APA Hotel & Resort Sapporo

The hotel is more or less standard Japanese hotel fare. They justify the 'resort' moniker by adding an onsen and offering massage services, but otherwise it's really just a typical hotel. The staff were friendly, but not super helpful. Unfortunately, the poor location is the most standout thing about it.

The location is in an extremely awkward area (nearly 4 miles from downtown Sapporo) and access is very limited. The shuttle bus mentioned on the booking page is misleading - firstly, it's only available in the evening (starting from 6 PM), and secondly, it picks up and drops off at Susukino (not Sapporo Station). This isn't stated anywhere and was a major problem for me (I was not super familiar with Sapporo at the time) as, again, despite the booking page claiming the staff speak English, they were unable to communicate these details to me in English. The shuttle bus itself only holds around 25 people and has no area for luggage, which baffles me as APA is a chain of many hotels (there are at least 3 in Susukino alone) and I would have thought they'd be able to afford to invest in a bigger bus for their guests. The lack of room was an issue one night when the bus was full but I needed to get my large suitcase on. The only other options to get to and from the hotel are the Airport Limousine to New Chitose Airport which also stops at a subway station for you to transfer to Sapporo Station (but this can get expensive) and local busses. Local busses are easy enough to use from the hotel as the stop is up the road, but are a nightmare coming to the hotel as Sapporo Bus Terminal is very very big with busses going all over Hokkaido. There's also practically no English throughout the terminal, making figuring out which bus you need to take and finding out where it leaves from very difficult for a tourist. Whilst these things aren't necessarily the hotel's fault, I did not find the staff to be very helpful when I called them and asked for help figuring out which bus will get me there.