Sakura Cross Hotel Kyoto Kiyomizudera — Hotel in Kyoto

BIG WARNING: REVIEWS ARE MANIPULATED

You would surprise how this hotel gets 4.9/5.0 while all famous $1000+ luxurious Kyoto hotels still get 4.6-4.7. This hotel is serious about letting visitor to review 5 stars. All staffs you meet, hotel room card, books, recommend you to give 5 stars. But seriously, this hotel is the WORST experience I have ever had in Japan and I am vicim of this not-objective review score, so I am writing this review for you to not to make mistake like me. I've visited Japan more than 10 times and stayed more than 100 places ranging $50-$1000 and I can speak that this is the worst. Let me tell you why.

There is NO staff - NO LUGGAGE CHECK IN/OUT, and NO HELP FOR ANY UNEXPECTED ISSUE. This is not a hotel, indeed, this is more like airbnb like but worse version of it. The reason is because you NEVER be able to contact any staffs whenever there is an issue. The number is only for Japanese, and you can try their LINE QR code to contact, but often their QR code is OUTDATED. (It was the case for me.) So if you found some problem, there is no hope you can get any help from anyone. Airbnb is at least better as you can contact the owner, or start dispute, but there is nothing like this in this hotel.

If you are lucky, you can find patrolling staff and ask question, but only for very limited time.

Also, you cannot put your luggages in advance of after checkout, and even if they provide it, they don't provide any security there, just putting in the place where everyone can see and move. (No locking or anything, just putting your luggage behind elevator)

The air circulating system is broken, and as a result, the room has serious stink if your previous guest screwed it up. In our case, our room was clean visually, but there was huge stink in the room and it was simply not possible to get rid of them. And we couldn't change the room, as no staff there and QR to contact them did not work. (it was outdated link - user not found)

We were finally able to contact someone in hotel using Japanese phone (just by asking someone in Japan), and the staff was very rude -- they seem to hate someone not speaking Japanese and did not believe what we said in terms of stink until the random Japanese guy came together to the room and confirmed the stink. (Note this Japanese person had nothing to do with us, we had to ask the random person because we couldn't make a phone call and speak in Japanese.)

Seriously, the WORST stay ever in my life, but what I got more pissed off is this was advertised as "4.9/5.0" hotel as you let your guests to do 5 stars reviews. If you didn't have any problems, sure you could give it 5 stars if someone asks you, but if you are in trouble, this hotel guarantees you...

First, a heads-up on how (many of) the below Google reviews were added: upon check-out, the staff present the client with a board with a QR code; when scanned, it links to the Google Maps listing of the hotel; the staff stands next to the clients and guide (pressure) them on how to give their 5-star rating. Unheard of! 😵 Do notice how many of the clients below, have just one or two reviews... One being this Hotel's review.

Now, regarding the hotel per se...

POSITIVES | clean, well maintained facilities, good location (close to many POIs but still outside of the hullabaloo of Gion)

NEGATIVES | Tiny, dark and absolutely badly designed rooms... We are a family of 3 (2 adults, 1 adolescent) with 1 L-XL suitcase plus a small backpack each, as it happens with a large percentage of international tourists, more often than not. We had booked a "Superior twin room (Max4Comfort2)" which to our big surprise had two adjacent mattresses of a total length 2m80, occupying the 90% of the bedroom. Only one luggage could be opened in the small hallway of the entrance and only one person at a time could walk freely in the room (with "freely" being debatable still...). So, indeed, 4 people do fit in the room, but only lying down... 🤦‍♀️ Regarding the "Comfort2" part, again, with that little space that allows only for one luggage to be open and the adjacent mattresses, one of which is also adjacent to the wall.., and unless this isn't a deliberate misinformation, I really doubt the management's standards on defining comfort... On top of all these, there were 4 decorative pillows, 6 sets of towels (soft but overused with threads hanging loose here and there), all the dust created by three people cramped in that hole... It made our Kyoto stay really suffocating...

Unless one travels alone or in a couple with cabin luggage only, this hotel is to be...

ROOMS - definitely very tiny for the four of us. I was very disciplined with how I always tidy up our luggage so we don’t end up opening all of them at the same time (coz its just not possible with how small the room was). There was a weird suffocating smell upon entering so I immediately turned on the AC. It went away while AC is on and came back again when we entered the room after some walking around the area. At least the pillows were comfortable to sleep on!

SERVICE - there wasn’t any. I don’t think this was a self service hotel because if it was, I wouldn’t choose it. But they have staff, only you have to have the right timing and patience to find where they are 🤣 srsly, where are the staff? Nobody is on the ground floor, nobody at the 2nd floor. I wasn’t emailed any kind of qr code or passcode so I needed help checking in. It would’ve been a smooth process had there be someone to give me the check in code. When someone finally showed up, they had a hard time looking for my code. That was it for me, never going back to this hotel!

LOCATION - there are convenience stores around the area but not a lot of restaurants. You have to walk at least 15-20 mins to find good ones. Higashiyama and Gion neighborhoods are about 15-20 min walk.

Overall, didn’t really like this hotel plus it was sooooooo expensive. Not recommending it to...