KYOTO TOKYU HOTEL

Very polite and helpful staff. The hotel and rooms were very clean. The breakfast was ok and they offered both japanese and continental options. The standard rooms on the 2nd floor had no view as there was a large wall in front of the window so i would definitely not recommend this option. The premium rooms are on higher floors and offer better view, if that is what you are going after. Overall it was a comfortable and clean place to stay for a few nights

It is not convenient to find no lift from the G/F to the checking in lobby at UG. But, it got nice view around the premises.

Friendly staff Pleasant interior Good in-room amenities (except bedding) Useful hotel shuttle Cons: 1. Major language barriers every step of the way, even concierge and reception. Virtually NO English is spoken by staff, including "Upper Management". Special shout out to ************ who needed a (female and far more acute) translator to understand our concerns. Wouldn't English be the FIRST pre-requisite to run an international hotel? Having been to over 40 countries, I can't think of one hotel example where the bar is so low. Meritocracy? Not here. 2. Horrendous bedding. Prison-grade extra firm mattresses + absurdly flat and useless pillows. Noting could be done about the mattresses (which created pressure points almost instantly), but pillows! We requested softer/cushier pillows thrice! We were told the hotel ran out of because it's a high season?! I couldn't believe my ears. 3. The Gym is located in a separate building and is hard to find. I had the misfortune of "asking for directions" from one of their staff. Again no English but the lady pointed me in gym's direction and managed to eek out "need key". I nodded, fully confident she meant my room key. What other key could she possibly mean? I learned soon enough after my room key wouldn't let me in. Back at the Reception I was informed that I need to fill a PAPER FORM and receive a gym key, which incidentally looked like an oversized conference badge and wouldn't fit in a pocket. That form, aside from being a bureaucratic time-waster, asked me to certify that I didn't drink any alcohol before gym use. I told the front desk to print 100 copies of their form, make a roll and sit on it. 4. Hotel restaurants serve extremely mediocre food at roughly x3 price of local restaurants. Worse still, their room service ends at 10PM. My family happened to be checking in at 11PM so no food. Bad as this is, no one bothered to create a list of late dining options. Staff is not trained not only in English, but in ANY manner of problem solving. If it weren't for another guest who happened to be walking by and suggested that we try UberEats, all 4 of us would have gone to bed starving. 5. Low quality breakfast, which serves the cheapest ingredients. I've seen better fare for sale at gas stations. Their kitchen has a flat stove intended for making omelets and fresh breakfast. However, we were informed it hasn't yet reopened due to COVID. What? You ****** are still using COVID as an excuse for your laziness? Pathetic. 6. Literally fed up with hotel food, we decided to book a table at a local restaurant. Zero recommendations from their concierge. We were asked to inform the front desk of our choice and "they would be happy to make a reservation for us". That's hot how concierge works, but were getting quite exasperated by that point so we went upstairs and did our own Google search!!! When we called the front desk, we were told we'd have to come dow to complete another PAPER FORM where among other things, we'd have to agree to a $100 room charge in case of a no show. Turns out restaurants don't require a deposit. This is done to "protect hotel's reputation"!!!! This property is so concerned about its reputation with local restaurants that it's completely oblivious about losing face with its guests? This is just bewildering.

Fantastic place to stay and the shuttle bus to Kyoto station is so useful.

I have been staying here for the past 15 years each time I come to Kyoto. Do I need to stay more?