Saka Hotel Kyoto — Hotel in Kyoto

Decided to treat ourselves to one night of luxury and Saka Hotel did not disappoint! Booked two Superior Twin Rooms for the four of us along with the dinner and breakfast package.

Super easy taking a taxi (four people, four suitcases) from Kyoto station, we used the MK taxi stand by the Ibis Hotel since we were staying nearby, they tend to have larger vehicles so was able to take all of us plus our luggage straight to the hotel – best to have the Japanese address/telephone to help the driver since it is in a quieter neighbourhood, but the staff at the stand printed the address out for the driver on our behalf!

Arrived at 12pm but check-in is at 3pm, so we left our luggage and walked to Kiyomizu temple which was just around the corner. The hotel is also really close other attractions with Yasaka shrine being one of them – definitely worth going.

Returned at 3pm to be welcomed with hot tea and a sweet snack before being shown our room by one of the staff who spoke English – I didn't get her name but would like to thank her for looking after us!

Dinner was amazing, we didn't finish our rice so they offered to make it into onigiri (along with some pickled sides) for us to bring back to our rooms – wrapped up/presented just as beautifully as the dinner itself. Breakfast was just as phenomenal.

Didn't try the hot spring service but the free Sake bath in our rooms was already enough!

We were absolutely in awe of the hotel, food and service. Small details taken care of, like luggage waiting for us in our rooms and allowing us to eat together as a family despite booking two rooms with different dinner sets.

Thank you to everyone at the hotel for being so professional, would love to stay again if we...

Not the best choice if you’re going to Kyoto with elderly or children.

Service: staffs are mostly blunt except for a few who were helpful during our stay. I understand Japanese culture is very particular but for me it is still unacceptable. For example they were going to charge us for extra bottle of water because we need more for the baby. There was also no help with the luggages when we were leaving. Several time we felt very unwelcome.

Restaurant: Japanese breakfast is nice, but again because of the lack of service, I felt very pressured rushing to finish every morning because they would come in every 5 min to check whether they can take away the dishes. There is only one restaurant with no in-room dining, so do not expect you can casually dine in or order in-room dining if you arrive late on your first day, which was the case for us, we have to find a restaurant nearby to eat when we arrive at 7, with 2 elderly and a baby, which was very tiring after a long trip.

Location: only 7 mins away from Kiyomizu-dera, which is a popular tourist spot. It is located in on a small street so cabs usually take longer time to get in and out because of traffic jam during day time on one-way streets.

Room: the room is clean and decent, we stayed on the first floor with private bath which was quite nice, except for the one thing - we reported that the AC was dripping but they never fixed it. We had to use a bucket for bath to hold the dripping water so the carpet wasn’t soaked.

Overall we have stayed in many types of hotels in different places in Japan, this is definitely the bottom...

Service: staffs are mostly blunt except for a few who were helpful during our stay. I understand Japanese culture is very particular but for me it is still unacceptable. For example they were going to charge us for extra bottle of water because we need more for the baby. There was also no help with the luggages when we were leaving. Several time we felt very unwelcome.||Restaurant: Japanese breakfast is nice, but again because of the lack of service, I felt very pressured rushing to finish every morning because they would come in every 5 min to check whether they can take away the dishes. There is only one restaurant with no in-room dining, so do not expect you can casually dine in or order in-room dining if you arrive late on your first day, which was the case for us, we have to find a restaurant nearby to eat when we arrive at 7, with 2 elderly and a baby, which was very tiring after a long trip.||Location: only 7 mins away from Kiyomizu-dera, which is a popular tourist spot. It is located in on a small street so cabs usually take longer time to get in and out because of traffic jam during day time on one-way streets.||Room: the room is clean and decent, we stayed on the first floor with private bath which was quite nice, except for the one thing - we reported that the AC was dripping but they never fixed it. We had to use a bucket for bath to hold the dripping water so the carpet wasn’t soaked.||Overall we have stayed in many types of hotels in different places in Japan, this is definitely the bottom...