Ikoi-no-ie

I was satisfied with the stay and would definitely come back. The ryokan was tidy and clean, with a friendly, accommodating receptionist, and I loved the small private onsen. Check availability at least an hour ahead. A private bath costs 5500 yen per hour. It's very close to Kyoto station and the infamous geisha street, about a 10-15 minute walk. There's self-service laundry on the rooftop, with detergent capsules for sale at reception. Traditional Japanese breakfast is available at a reasonable price; breakfast and dinner are optional, so ask staff for the menu. Room service is only after 3 days. The only drawback for me was how thin the futon and pillow were. I stayed at a traditional, affordable ryokan in asakusa too, and those bedding were much more comfortable.

The room setup left us with almost no privacy. My girlfriend and I had booked for two, and although there were two futons, the tiny room had two levels, so one futon had to go upstairs and the other downstairs. At night, we realized the supposedly unusable closet doors were actually the walls between our room and the next one. We'd stayed in plenty of traditional guesthouses and hostels around Japan with little privacy, but at Ikoi-no-ie it was basically nonexistent. The shared bathroom was also a problem the next morning. There was just one for roughly 20 guests, so it was constantly occupied and getting a shower took a while. When we finally got in, the bathroom was dirty, especially the tub, and the shower head couldn't be hung up. It made me feel like livestock packed into minimal space for maximum profit. When we arrived, reception was great. The hostesses in kimonos were extremely helpful and polite. After check-in, one of them walked us to our guesthouse at another location, since Ikoi-no-ie has several addresses around the block. At first the place seemed nice, with a shared living room and kitchen where we could prepare and eat our own food, but things got awkward once we saw the room.

The reception was friendly, and each guest had soap, shampoo, two towels, and a yukata. Still, the place felt narrow, dusty, and not very clean, with nowhere to dry towels. It was also complicated having to pick up and return the key at a different place from the inn. The stairs are steep and narrow, so bringing a large suitcase up to the room would be difficult.

The staff gave us the wrong door code, and the stylish hotel photos show a different building. Reception and the office are elsewhere, and guests stay in another house. The place felt cramped and worn, and the rooms were awful, noisy, and didn't look clean. We'd been put off by the bad reviews but booked anyway, and found them all to be true. This was the second-most expensive hotel we stayed at in Japan, yet by far the worst. Nothing else came close to how disgraceful Ikoi no ie was. It wasn't worth the price at all. For about half the cost, the stay might have been acceptable. And don't be fooled by the Google rating of 3.7. They give free stuff for reviews.