Travelodge Kyoto Shijo Kawaramachi [トラベロッジ四条河原町] — Hotel in Kyoto

Serious problems with this hotel:

The street is like Times Square for Kyoto teenagers, complete with a giant entertainment center next door & multiple pachinko parlors & karaoke up and down the street. There are also tons of inexpensive stores & restaurants. This is convenient, but also means noise almost 24 hours a day. It was so loud I thought the window was open. Every five minutes you hear somebody revving their motor, or a car horn, or a siren. Even in the bathroom you could hear it. For this reason alone I would never return -- but there's more.

2.The curtains are like thin white paper. We actually bought blackout curtains & hooked them up. I don't know why management hasn't installed them.

When I asked about the advertised air conditioning, the manager told me "air conditioning" in Japan can mean heating too. I asked about the snowflakes next to the word on most major booking websites. He said they have one climate system which is set to either heating or cooling for the entire building, & currently it was set to heating. Which meant no air conditioning as the rest of the world knows the term.

I believe cost-cutting has made this hotel uninhabitable. Every detail stinks, from the small foam block pillows to the undersized toilet seat to standing in a small bathtub with a plastic shower curtain to shower.

Travelodge talks big about guaranteeing your stay is great. Try finding someone to complain to when it isn't. I found one email address & they still haven't replied.

The few good points: The building looks nice inside. There's a good coffee shop next door, an okay market across the street. You can walk to Nishiki Market, Gion, and Yasaka Jinja shrine. Washer/dryers in...

Do NOT stay here.

I’ve stayed in ~40 hotels in Japan, and this has to be one of the worst.

Absolutely horrendous service.

I arrived at 2:05 pm (official check in is at 3). They would not allow me to check in early. In fact the staff laughed when I asked. Fine. But they do not have a dedicated luggage room, so there are about (not kidding), 100 pieces of luggage just hanging out in the lobby. You can barely get to the front desk it is that over flowing. Anyways, I want to go sightsee, so I check in 3 pieces - 1 carry case, a backpack, and one small shopping bag.

When I return at 7 pm, my shopping bag is no longer tagged, and it is sitting on top of someone else’s large case. They could have easily taken it. On top of that, when the front desk staff tries to retrieve my bag, she drags it across the floor instead of unlocking the wheels. The wheel no longer rolls well.

The Internet did NOT work. When I called to the front desk to inquire, they LAUGHED, and then their actual response was “there is nothing I can do, it is not my problem, it is working in lobby on my tablet”. Then he laughed again.

The hotel looks clean, but is so incredibly dirty. There is black mold growing everywhere in the bathroom - the drains, faucets, and the fan. It is beginning to grow on the shower curtain. It is disgusting. It is likely contributing to the disconcerting smell in the bathroom. I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture it is that gross.

TDLR: zero respect for personal belongings, no Internet in room, zero consideration or concern from front desk staff, black mold everywhere...

I thought I had already paid through the app, but apparently not. So once I got there, they asked me to pay. It came as a surprise, and I had to double-check the booking app multiple times. It was very weird that it showed that I would be charged for any cancellation but didn't display whether I had paid or not. But after a while, I was pretty sure nothing was wrong and went to a local money exchange machine to get more cash to pay. However, they charged me more than the amount shown on the app, and with the currency exchange rate being lower, I remember I ended up around $15 or more short. It was very unprofessional to charge customers more than what was agreed upon. Another problem is that they required customers to go down to the lobby to get towels every day, compared to the previous hotel I stayed at in Osaka, where the hotel would put the towels and other necessities in front of the room. Outside of these two problems, there is another smaller issue. The previous hotel I stayed at had a slipper ready plus a paper one. Here, they only have a paper one, which is very uncomfortable. The paper one gets dirty easily and is very flimsy. Plus, the TV is lacking an English option. I thought this was a non-issue but it would be nice to have.

The reason for the 1 star is for the dishonesty regarding money or I would have rate this 4 out of 5. On the plus side, the room is good, and the location is amazing. Most of the staffs are very friendly too! Just make sure you pay with the app, and...