Kyoto Century Hotel — Hotel in Kyoto

Stayed in June for three nights in the Grand Comfort executive double room. Now there are a few things I really liked about this hotel, and some that were amiss. |Pros: |1. Room. Definitely an above average room in terms of size! I chose the grand comfort but it’s definitely not their most expensive rooms so I believe all their rooms are spacious. |2. Location. This beats all other hotels in Kyoto if only location was the parameter. Inter city or intra city tours are no problem with the main train terminal across the hotel. |3. I do have to say here, HOUSEKEEPING! Yes, it’s a weird parameter but every one of the housekeeping staff seemed to go over and above their duty to be so wonderful. Once I came in my room from a long tour and they were still cleaning , and they profusely apologised for that coz they could see I couldn’t sit on the bed for 5 mins :-) Very sweet. Same time , I came in, took a bottle of water and drank and the housekeeping doing the bed observed, immediately changed the bottle to a new one. Small things but make a difference. |I also used their in-house laundry for a stain and they were very professional. |Cons:|1. In contrast to the housekeeping , the ones working the breakfast restaurant seemed almost always in a. Foul mood. No smiles, no acknowledgment. One way it’s good, whether you’re a long staying guest or a one night, you’re treated the same :-)|Also the breakfast starts at 7:00 but since most people have tours they come down by 6:45 ish. No, you can’t sit in the restaurant. You have to form a line which will only be allowed to enter at 7:00! We had old people just standing. Somehow it felt they just don’t care. |2. Breakfast : Stayed three nights , had the Exact same thing everyday. Breakfast doesn’t change. Also no fresh fruit juice ? Juice is from a soda dispenser machine. Never seen that before at a breakfast. |3. Check in: Don’t come before 3:00 pm. Rather, come at 4:00 pm coz it’s a major mess out there. I came in at 2:00 pm, an hour before, they kindly took my luggage and gave me a QR code. I said wouldn’t you need my passport they said no that we can take at 3:00 pm your check in time. I came back at 3:00 pm to find some 20 people like me , again lined up to check in and getting irritated. You can give us the keys at 3:00 pm (like most hotels do when room is ready) but atleast check us in if we are before. It will help your staff rather who were too disoriented with the crowd. |4. Bathroom and amenities: Even though the room was big, this was the smallest bathroom weirdly. Don’t have a tub if you can’t fit one. Am just 5’6 and I had to sit. If I tried submerging more of my body, water would start overflowing. Amenities in the lobby were basic to say the least. And I don’t know if it’s just me but this was the only hotel in my trip which gave a night suit which was only the top. No pyjamas or lowers. It felt like a ladies night dress to be honest and I thought it’s aa Japanese thing but all other hotels I stayed in had pull night suits (lowers included). Lot of such small things made me rate this a 3 and not felt like a 4 for the money you pay...

2023 Experience We returned to Kyoto Century Hotel in 2023. This time we stayed in a comfort instead of grand comfort room. Our room had this terrible smell and stains on the wall (room 784). I had asked at the front desk about other available rooms upon checking in, but the available options would have cost us 40000 Yen more, so we toughed it out. At one point I was wearing my mask in the room to help with the smell. Pretty sure it use to be a smoking room - no chemical can kill that smell (room 784). This put a damper on the visit.

The other negative to our stay was the unbelieveable number of tour groups that frequent this hotel. This meant morning break was was 200 people in line at 6:45 AM to get into the breakfast area. We waited over 30 minutes in line just to begin working our way down the buffet line. On the second day the wait got to be so long we almost left and paid for breakfast elsewhere. There needs to be a better system for breakfast and dealing with these tour groups. Overall we were left frustrated and not sure we would stay here again.

Positives include welcoming and helpful staff, and great location.

2019 Experience Loved our stay here. Room was beautiful, and spacious, with a great combination of Modern Western and Classic Japanese charm. Breakfast was excellent, with a great variety of western and Japanese options. Service was wonderful. Location was right next to the train station ( just make sure you take the right exit!), making is easy to catch transit to various parts of town for sightseeing. Lobby was warm and inviting. ...

Stayed here for 4 nights from 24th Dec - 28th Dec, just myself and my husband||Pros:|- staff very friendly and spoke good English|- best thing is the location - it’s right outside Kyoto station (Central exit) and both station and bus terminals are all from here so it’s very handy getting around|- nicely decorated hotel lobby|- rooms were equally decorated quite nicely (dark wood features)|- well priced rooms for Kyoto for 4 nights (paid less than £300 for 2 people)||Cons:|- rooms were small and the bathroom even smaller, there is only one tile square to stand on between the toilet, shower and bath tub|- because bathroom was small and the way the drainage system worked the bath mat and anything else left on the floor or in the bath tub would get very wet - not enough places to hang towels or bath robes|- bins equally as small too, often had to remove the bin lids to get anything in them|- limited wardrobe/ drawer space|- hotel helped hold our suitcases for us for 2 nights whilst we went to Osaka at a rate of ¥1000 per suitcase, this worked out cheaper than the lockers but we did the same in Tokyo for a week and they held it for free||Overall rooms were small however as we weren’t staying too long it was ok for us as we had brought 2 suitcases and 1 cabin size. If we had brought all our suitcases (an additional 2 we left in Tokyo) the room would be way too small to even put them in the room. Would stay again purely based on the great location and ease for travel...