Ala Hotel Kyoto

The location is good and breakfast was better than I expected, but that’s about all I liked. They say breakfast runs until 10, yet cleanup starts around 9:30, so get everything you want onto your plate by then. The room was tiny and claustrophobic, with nowhere proper to hang clothes. There’s only a small open wall shelf with a few hangers. The bed was hard and the pillows even worse, and I couldn’t get a comfortable night’s sleep. I don’t know how this is rated four stars. It felt more like a two-star motel, maybe a little above hostel level, and the photos of the hotel and rooms are misleading. Very disappointing. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.

The location was great, and the room was okay, but our attempt to arrange a later checkout left us frustrated. We stayed three nights, and the regular checkout time was 11 a.m. Around 10 p.m. the night before, we called reception and were told an extra hour would cost 300 yen. After discussing it, we called back to ask about two hours. The person said that was fine for 600 yen. I checked the price again, was told 600 yen once more, and was told we could pay at checkout. At checkout, the counter told us the fee was 6,600 yen. We explained what we’d been quoted on the phone and that we had confirmed the amount twice, but the staff member pointed to the brochure we’d received at check-in and insisted on charging 6,600 yen. Nobody had told us to check the brochure or mentioned the fees when we checked in. We asked them to review our call from the previous night, but they still wouldn’t change the charge. We ended up paying and moving on. It was really frustrating that the price hadn’t been made clear. If the person answering the phone wasn’t comfortable speaking English, they should have put us in touch with someone who could, especially since this was about money.

The breakfast buffet alone was worth it, with a world-class spread of both Eastern and Western food. The hotel felt lovely and traditional, and the staff were delightful. It’s also handy for the trains and buses, Kyoto tower, and dozens of restaurants. There’s an ice cream parlor right next door. An incredible place to stay.

I stayed nine nights in January on the 9th floor, and for the price of a four-star property I’d rate it one star for value. I’ve traveled around Japan extensively for 29 years. Noise was a constant problem. There was no sound insulation, so I could hear conversations and other noise from the room next door and the corridor, plus every footstep from the 10th floor. Ala has over 200 rooms, yet they were all assigned along one congested floor. The air conditioner, humidifier, fridge, and ventilator were noisy too. The humidifier made an awful sound like water flowing, and the fridge wasn’t enclosed in a cabinet. The mattress and pillow were extremely firm, and I had backache every day. The lobby was spacious but had no decent sofa or couch to sit and rest on. It felt empty, apart from the luggage left there on display. The property has indoor and outdoor onsens, but four different staff members gave me four different answers about their operating hours. I’ve also never encountered a ¥3,000 deposit to borrow an iron in Japan.