Hotel Grand Bach Kyoto Select — Hotel in Kyoto

Location of the hotel is amazing. Walking distance to virtually everything you need. Daimaru mall, restaurants, convenient stores, bank machines... you couldn’t get any more convenient than this.

Hotel room is small. But don’t forget it’s Japan. All spaces are small in general. If you came from North America, you might feel the right space a little uncomfortable. But again, there are ritz Carlton not far from here, which offers bigger rooms at 3-4times the price. So The small space isn’t going to be a factor in my review for the hotel.

Hotel room is clean. There isn’t an actual bed. It’s a mattress, not a tatami. So it is comfortable. To the best of my knowledge, the largest bed they offer is a double, not queen, not king.

Bathroom is clean. It has a modern shower and has a everything (basic) you need.

The hotel has a community bath on the third floor. It has two community bath. One has a jacuzzi (sort of). The other one has a steam room. One is for men and another women. And each day they switch between men use and women use. Watch for the signs, do not enter the wrong bath.

There is a tiny smoking room on the second floor. It’s understandably smelly. However, there are coffee shops nearby that offer smoking section. Order a coffee, enjoy a nice cigar or something else.

There are two laundry machines in the third floor right beside the community bath. Well, they look fancy but don’t dry well. So don’t have too high of expectations.

Staff are very friendly, and will speak Intelligible English. So no worries if you need to get info from them.

There is a shuttle bus from about 400 metres to KIX terminal 1&2. The tricky part is to reserve a seat. You pay the fare in the bus. Hotel front desk will reserve seat for you and give you reservation number. Make sure you make reservation at least 24 hrs ahead of time or earlier just in case there isn’t any space. But even if there isn’t enough space, you can always take the subway/metro/underground Train (whatever you like to call it) to Kyoto station. There are more shuttle buses to KIX, with more frequent departure times.

Now the part I don’t like is the FREE WIFI. My room is looking over adidas store, the Main Street. Wifi signal is weak. I can’t log on with my iPhone. But works ok (slow) with my MacBook Pro.

So overall it’s a good...

I stayed at this hotel in October of 2024 and honestly, it was not worth the hype. The only thing good about this hotel is the location. It's a WONDERFUL location, but that's it. The room was itty bitty, I didn't even have enough room to fully open my suitcase. It was also filthy when I checked in. The floor was sticky and had dirt streaks in the entry and bathroom. When I arrived, I went to 7/11 to buy a 2 liter jug of water because I knew the water the hotel gives you isn't enough and I figured I would just take those to travel with and keep the jug in my room to drink from. Upon seeing how dirty the floors were, I called the office and asked them to send the cleaning crew to come clean my floors. While I was out in Arashiyama the whole day, the cleaning staff came to clean my floors and THREW AWAY MY FULL 2 LITER JUG OF WATER, leaving me with a half empty 16 oz water bottle from the hotel. When I got back, I obviously needed water after walking around all day, so I went to the front desk to get another bottle. They said that I had met my allotted water bottles for the day and if I wanted another one, they'd have to charge me. Also, very inconvenient but if you want your luggage delivered at this place, have cash on hand. Every other hotel took card for the luggage delivery except this place, so I had to rush to a near by 7/11 to get some cash out and almost missed my shinkansen back to Tokyo that morning.

Not to mention, how much they're charging for the hotel now (just a year later for the same amount of days) is WILD. I paid $247 last year, for the same dates this year, it's $700+. Don't waste your money here. There are better places for...

Very good location, close to Pontocho Alley, shopping and Nishiki Market.

We booked a Queen room (I think that is 1 larger than the smallest) and it was too small for two people with 1 large luggage bag each. There was nowhere to put the luggage, except on the unnecessary couch in the room and on the floor in front of that (which was also in front of the bathroom entrance). Couldn't walk around the end or other side of the bed. Unnecessary fixtures and fittings causing this (couch, mounted tv on protrudibg wall but at chest height, round coffee table) as well as small dimensions in general. We left the coffee table in the hallway for our stay as we would've gone insane if that was in the room taking up space too. Poor soundproofing (our room was on the main road so not sure what others experience).

Light comes in through the curtains making even the slightest sleep-in difficult (sun rises early).

Fridge not cold enough (to keep any food in it, let alone cool a drink) and couldn't adjust the temperature.

Great shower - some English instructions to help figure out what all the taps did would've been helpful but we figured it out!

Some confusion with housekeeping (and reception) tarnished our stay a bit - we had been out from 6am-12.30pm and the room had not yet been cleaned. We left again at 1pm amd asked housekeeping to please do our room next. We returned at 3pm and it still was not done.

Nice communal lounge area for post check out if needed and good luggage self-storage areas.

WiFi connection throughout hotel was poor.

Welcome drink tokens included for each night of your stay was...