Guest House & Hotel Shijo Omiya

Worst hotel of my travels in central Japan. This was supposed to be the cheapest place, but ended up being the most expensive. Somehow they snuck in extra fees, which no other hotel on this site did, and those fees were actually higher than the initial fee! I asked hotels.com what this was about and was told it was for "city taxes". The manager sent me several emails leading up to my stay, which was annoying, telling me about the various rules I would have to follow. Obviously he didn't pay much attention because he kept asking how many people would be staying too. The room had someone else's hair on the bed and bathroom floor. The soap was practically gone. Various small things were lacking that most hotels have (even cheap ones). Breakfast was a joke. You walk to another building which is full of other people, with barely enough space to sit down. You are allottedj 2 pieces of white bread. I didn't see any butter, jam, or condiments, so ate dry toast. The drink machine dispenses questionable water when you push the "orange juice" or "cafe au lait" buttons. You can just have black coffee or bright green children's melon soda. Each visitor is allotted 1 egg, and they are raw, so you have to cook them, but the stove is slow and people are waiting to cook. I didn't have the patience to wait to cook my 1 egg, so left it. You need a code to open the door. They don't tell you that you have to open the casing around the number pad.

Nice quiet location close to subway station with friendly staff and breakfast was a welcome addition to our stay thank you. Rooms were clean and having a place to sleep a family (3 beds - 4 people) was welcome. The dryer didn't seem to work well and lack of places to hang towels/clothes was a bit of a problem to dry these items.

Absolutely disconnected from the guest house owner. We arrived in front of the guest house door at 4pm (checkin time) but no one there to open the code locked door and we stayed on the street freezing with kids for 50 mins. Kept calling the guest house emergency phone but no one pick up. This was the worst experience I have never had before in Japan. Before we arrived Kyoto a week ago, we started to contact by phone, by email, by hotels.com the guest house owner to confirm the checkin arrangement BUT they just ignored us and no one picked up. I really don't recommend anyone to choose this guest house or you choose to take your own risk. Even hotels.com CS couldn't help us to reach out the staff there as well. I suggest hotels.com to ban this guest house to further hurting travellers.

We got a family room for 5 and the room is spacious. Breakfast was simple but great to have them.