Kamishichiken Oku

We spent 2 nights in mid-December. Summary: Room was nice/OK but the front desk staff was unhelpful and with minimal English or Japanese language skills. Despite all of the pictures of food/restaurant on the website - there is no longer a restaurant and that area is now storage, just past the check-in desk. They really should update the site to reflect the amenities and options they provide. The room was nice and we enjoyed the outdoor tub during our 2 night stay. Given the nightly price of this hotel, the front desk staff was completely useless! Perhaps the property is under new ownership because when we were there, it appeared to be staffed by a Nepali family/group and the gentleman at the front desk had very limited English skills and was unable or unwilling to help us with the most basic questions. Breakfast options are limited and it was like pulling teeth to find out those options from the front desk. There is no longer a restaurant on-site so any food they provide is from an offsite restaurant. The front desk staff have to take your order in their very limited language skills and then place the oder for the next day. Good luck finding out the options or changing your mind. We tried to change breakfast for our 2nd morning at 11:30 AM, the day before and we were told it was already too late.

This Ryokan was beautiful and traditional. It was however very difficult to enjoy what Kyoto has to offer as no one at the hotel spoke English or could provide basic information. We are seasonned travelers and can usually manage to communicate with others, but it was absolutely impossible to obtain very basic information. We felt blind as our roaming phone service was not working properly in town/outside the hotel and no one at the hotel could provide advice on tourist sites, location for nearby coffee shops or stores....We arrived late in the afternoon and our children had not eaten lunch, it was impossible to find out where to buy a sandwich. We also wished we could have benefited from help to male reservations to a tea ceremony, identify good local restaurants a place that served the reputable Kyoto sake, shops to buy local Kyoto gifts and specialties etc. No flyers or prepared list was available either. Next time we will have to conduct major research and planning before heading to Kyoto or choose another more contemporary accomodation.