AB Hotel Kyoto Shijo Horikawa

The bed and pillows were the worst I can remember sleeping on. It felt like lying on a jagged rock, and I barely slept before waking up in pain. Both pillows were hard and lumpy, one filled with strange plastic beads. Even $3 Walmart pillows would be better. The place was clean, though not spotless, and the room had a few nice small amenities like q-tips. Check-in at 3pm was strictly enforced, but they let me store my bags. The man who helped with that was nice and spoke enough English, and a second man helped too. I didn't use the spa, whose sign lists several conduct warnings. I also had a serious language barrier with the woman who checked me in. I couldn't understand a word she said, though she seemed to think her English was fine. In a tourist town, I expect staff to be able to communicate decently with guests.

I booked a more expensive room and was given a lower-grade one instead. The male staff wouldn't discuss it with me because of the language barrier, so I complained online and got some money back. I also felt local guests were given priority when I needed help, even though I had been waiting in line before them. One female staff member did try to support me and was helpful, but overall the service from the men was very poor. The hotel location suited what I was looking for, and the online booking price was fairly cheap. My room was small in the bathroom, which I could accept, but it wasn't very clean and had stains all over the walls. The room also wasn't well insulated, so I could hear louder neighbors outside. I ran into trouble with the luggage forwarding service too. They gave me wrong information several times about the price and how to pay, which was very inconvenient when I needed to send my bags and leave soon to catch my train. Because of the poor service, I wouldn't choose this hotel again.

My husband and I had a deeply unsettling experience here. At checkout, a staff member was rude and condescending while telling us where to put our luggage. Then a front desk employee made discriminatory comments, apparently assuming we were Chinese. We're Indonesian, but the bigger issue is that she seemed willing to mistreat someone she believed was Chinese. That kind of prejudice has no place in hospitality. When we tried to report what happened, hotel staff refused to give us any management contact details, not an email or office information. Being blocked from making a formal complaint made the incident even worse. I'm sharing this to warn other travelers and to appeal directly to the ownership or senior management. The hotel needs serious staff training on discrimination and a complaint process guests can actually access. No guest should be treated this way.

The public bath and breakfast were mediocre, and the hotel showed no concern for sustainability. I'm definitely not staying again. More upsetting, the cleaning staff displaced my deep sleep eye mask, presumably while changing the sheets. It's a good-quality mask and the only thing that helps with my sleep issues. Staff said they couldn't find it and then refused to reimburse me. The hotel isn't cheap: they charge 10,000 yen for late checkout, which is after their 10 am checkout time, but wouldn't pay 8,000 yen to make up for their negligence.