Matsui Honkan — Hotel in Kyoto

During our stay:||1) The hotel is located in a nice area but it is not as pretty as the photos on the website. There is a small garden at the entrance and the waterfall area is not accessible. It is basically a conversion from a residential building instead of a traditional zen-style hot spring resort;||||2) The room is very old and many defects on the wall/around the corner/on the matt/in the toilet. We have taken pictures on the spots as an evidence. It is clearly over-priced given the room condition. The noise insulation was bad, and we could hear cars passing by as the hotel was located right next to a road;||||3) There was wifi coverage in both rooms but the reception was bad. We had to keep re-connecting in order to download emails;||||4) Both of us caught cold during our stay at Matsui Honkan and my wife was actually on fever. We tried to call the reception in the middle of the night but the receptionist was not really communicable in English hence we gave up. ||||We later found out that the reasons why we both caught cold were ||i) there was a window left open all the time since we checked in. The window was hidden before the wooden panel hence we could not spot it out. But cold air kept flowing into the room despite that we closed all the wooden panels; ||ii) the air-conditioning was NOT switched on despite showing display on the pre-set temperature. While we were shown into the room and services provided to us for 2+ hours during our stay, nobody turned the aircon on or adjusted the room temperature hence the room was freezing cold all the time until the middle of the night. The air-con set is really old and you would have to switch it on until you see the red light shining….otherwise the room was literally an ice-box, not to mention that the air-con would not work with a window left open all the time without anyone coming in to close it. It was totally ridiculous and it happened to both nights of our stays;||||5) Last but not least, our Kaiseki meal was totally a disaster. It was over-priced and by far the worst Kaiseki experience I’ve had in recent years. We booked in advance the premium Kaiseki set (prepared by the head chef). Instead of serving each course separately and explaining the dishes in details, we were given a Japanese instruction sheet which we could not understand. Then all the courses (appetizer, soup, main dish, seafood dish, hotpot and rice etc.) were dumped onto our tables all at once. We were so surprised as we were confused with the menu, had no idea on which dish was what and cannot find the correct order to have the dishes properly. It took us a long time to just try all the dishes one by one and before we moved on to the 2nd main dish, the food was already cold. It was a disaster and totally not worth it.||||It totally ruined our Kyoto experience, hopefully our feedback would serve as a warning to future overseas visitors to...

The staff at this Ryokan were all very kind, smiley and respectful. We booked 2 rooms of 2 pax each but since only 3 of us made the trip (covid 19 fear), we requested to have our dinner and breakfast to all be served in 1 room. Understanding that it could be too tight (check out our meal!), they arranged for us to have our meal in another room instead! We declined as we didn’t mind so you can see how packed our table is. Although a kaiseki meal is served by stages, we had ours all fully served up but we didn’t mind. They kept greeting us when coming through to set our table and they were just so courteous. The meal was great and filling. After dinner, they came to serve us dessert and cleared up before setting our beds. The room came with a heater so it was enjoyable to be able to appreciate the zen garden in the comfort of the room. I’m not sure if it is because each room came with it’s private tub or Low occupancy but when we went down to the public bath, there was only 1 lady leaving and so we had the entire place to ourselves! How perfect. We had the Japanese bfast and they were so kind to call before sending the food so that gave us ample time to prepare for their arrival. Even until the time we left, they actually held up a banner to bid us goodbye. Very sweet and thoughtful. I highly recommend...

The staff at this Ryokan were all very kind, smiley and respectful. We booked 2 rooms of 2 pax each but since only 3 of us made the trip (covid 19 fear), we requested to have our dinner and breakfast to all be served in 1 room. Understanding that it could be too tight (check out our meal!), they arranged for us to have our meal in another room instead! We declined as we didn’t mind so you can see how packed our table is. Although a kaiseki meal is served by stages, we had ours all fully served up but we didn’t mind. They kept greeting us when coming through to set our table and they were just so courteous. The meal was great and filling. After dinner, they came to serve us dessert and cleared up before setting our beds. The room came with a heater so it was enjoyable to be able to appreciate the zen garden in the comfort of the room. I’m not sure if it is because each room came with it’s private tub or Low occupancy but when we went down to the public bath, there was only 1 lady leaving and so we had the entire place to ourselves! How perfect. We had the Japanese bfast and they were so kind to call before sending the food so that gave us ample time to prepare for their arrival. Even until the time we left, they actually held up a banner to bid us goodbye. Very sweet and thoughtful. I highly recommend...