Hotel Goryukan is an excellent mid-budget option, close to lifts, restaurants, shops and the Happo bus terminal. Our group of 5 was collected by the hotel staff upon arrival at the Happo bus depo, and it was only a few minutes drive from there back to the hotel. Check-in was an easy process. The staff at Goryukan were wonderfully helpful throughout our stay.
The foyer is large, bright and welcoming, with an excellent bar that quickly became a favourite meeting spot for post snow drinks before heading out for dinner most nights.
Our group was split between two Japanese style rooms that were located next to each other on a high floor. Our view out the window was towards the mountains, so the scenery was spectacular! Each room was spacious with a small fridge and tv and futon beds rolled out on the floor. The beds were amazingly comfortable and we always had great sleep. There is an ensuite bathroom, and the room was serviced each day, so it was great to come back each afternoon to freshly made beds with new towels and amenities waiting.
Our two week stay included daily breakfast, which was delicious buffet style, and although we stuck mainly to the western style options, there was also plenty of Japanese style food available.
There is also a free mineral water bar that served up 8-10 different varieties of water, all with different PH properties that were meant to aid or improve all sorts of physical, mental or skin attributes. I don't think I got any smarter drinking the water during our stay, but it was a great alternative hydration option from the strong zeros.
The hotel is an easy 400m or 5 minute walk to the Nakiyama slope and lifts, and from there you can continue further up to the top of the resort and access all of the different runs. It's also only a 5 minute walk to check out the Olympic ski jump area.
We visited almost all of the resorts in the Hakuba Valley during our stay, and it was about a 10 minute walk back to the bus terminal in the morning to catch one of the various shuttle buses that would take us to the other resorts. This was no problem, although for a future trip I would consider a car for the additional convenience and not being bound to a bus shuttle schedule.
The main Happo Village area also has a decent amount of restaurants, shops and other accommodation options. If you are prepared to walk 20-30 minutes, you then have further food and shopping options at either Echo Land or the Wadano forest area. There is a shuttle bus that runs at night if you don't want to walk, but we were always happy to wander around and take in the atmosphere (and walk some of dinner off on the way back to the hotel).
Hotel Goryukan also has a relaxing indoor/outdoor Onsen area, which we made frequent use of. It did get crowded between 4-6pm, but aside from the end of the day rush, it was quiet at other times. The outdoor Onsen area was particularly nice with the snow falling.
I would highly recommend Goryukan as an option for couples, small groups or families. The location is great, staff were amazing and we really enjoyed our time there.
See our video here

Hotel Goryukan is awesome, great food at breakfast, western or Asian varieties, everything on the dinner menu was really well done, fresh and delicious, excellent for snow sports equipment storage and drying. Really comfy beds, Super clean rooms every day, very friendly staff. The onsen on site was amazing, very clean and well laid out. Evergreen ski school bus pick up at the back door, bus stop to other areas a short walk away next to chair lifts. You can also buy lift tickets behind the bus stop. A short walk to Happo Village, 10 mins walk to Echo Land. I hope they can fit us in next year!
See our video here