HOTEL GION ICHIRIN — Hotel in Kyoto

A boutique hotel in the heart of Gion. When you arrive you take an elevator down to the lobby. There is a self check in station but if you wait a few minutes, someone will come up, at least that was my experience. We had our luggage forwarded to this hotel from our previous hotel in Shinjuku and we wanted to make sure we could retrieve it before getting situated. They had it secure and safe in the back, it was easy to retrieve from them. We booked 4 nights through booking.com for the spa room but we couldn’t add breakfast at the time of booking. When checking in we were able to easily add the Japanese breakfast for the morning we desired.

We were given spa room 301. It was quite spacious with 2 beds, a zero gravity massage chair, a toilet room with bidet, a hot stone sauna/steam room, a carbonated bath with shower, outdoor hot tub, mini fridge, microwave, wifi and large tv that accommodated streaming Netflix from my phone. The beds were comfortable but the area around them and the headboards were very dusty. I had brushed against them getting myself situated, getting dust on my clothing, before I decided to just clean them myself with a hand towel. The room came with an air purifier/humidifier, which was much needed for the dry winter air. There were no instructions on how to use it and the buttons were all in Japanese so with the help of google translate and google image search we were able to get it going for the rest of our stay. The mini fridge had drinks already provided in it and there were some snacks on the counter and coffee products in a drawer with drink-ware. One of my favorite features of the room was the heated wall rack that I used to keep towels and robes toasty, however this was another item I had to google image search to figure out what it was and how to use it but I’m sure glad I did!

Staff was elusive and maybe that’s by design but I was left feeling like I didn’t know much about the property or additional amenities. At one point on the first morning I had asked for a few more of the drinks we liked at the front desk and was met with resistance by a man who popped out of the back room. I felt like I wasn’t allowed to have more even though I thought (as I understood) it was part of the rather large price tag attached to the room.

There is a coffee machine in the lobby area with extra bottled water. There are also extra coffee/tea cups and saucers here and because ours were dirty from prior use we tried to grab a few for the room and a gentleman scolded us and then took count. There really was no communication about what to do if you need more items for your stay. The rooms are equipped with glassware for one use but not replenished daily and there is no room service. Towels are replenished in a bag hung on your door in the morning but nothing more. Signs do state to “enjoy freely” or “contact us @“ but there was rarely anyone at the front desk to ask for the duration of our stay.

The second afternoon of our stay we met Soto in the lobby as we were headed out to explore and she turned the experience around for us. Even though we did not speak the same language we had a lengthy conversation about our pet cats via google translate. We bonded over our shared love for our pets and once she learned it was my birthday she even brought me a cat stationary pad that looked like my cat Tuna. Soto also helped secure a dinner reservation for my birthday at a sushi restaurant she went to for her birthday recently (and sent them a message in Japanese that it was my birthday so they could surprise me with a treat). Soto really went the extra mile and made us feel welcome and satisfied and she was finally able to get us some extra CC Lemon drinks as well. Thank you for everything, Soto.

Overall, this is a very beautiful, serene, secure hotel and the spa room is nice, but expensive. You are in the heart of the Gion district and many temples and tourist attractions are walkable. However, there isn’t much around for public transit and you will need to walk or taxi to train stations and...

The hotel is located right in the heart of Gion. It is a very walkable area, easy to get a cab and great restaurants within 10 min walk.||||The hotel staff checked me in in less than a couple minutes, I was in my room, the room was VERY clean (which is my main concern when staying at hotels) The whole hotel was maintained to a very high standard by the employees there. ||||I am from the US and the professionalism of the staff, the cleanliness and the helpfulness of the staff is a contrast to the typical poor service and cleanliness you get at US hotels. I have stayed in 5 star hotels in the US and I can say this was better than 5 star US hotel, the service was also superior to 5 star US hotel service. The hotel was very quiet despite being 45 second walking distance from main road. It has bike parking if you rent a bike. Lobby is very clean and very tasteful decor throughout the hotel. ||||If I called and asked for towels or anything likethat the staff had them to my room usually in under 5 minutes. Not only the front desk went out of their way to ensure my time in Kyoto was hassle free. I cannot say enough or speak hghly enough of the staff and cleanliness of the hotel. I wish US hotels were as organized , respectable and had rooms as clean. Unfortunately that is not the case. You can tell this hotel takes great pride in their work. It shows through the experience the hotel guest like myself have. (nothing was too much trouble and service was always with a smile and friendly. I will stay here again without question when I am in Kyoto again and I recommend this hotel for anyone who wants to stay in Gion and have a nice place to sleep and relax after a long day exploring the great city of Kyoto. This hotel definitely raises the bar for me, now when I return to the US I will have to settle for sub par service until I return to Japan. Thank you to all the staff at the hotel for your efforts in making the stay part of a memorable...

To underline and bold my disappointment with this hotel, you should know I’m writing the review while laying in bed here on my 4th day.

This place was the only negative experience in an otherwise perfect two weeks in Japan (Tokyo, Teshima, Naoshima, Kyoto).

This hotel does not have: housekeeping services laundry service (a single self-service washing machine on the 4th floor) food of any kind luggage porter service (common at all respectable hotels in Japan) someone working the desk (we have walked by over the course of 4 days at nearly every hour and the desk is always empty)

The rooms are spacious by Japanese standards, but the most appalling crime they commit is there are no windows or sources of natural light, it feels like a dungeon where you never know what time it is when you wake up — very disorienting. Another annoying details are the room keys keep deactivating. We had two rooms here, ours and the friends we’re traveling with and both of our room keys turned off 4 times each causing us to go and hunt down staff to fix it which they clearly do not believe us or like doing.

I would avoid this place and if for no other reason avoid it out of...