Stay SAKURA Kyoto Fuga — Hotel in Kyoto

This hotel could easily be a 5, but some totally avoidable flaws made me downgrade it to 3:

Staff: there were not always English-speaking staff available, which created some critical misunderstandings. I thought I had booked a spot at the hotel parking lot, but my message hadn’t got through (Agoda’s fault, in this case) and I had A LOT OF TROUBLE finding a parking spot around there, as the city was packed due to holidays. It took me a few days to clarify the issue due to communication difficulties. Also, one staff member told me I could get free bottles of water but when I requested it to another staff member, I was told only the first bottles were free. No big deal, except when you get to the hotel late at night counting on those bottles. The pictures of the room showed a Nespresso machine that wasn’t there. There was a professional Nespresso machine at the reception area, but it was out of service 2 out of 4 days. And obviously there was nobody there to fix it. I reckon they have the same staff perform many different functions and even attend different units of the hotel chain, so they are not there when you need them.

Location is also a BIG LOW. Not only it is not central (which I knew when I booked it), but there are no options around it, no restaurants, no cafes, just a Family Mart. I was counting on an apparently cozy coffee shop just around the corner for breakfast, but for my surprise they do not admit people under 20 (I was traveling with my 2yo boy).

The building is really new, the rooms are spacious and practical, with the mini kitchen and everything. The complimentary coffee is a big plus, had it been working… Despite the bad location, it would be good value for money if it wasn’t for the flaws...

It’s about 10min walk from the Jūjō Subway Station or Tobakaido Station (Keihan Main Line). It might be a bit far away if you have luggage. From Kyoto Station, taking buses is another good choice. There are convenience store, cafes and restaurants nearby the hotel, but not many choices for dining.||||New and spacious room with nice décor and functional design. Balcony and spacious bathroom are bonus. We like the small kitchen and washer with detergent too. Staff at the Guest Service Centre and hotel reception are polite, helpful and speak fluent Putonghua or English. ||||Free luggage storage is only available at the Guest Service Centre, 4-min walk from Kyoto Station. Luggage storage service at the hotel needs an additional charge. Free shuttle service is only one way from the Guest Service Centre to the property at 14:00～19:00, operating every hour and capacity is limited. The shuttle buses are only 7-seater vans. Through email, we reserved the free shuttle service in advance for our group of five from the Guest Service Centre to the hotel and the staff arranged two shuttle vans for us. So, advanced reservation of shuttle service is highly...

Stay Sakura Kyoto Fuga is a good option for families with kids to consider. The hotel is 10 minutes and 12 minutes walk from Jujo and Kujo Subway Stations respectively. These stations are close to the main Kyoto Station. The Kyoto station may be a 25 minutes walk. We walked to Fushimi Inari Taisha from the hotel which took us around 20-25 mins. The one bedroom studio apartment with the comprehensive kitchen and laundry facilities were really helpful for us. There is a Family Mart nearby, but we did our grocery purchases at the Life supermarket which is about 15 mins walk across the Kamo river. The staff were helpful and even reimbursed some amount because we checked out early. We got 2 decent sized beds, which gave us sample space to sleep.

The hotel reception has luggage storage facility if one plans to ship. However the hotel reception mentioned that they themselves do not support any luggage delivery service to another place.

Overall, the hotel is a good option to consider, specially if one is looking for kitchen and laundry facilities along with...