Trek17439042464
March 15, 2024
This is the first hotel I left before my stay was over literally in decades - and as it was a no-frills booking, of course no money back. The location isn't half as good as people in the reviews make it out to be; it's a big mass hotel with a Japanese theme only; it's two stars at best (here three; the booking website gave four). The real problem was the rundown, smelly, not deeply cleaned room, and I get - and chose - the Japanese style, but that doesn't mean you won't have any English information at all, nor functionable electricity plugs, and normally if you need to lie down and rest, a futon bed will be made up for you. When arriving, the staff member showing me the room couldn't open the door for five minutes because of the lock, and that stayed symbolical. As the worst was the unfriendly (male) reception staff, the lowest level of hospitality ever, unprofessional to the max - I think they didn't try to accommodate me (literally and figuratively) as they thought if I'd leave they'd keep the money but could rerent the room, as there was some festival in town. Never looking for solutions, always thinking from convenience from their side - from useless waiting to always having better things to do to talk to guests to not even trying to help in any way to create a nice stay. It's rare in Japan that people with an unhospitable attitude work in hospitality. I'm usually neither grouchy nor unduly demanding, as my long track record of tripadvisor reviews shows - this was really a lowpoint of lodging in my life, and one of two of the worst places I ever stayed in East Asia. I was really glad to leave and be back on the train to Kyoto, and I recommend anyone to book a nice Ryokan or a good global-Western hotel in Nara instead.