Kyoto Tokyu Hotel — Hotel in Kyoto

Pros:

Friendly staff Pleasant interior Good in-room amenities (except bedding) Useful hotel shuttle

Cons:

Major language barriers every step of the way, even concierge and reception. This is a 4-star premiere hotel. Yet, virtually NO English is spoken by staff, including "Upper Management". Special shout out to Mr. Yamamoto 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. More like old school chauvinism.

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.

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. Incidentally, the "gym" has space for

Friendly staffPleasant interiorGood in-room amenities (except bedding)Useful hotel shuttleCons: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 Mr. Yamamoto 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...

The hotel rooms are ok. The staff I spoke with for check in/check out were ok. Not great but ok.

However, there were a number of issues which left me deeply disappointed.

First, the hotel claims to run a convenient shuttle between the hotel and Kyoto station. The management of this shuttle is terrible. We once tried to take the shuttle from the station. As we were walking up, the shuttle started pulling away even though it was several minutes before scheduled departure time. I ran to catch up with the shuttle and get the driver’s attention. He saw me, waved me off, and drove away. Maybe the shuttle was full? We will never know because the driver didn’t bother to roll down the window and tell us. Just waved his hand dismissively and drove away. On another day, we tried to take the shuttle from the hotel to the station. Because it was raining, the shuttle filled as soon as it arrived and we weren’t able to get a spot. Instead of providing a second shuttle, they just told us to get a taxi. They clearly care about being able to say they run a shuttle but not about actually making things convenient.

I would have ignored both of these issues, however, if it wasn’t for what happened after. (Please bear with me. Part of this story is not about the hotel, but it is relevant.) The hotel set us up with a taxi to the station. We asked to be taken to the front of the station. The driver asked if we were taking the Shinkansen. I said yes. At this point, the driver decided to NOT take us to the front of the station but, instead, take us to the back because the Shinkansen is closer to the back. We EXPLICITLY asked to be taken to the front. When I noticed that he was taking us to the back entrance, I told him we asked to go to the front. He said: no, there’s no Shinkansen entrance at the front. I have lived in Kyoto for 2 years. I know how to get to the Shinkansen. It is not hard from the front of the station. I said there IS a way to go from the front but he kept driving to the back. This caused the fare to be 300 yen higher than it should have been. Further, when we stopped, the driver conveniently forgot to turn off the meter as we unloaded.

So far, this is not on the hotel. This is on the scammy driver. Here is where the hotel comes in. I figured that the hotel might work with some specific drivers. So, I wrote to the hotel with the full name of the scammy driver and a description of what happened. They could’ve just said that there’s nothing they can do because he is not their official employee. INSTEAD, they responded saying the driver was right to ignore our request about where we wanted to go and take us to the back entrance. They said it was reasonable of him to assume we didn’t know what we wanted. This is dismissive, gross, and infantilizing.

If you want to be treated with basic respect, this is not the...