooms whose bathrooms aren't onsen, a main bath that is part-recirculated, chlorinated and showing its age, air conditioning that's hard to adjust, crowded breakfasts and lounge, and dinners that some found rushed and others slow. Standard kaiseki plans start around ¥22,000–30,000 per person; suites with open-air baths from about ¥44,000.