R.STAR HOSTEL KYOTO JAPAN — Hotel in Kyoto

The R star Hostel was very clean with very well kept amenities. The location was optimal and situated in a quite area. The room was not so ideal because I had a top bunk bed where the privacy curtain did not go to the ceiling and I found my neighbouring bunk beds were easily able to see into my bed space. The bottom bunk bed did not have this issue though.

I had an issue with my stay because my reservation was not honoured. I booked with R Star Hostel 4 months in advance because I was travelling was a group of 4 females and we were looking for a 4 night stay in Kyoto. It was essential for us to reserve 4 beds in the same room because this was what we were comfortable doing as young women and at other accommodations, we booked all female dorms. We ultimately booked 4 beds in a 6 bed mixed gender dorm knowing that our group would make up the majority of the room because we were so pleased by the reviews and with what R Star Hostel was advertising online. When we arrived to check in at R Star, Hostel we were informed that they were offering us 3 beds in one room and 1 bed in a separate room. We double checked our booking and confirmed that our reservation was for 4 beds together and that we were not comfortable with this change. We were offered for the 1 bed to be moved to an all-female room but we had to pay extra for this change. The manager was not present to assist us and we were conversing with the front desk staff who we knew had no ability to help us. The front desk staff were very lovely but unable to help because they had no authority to do so. The manager was speaking with the front desk staff over the phone and would not accommodate for the R Star Hostel booking mistake and would not offer to cover the extra cost of moving 1 bed to the all-female room. The manager would not agree to meet with us and amend this issue and we ultimately agreed to stay with their amended 3 beds in one room and 1 bed in a mixed dorm.

We did not receive an apology or any compensation for this change and we are very disappointed. The manager completely disregarded our safety even after we said time and time again that we did not feel comfortable with 1 young female staying in a mixed dorm by herself. At the time of booking if this was the only sleeping arrangement available with the R Star Hostel, we would NEVER have booked our stay in Kyoto here in the first place. The manager clearly made a booking mistake and did not honour our reservation and nothing was done to amend the issue.

Overall, I am very disappointed and I would not recommend the R Star Hostel because our reservation was...

We stayed some days to visit Kyoto.

The hotel is at 20 minutes walking from the main station but you can get a bus or metro that can let you at 5 minutes from the hotel.

At the entrance, you will need to remove your shoes and put them on the shelves, and use the provided slippers. Be careful with your head!

I found this a little annoying the first time because we came with the backpacks and it's hard to remove the shoes with the extra weight.

We were surprised that one of the clerks spoke Spanish and the team seems quite international.

The bathrooms were very clean every time that I used them and I never had problems for busy showers or toilets.

I found the room quite spacious but I also found that the walls are very thin. I could listen to videocalls with families even after the quiet time (that is 11pm) and during the night I could also hear snoring from the neighbour. It was only during one night, but it surprised me. Bed and pillows are not the best, but I still did the find one good bed in Japan.

I liked the common place (the kitchen) where even during not "eating times" there were people working on just chilling, which gave me a sense of community and comfort.

The breakfast consists of several kinds of bread and 3 kinds of jams, honey and margarine. You can get one free nice coffee for a day that I didn't try, but I tried the green tea every day.

You can also use the kitchen to make your own food at any time, and you don't need to worry about doing the dishes because the clerks do it for you.

The washing machine and the dryer are 24 hours but to be honest, the dryer didn't really work for us. After washing the clothes , they were practically dried already, but anyway, I put them in the dryer. After half an hour the result were exactly the same,as if we didn't put the dryer at all. So I needed to hang many clothes in the room itself.

Another negative point is that the WiFi is very annoying to use. There are many points to connect, and even the staff tell you to try to reconnect to others because it doesn't work properly. It's extremely slow, despite all the youngsters that are in the hotel. Sometimes, I wonder how some of them were even working because, for me, I could not even load a Web page.

The hotel is very well situated and gave me plenty of time to explore the central Kyoto.

In general the service is a mix of good and bad things, so in the 6 just ok.

I think I will repeat if I come back to Kyoto and the prices are good, but definitely not for the WiFi or the...

I stayed here for 3 nights in a private family room with 4 other friends. The room was nice and big and very clean however the sleeping arrangements weren’t the best. There were 2 beds in the room and then 3 “mattresses” on the floor. I highlight the word because they were no thicker than a duvet. As sleeping on the floor is customary here, and we had already experienced it in another hotel we didn’t mind this so much. However the mattress was so thin that none of my friends slept a wink that night. The next night we decided to share the beds and pile all 3 mattresses on top of each other for one person to sleep. This arrangement was a little better..but only just. As everything else in the hostel seemed really nice we didn’t let this effect our stay. ||Unfortunately on our last full day, we left the hostel early do some sight seeing. We returned later that night and the cleaners had been in to our room. When I was going to bed I noticed that my Apple AirPods, which had been charging on the table beside the bed, were missing from the charger. Nothing else that was on the table was missing. We turned the room upside down trying to find them but they definitely weren’t there. I reported this to the front reception and they were very apologetic but couldn’t do anything for me as they couldn’t get hold of their manager. I returned again the next morning before we were due to check out and they assured me that they were trying to rectify the situation and that of course I would be compensated if they couldn’t find the AirPods. I questioned how they would do this as I was leaving but they insisted that it would be ok. They took all my details and ensured me that they would contact me as soon as they figured it out. ||I left it for a few days but when I heard nothing I decided to enquire. Their response was that they were very sorry but they never found them and now they were back tracking and saying that I wouldn’t be compensated. They obviously just told me that I would just leave. ||It was just such a disappointing end to a lovely holiday and a situation I would never have expected in a city like Kyoto. ||So if you do decide to stay here...even in the private rooms...Lock away all you...