Hyatt Place Kyoto — Hotel in Kyoto

My favorite hotel and Hyatt property we stayed at in Japan. This is definitely the nicest and most upscale Hyatt Place I've ever stayed in too. Rooms are huge for Japan standards. The design of the rooms is what I really love. Lots of great lighting options (shout out to nightlight mode working in the bathroom and the main room), a mini-fridge, tons of practical storage/shelving and we even had a desk to do some in-room work in. The shower was spacious and had good water pressure. The bathroom door, despite being a barn door (stop doing this hotels), had an ingenious jamb design that allowed the door to fully close like a regular bathroom door.

The bed was the most comfortable bed we slept in Japan, actually very sleepable and somewhat soft (Japan hotels are famous for their hard as rock beds). Which is funny because the higher end Hyatts we stayed at had much worse beds!

On top of this, the location is perfect. Literally right under the hotel is a subway line that can get you almost anywhere within 20 minutes. The area itself is kind of sleepy but there's still plenty of effortless food options nearby and a conbini. We particularly liked the nearby hamburger steak place called "Demi" and the attached breakfast/bakery called School Bus. Their coffee/pastries were some of the best we had in Japan, and we are bakery/coffee snobs.

There are two things that made me dock a star. The first is no coffee in the room. They have coffee in the lobby, but they don't even offer to-go cups. You have to BRING your mugs to the lobby, fill it with coffee from a machine that frequently malfunctions (it often just ate the pucks I put in), and then get it back up to your room. This means no grabbing coffee on the way out and it turns getting that first cup when you get ready in the morning an monumental task. This is so easy to not screw up... they have a kettle with tea in the room, but you couldn't even bother to put those little pour over packaged coffee things? Making people get dressed and go all the way downstairs just to make themselves coffee before they've even had time to start their day is insane.

The other problem was the laundry. Don't even bother. My machine got caught into a loop trying to start a final spin cycle and failing, requiring a hard reset and having no dry clothes after a solid hour had passed being stuck in this loop. I put it on dry for 3 hours and when it was done, my clothes were still wet (other people also had problems with their clothes being wet still, so it wasn't just me). We resorted to hang drying all of our clothes. When they were dry, the clothes were stiff as a board and our clothes damaged with piling, which indicates that way to harsh/too much detergent was used. The thing is, the previous hyatt we stayed at with similar machines had no issues at all. Clothes came out fine and dried well enough (you never get things perfectly dry with these combo washer/dryers but that's OK). Also, this is assuming you have time to take the day off to constantly shark the laundry as all 3 were in 100% use at all times with a queue of people trying to snipe the next open washer. Not the hotel's fault, just making the point that you're better off doing laundry nearby.

All in all, it was a great place but man the coffee situation really annoyed me enough to dock a star and then the laundry situation didn't...

I don’t know what the story is with Hyatt, Asia, but my experiences thus far have been less than stellar…everywhere except at the Hyatt Place in Bangkok. I am an Explorist member of Hyatt (missed Globalist by three nights and I don’t chase status by unnecessary stays). I stayed in Taipei and Hong Kong and, I’ll admit, this was the least terrible of my experiences, but it was just a “meh” stay. Here are the highlights/lowlights.

Pros:

1. Overall, the staff is very nice and does their best to accommodate guests. When the washers were full (see “Cons”), they did remove the laundry of guests who did not arrive right away. They also addressed the items they could in the room. They did not, however, have some basic resources for tourists, like maps, which most hotels in the area had. They had ads for restaurants, but not basic tourist information.

2). The rooms are very clean…hats off to housekeeping

3. They’re close to the subway station

4). They’re trying to conserve plastic and have water refill stations on every floor. I find this to be a much easier solution than the glass bottles so many Hyatts provide in Asia.

Cons:

1. They have no A/C or USBC outlet or near the bed. So, one cannot plug modern phones and such near the bed unless one still has USB cords. Additionally, there is only one USB connector on each side of a king sized bed.
2. One can only turn on and off the lighting from the front door. There is no way to leave a light on to navigate to the bed then turn it off. Visa versa, one can’t turn on a light during the night to navigate the room. One must rely on one’s phone which cannot be charged by the bed, lol.
3. There are only 3 washer/dryer combinations to use and they take 2 hours to complete. The wait to use a washer was exceptionally long last night and guests were getting angry with one another for either not coming down fast enough or for having staff remove the laundry. Luckily, no one came to blow, but I’m not sure what would have happened had the “culprit” who had the staff remove one man’s laundry who was using two washers and didn’t come down immediately, actually still been there when he came down, lol.
4. As is common in many Hyatts, one cannot leave luggage at the desk if one is traveling and will return to this same Hyatt. This may seem obvious to some, but it’s actually common practice for hotels to allow this, so I’m mentioning it. Holding luggage encourages guests to return to their hotel and is a great service. I didn’t need it as I’m actually moving to Ibis within Kyoto due to my issues at Hyatt. I only needed my luggage held for the day, which they do do. However, it’s worth mentioning for those who may need this service. 5). The air con took a very long time to turn on…either that or the front desk staff is magical and their mere presence turned it on. I had turned down the thermostat and waited a half hour before calling the front desk. The temperature actually increased (most likely due to the lights). Anyway, it finally began to cool. I was relieved that it was not broken.
5. While they’re close to the subway, there’s very little in the actual neighborhood, although I do recommend the bar next door if you like actual espresso, not...

Incredible for the price. If you frequent Hyatt Places in the US, this will be the best Hyatt Place you'll ever stay at. I am going to make this my go-to-hotel in Kyoto. Felt like I wanted to write this review just before I check-out after my first one-night stay. While it may seem a bit out of the way, over in the NW edge of downtown, it actually has one of the most convenient locations, directly on top of a subway station which is exactly 7 minutes to Kyoto Station, so you can stay around the heart of the city after checkout time but before departure from Kyoto. While not explicitly mentioned at checkin, I was upgraded - certainly due to Hyatt Globalist membership - to one of the few Garden View rooms which are level and parallel to the 4th floor garden in the rear of the hotel. While perhaps not a masterpiece of Japanese gardens, it certainly provided a serene and silent stay; there was no hint of noise from outside the 5-ft high, room-length window. The room itself was excellent. Compared to the Hiyori Chapter Kyoto, by Marriott, which I stayed in the night before, the room was a few degrees better and more elegantly designed IMO. They occupy a similar Western, mid-range, streamlined-service option. The shower booth and rain shower head (installed too close to the wall at the Hiyori) was excellent, bright, and easy to use at the Hyatt. Incidentally, the first room I've ever seen anywhere with an outlet with a USB-C port (though it charged my iPhone more slowly than using an Apple adapter). There are 3 elevators for 6 floors. I never had to wait at the lobby. Excellent! The room lighting is extremely well-designed. While the overhead light is weak, thus not starkly lighting up the whole room like a business hotel, the important areas, including the bathroom/shower/toilet, entryway, couch, table, and both bedside tables each have own devoted lighting source which are covered or placed to reduce glare and harsh, direct light. Also, while both are managed by Japanese real estate/hospitality management companies (though I noticed the glass cup caddies in the bathroom are of the same make/designer at both hotels), I preferred the Hyatt. At both Hiyori Marriott and Hyatt Place, I used a free night award certificate received from credit card benefits. At Hyatt, check-in took one minute, no credit card, just a question to verify my address in Japan and a signature. Meanwhile, at Hiyori Marriott, check-in took 5 minutes, including credit card, and placing a check mark on a hotel privacy policy document, followed by extended explanation of amenities which were also written in English on the received pamphlets. Outside of luxury hotels, the Hyatt Place will be my...