NEOLD Private House

Loved the uniqueness, the fabulous service, the exceptional food prepared by the personal chef, the peacefulness and private tours arranged by the staff. Every need was attended to during our stay. It was a perfect place for two nights to restore and relax between our busyness of other cities.

The staff was very attentive and sociable. Even with the language barrier they were very communicative, fun, kind and most impressively anticipated our needs. They also introduced us to Yoshino in a unique way thanks to their local connections. The property is also well designed and we feel in love with the Japanese baths. Finally the meals from the chef was the best dinning experience we have ever experienced with elegant and delicious meals catered to our tests which only improved as they learned our preferences.

We stayed for 1 night in Neold house with 3 people, with the omakase dinner. Yoshino is off the beaten track, but well worth the visit. Nestled within the mountains, we went after Sakura season which meant that the area was very green and very quiet. We had reached out a few times via booking.com, where they team had been very responsive and agreed to any request we had asked for. We were greeted on arrival and helped with our luggage. The property is stunning, with a number of surprises as you make your way through the building. The whole complex is yours to use, with the staff staying onsite (your stay in the house is still private, you are just able to call on someone if needed). The master bedroom is the star of the the show, with a good view out onto the Noh stage, which is much bigger than the photos look. What made the stay for us, however, was how accommodating the team at NEOLD were, going above and beyond for everything. We had visited for the night before our wedding, which we had planned out in the mountains in Nara, and so had more requests than most. Ogino, the chef and manager at NEOLD, prepared a private meal for us on the night of our arrival. We had a last minute request for the meal to be meat heavy (rather than fish) which he accommodated for us. It was by far one of the best meals we had in Japan, with Laurent, a very friendly Frenchman, translating all of the dishes for us and giving us some further insight into Japan. There was not any pressure to eat anything on your plate, with Ogino modifying the menu as he went along to make sure he fitted the meal to your taste. Given we needed to get up early for the wedding, Ogino insisted that they would be up at 5am to make sure we had some fruit and coffee ready for the day, before ensuring that my suit was steamed ready for the next day. The team at Neold made the morning of our wedding very special - helping us get ready, and being on hand for anything we could possibly need.

Our only constructive feedback was to have a place to hang our clothes in the upstairs bedrooms and a shower in the master bedroom would have been a nice touch.