guest house KOTO

Really pretty and clean! Just a few minutes on foot from the Fushimi shrine, and there’s a supermarket only a few hundred meters away. I’d definitely recommend it.

There’s enough space for four guests, and it was very clean and quiet.

I had a bad experience.

We’ll remember this guesthouse as the most regrettable part of our trip. It was a typical private home on level ground, where anyone could knock and enter the code. We knew that when booking and accepted it. What felt strange and a little scary was seeing posters opposing guesthouses along the way at many neighbors’ homes. There were no staff on site, and we couldn’t get in. Following the email instructions, the three of us tried the four-digit code plus the Lockstate key dozens of times, but the door wouldn’t open. We called the manager, got voicemail, and left a message explaining the problem. Worried it might be our phones, we borrowed one from another nearby guesthouse and called again, with the same result. We emailed too, but heard nothing right away. After nearly an hour outside in the heat, with darkness coming and mosquitoes biting us, we gave up and urgently searched for another hotel. Luckily, we found one near Kyoto Station and checked in. The manager’s phone number had gone straight to voicemail, and even Agoda couldn’t reach them immediately. Much later, the manager finally emailed, came to the hotel to check, and said we’d entered the wrong five-digit combination (?). They said the lock was fine because previous guests had no trouble, so they couldn’t refund us. We learned a hard lesson: when traveling abroad, it’s better to stay somewhere with staff on site. If a stranger knocks or the door suddenly stops working, being unable to reach the manager for help can leave you in a very difficult situation.