Hotel Gion Misen

We arrived at 10.30am trying to leav our bags in the hotel but there was no one there to attend to us. There was a card there to tell us to call the mobile number but we only have data sim. After half an hour wondering what to do, a lady turned up. She told us that we cannot check till 4pm. We said we only want to leave bags there and will go touring around. She made a few phone call, then told over our bag. We asked her for directions to go to kyomizu temple. We were shown the completely opposite direction.(we weren't expecting a local to be worse than goggle map). That put us off our schedule. We went back to check in at 10.18pm. Again there was no one there but there was a sign saying you have to call this number for emergency. Again we have plenty of data but can't make call. We saw our bags were left outside, we were panicked(it's like in the dramas you were being kick out when you don't pay your rent in time).as we were so desperate, someone appeared from nowhere(God sent). She told us "check in finished at 8pm. Any check in after 8pm, There is late check-in fee of 1000yen per person 🙄 (and we have 4 people with 2 rooms booked and fully paid) and after 10pm there will be no more check.😣we explained that the lady from this morning had not told us anything but just asked us to come back to check-in after 4pm. The lady at night was very helpful, she explained that she is only a bar tender but will call the owner and ask for us、she then told us that the owner said he has sent us email to let us know that he cannot check us in after 10pm. (I mean who will check your mailbox every minute when you are on holiday).again we must thank the bar tender to try to talk for us with the owner. Eventually we were able to check into our room. The bed was very hard and our room was second floor right opposite Lawson neon sign.(it's a white night). We book this place because we wanted to try out what it say in their website that they serve Kyoto style japanese breakfast. All we had for breakfast was 2 toast with some Spinach and tomato, cereals and yoghurt. When I question them about the Japanese breakfast, the answer was "you have to book for it when you check in"😵. But I paid good money for it. So my experience was totally not Japanese. One more thing each time when the staff call the owner they always speak in English to the owner over the phone🤔I used to study in Kyoto 30 years ago, this is definitely not Kyoto style. Very disappointing. I would recommend not to go to this place.

We stayed at the other Gion Misen nearby - came here for drinks at the bar - super affordable and really great service. Unfortunately didn’t get the bartenders name, but she was just learning to make drinks/cocktails, and had a book full of bookmarks and a sketchbook with other drinks she could make. We all helped her make some of our drinks and she went above and beyond - was a super fun time. Also recommend the hotel for great amenities, cleanliness, and location. Absolutely affordable and worth it.