Rihga Royal Hotel Kyoto — Hotel in Kyoto

It's ok.

Its a bit difficult to describe this hotel and it's services. The short version is that this hotel feels like an American hotel building with mediocre Japanese service and that's not a good thing.

Starting with the staff, the service was hit and miss. There were prompt and friendly greetings by the door personal however that friendlness disappeared as soon as you reach the check in counter. The staff, while professional, offered no smile.

We asked if the hotel could get us two tickets for Universal studios Japan. They said they were not able to but advised us that we could go to 7-11 and purchase the tickets... The correct whenever a guest makes a request is yes. The answer should have been of course, please check in with us after an hour for your tickets.

The highlight of the service were t he parking attendents whom were by far the friendliest staff.

Moving onto the rooms. The room we had booked was a simple double room it had been remodeled and while it was clean it had a cheap look to it. That was OK and to be expected from an aging hotel that had been remodeled. What was not expected was the mold in the bathroom tiles...

The staff, were quick to offer us a different room and resolve the problem however, having just spent the afternoon walking aroubd kyoto, we asked for and would have preferred the bathroom be cleaned when we put for dinner so that we didn't have to repack and unpack everything again. The staff however pushed the new room idea.

Aside from the mold both of the rooms were on the larger side of things for Japan which was nice. They included a mini fridge stalked with a varity of drinks that came with a large markup if you chose to drink them. We didn't however, at the price point of the hotel, all rooms should include complimentary water.

The facilities. We were offered two complimentary pool tickets due to booking with expedia, we didn't use them as the pool closes at 8pm? Really? Why have a pool at all if it's not going to be open when guest are returning to the hotel? Moving beyond that, how is a pool not complimentary? I'll come back to this later.

Location and shuttle bus, the hotel is a close walk to the station, about ten minutes by the time you enter the station, not seven as the staff will tell you unless your speedwalking. Thr hotel was really in the perfect spot, far enough that the station noise was muted but close enough for easy access. They also offerd a shuttle bus, which we didn't use (most shuttle busses in Japan are packed so we've always opted out of them).

Summary. After experiencing this hotel and reading through other guest reviews I can safely say that this hotel nerds work.

The hotel has responded to several reviews apologizinf and thanking customers for reviews making staments such as we value your opinion and will use it to better our services. The problem is THEY DONT. None of the problems mettioned in other guest reviews save been fixed..

The still charge for the pool and fitness room, the breakfast is still overpriced for what it is! The wifi still drops out despite claims of having fixed it... The list goes on and on. UNACCEPTABLE.

If this hotel really wanted to fix these these things they would have already done so.

I've lived in Japan for 5 years, and Japanese staff are very good at apologizing however almost never take action to fix a problem. This hotel is no acception. Take the time and money and invest in staff training and a solution to the problems mentioned or go out of business.

When considering the price, this hotel is completely unacceptable. Don't stay here untill they have proven the above...

This was our final hotel as part of the 12 day trip through Japan with Gate1 Travel/Discovery Small Groups and it was yet another really great hotel - it was nice to conclude the trip at a place like this.||Very clean, very well organized, good walking distance to a lot of great restaurant and even attractions (we walked 2 days in a row back from first Nishiki Market about 45 minutes, and second day from Gion about 50 minutes or so) - there are some nice big temples within super short walk as well. ||The hotel provides a bottle that you can refill at the hallway of each floor - which is a very nice feature so you don't have to buy any water bottles and not be concerned about the tap water. ||Our room was nice, and we had a "sunset view" though the view wasn't the prettiest of the rest - did not really matter as we never stayed in the room. You can hear some trains as it's literally next to rail tracks (walking distance to the Rail Museum - we didn't have time to go so I can't comment on it) but it didn't bother as as back home we have much louder cargo trains pass our area by all the time but I can see how it can be a factor for some light sleepers. ||The buffet restaurant opens up at 6:30AM so it's a helpful thing if you are still dealing with a jet lag - people line up but they get accommodated really fast as the team here is very efficient at it. The area with food isn't too big so it gets a bit crowded and people bump into each other a lot unfortunately. The food options weren't as great as at other hotels we stayed at but one could always find something - though to be perfectly honest we missed the final breakfast due to an early departure and I actually did not mind - it wasn't bad but many Japanese options were just not interesting compared to other hotels and we struggled to find here something to be very excited about as we have at the other places - but this is just a personal taste so for others it may be just great. Espresso machine was available so having a morning late was always a welcome thing at least :)||The biggest asset of this hotel is its team, the human factor! They were very nice helping us organize the taxi from the hotel to Itami Airport since we couldn't take advantage of the hotel shuttle due to how early we were heading to the airport. It was just about $115 USD for the about 45 - 50 minute ride around 4AM so a very reasonable rate which I highly recommend (Kansai airport is much much further away so this may be much higher) - keep in mind the airport does not open until 5:30AM (I wish we knew as we would not have left at 4AM) so no matter how early your flight is don't arrive any earlier as you will have to sit outside the airport (our driver was nice enough to let us stay until 5AM inside his car and then we stood outside for the last 30minutes). ||A really nice hotel, despite not being crazy about the breakfast options I would return without hesitation - we loved exploring Kyoto on foot from here every day we had some extra time after our daily...

On our long trek through Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto to relax, enjoy the ryokans, the onsens, and the local cuisines, we found ourselves in Kyoto staying at the Rihga Royal Hotel Kyoto for 3 nights, getting away from the "ryokans" after 2 full weeks in many of these accommodations with onsens spas and dinner included. Yesterday, at the hotel, we visited AOI for the teppan-yaki dinner with the very delicious "Omi" wagyu beef, and lobster, which were very good; one of the best teppan-yaki dinner service, in terms of quality of the Omi beef, the Atlantic lobster, and the execution. However, it was dinner tonight, Dec 6, 2023, at the Gourmand Tachibana in the hotel which gave my wife and I, the BEST DINNER SERVICE in our long Japanese trip so far. We had no idea what type of food or service Gourmand Tachibana served, so we had zero expectations. Gourmand Tachibana serves western cuisine, similar to a degustation menu with many courses, using the finest local meats, seafood and produce. Chef Shibata designed a very creative and well-balanced menu, with interesting dishes, using best in-season local ingredients. Chef Shibata executed with precision skills and as such, we were able to taste the freshest and sweetest of Japan produce from white radish, daikon, taro root, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and many others. The seafood elements were the freshest and created with attention to detail and taste. The meat course, while not Kobe, Omi or Matsusaka beef, was still so perfected cooked and balanced with the right sauce and course-grain mustard, the taste in the mouth was of full balance. Absolute compliments, and hats off, to Chef Shibata. Meanwhile restaurant manager Matsuda, took great care, not only to explain each dish to us, but he printed out for us, a full version of the menu all in English. Both manager Matsuda and Chef Shibata went even further and brought out some of the main ingredients used to show us. THANK YOU for delivering beyond our expectations and we hope Righa Royal Hotel Kyoto management team will take notice and can work out how to further promote this type of food, attention to detail service and this type of cuisine to tourist like us looking for new ways to taste the great foods and ingredients of Kyoto and Japan. Well done, and please keep it up, as we will definitely return, and will HIGHLY RECOMMEND to all family and...