Connect inn Shichijokamogawa

We had a great stay and got a very good price, so I’m not sure why there are so many bad reviews. The room was spacious compared with other hotels, and the staff communicated well with us by email. It seems like good value for a solo traveler, a couple, or maybe a small family. There’s no staff on site most of the time, though they emailed the check-in details and collected our information effectively. We got the entrance and room codes by email. We arrived a little before check-in, and the cleaner kept our bags in the room while we went out. The hotel is by the river, about a 10-minute walk from a train station, with bus stops and plenty of little restaurants and cafes nearby. Kyoto Tower was an easy walk too. You need to be comfortable using LINE, email and other messaging apps, since staff are only there for a few hours each day. There’s no elevator, so keep that in mind when booking. I’m giving it 5 stars for the value.

The room was a decent size and clean, but getting to Kyoto Station is a long trip, and the nearest subway is also some distance away. There are no shops or convenience stores nearby, it feels like the middle of nowhere. There’s no room cleaning, so on a stay longer than one night the bin will overflow. The hotel doesn’t have another bin where you can empty it. There’s no reception either. They give you two phone numbers, but they don’t work very well, so good luck getting help.

We called ahead because we wanted to leave our luggage when we arrived at 11:45 in the morning. Nobody was there, and after waiting 20 minutes the cleaner said we could put the bags in our room. We checked in around 8 that night, but the room was freezing because the heater hadn’t been switched on. Even after two hours it was still cold, and our toddler couldn’t sleep, so we booked another hotel and checked out. It’s about a 10-minute walk from Kyoto Station, but there’s nothing nearby, not even a convenience store, and the road is quite dark. I wouldn’t recommend it for a family stay.

The rooms hadn’t been cleaned at all. There were used sheets and towels, rubbish from the previous guests and a used toothbrush. With no staff at the property, check-in had to happen at another hotel a 20-minute walk away. We weren’t told that before arriving, and the directions to the other place weren’t clear, so finding it wasted a lot of time. We walked back to the off-site clerk to ask for a refund. They tried to get us to wait until 5 p.m. for check-in and a cleaning crew. Apart from the location, this is a terrible place to stay. Avoid it.