Smart Place Inn Kyoto Nijojo Horikawa

The rooms are compact, but two people can manage. We had to position our luggage carefully so it wouldn’t block the door. They don’t clean the room for stays under five days. If you want cleaning, it costs 1,000 yen. That was fine for us since the room is fairly small and we only slept and bathed there.

For Kyoto, this hotel is on the cheaper side, and staff were nice. We had no problems during our stay, but compared with the places we used in Osaka and Tokyo, it felt a bit short on amenities. I think I’ll skip Smart Inn on my next trip. A few things to know: Omiya station, the closest one, is a 10-minute walk. With lots of luggage that can feel like a stretch, though a few bus stops are 5-7 minutes away. You can have luggage sent to the hotel, but they don’t send it onward to other hotels or accommodation. We hadn’t planned for that, since we hoped most hotels would offer forwarding, and ended up using Yamato services at a nearby 7/11. Rooms aren’t cleaned daily like they are at larger hotels. You can ask for a light clean, which mostly means changing the bin and towels. Regular deep cleans cost extra, so don’t expect the room or bed to be cleaned each day. Bring 100yen coins for the washer and dryer. The room is tight, as we knew when booking, but there isn’t enough shelving or hanging space. We tucked our suitcase under the bed to make room, and some extra hangers on the blank wall would have helped.

There’s a huge market about two minutes away, though most places shut by 6, or 8 at the latest. The Inn is in a residential area, around a kilometer from Nijo castle. Getting here from Kyoto station means taking a bus and then walking a bit, which was a hassle with luggage.

The rooms were compact, but tidy and clean. I would’ve liked somewhere closer, though the price felt fair enough that the location didn’t bother me much.