RTWSTARALLIANCE

I will be at the WMK next week. The exceptional contact I had there has left. Anyone with contact information it would be appreciated. Please PM me. I have found so far communication with the Hotel difficult. I sent a fax and asked it be replied to via e-mail. They sent a fax back. I sent an e-mail to the person who sent a fax and got an e-mail back from another person. I am hoping this is just spotty service. Fortunately there are alternatives in Kyoto now.

JoelA

Just checking in with the 'brain-trust' to see if anyone has stayed at this property recently. Trip Advisor has quite mixed feedback - although seemingly improving as of late.

We are planning to be at this property in August and have booked a "Superior Room" for 18,900 Yen/night (which seems pretty reasonable).

I'm Plat with Starwood, but have never stayed outside of North America so I have no idea if/how this property handles upgrades from base rooms.

Any assistance on these topics would be most appreciated.

Best,

Joel

RTWSTARALLIANCE

Joel: I was just there. Night of the 12th. The Hotel is undergoing a renovation to the older building which one has to believe has pushed guests into the new renovated portion. I think that float up means that it is more difficult to get better rooms. This Hotel is EXCEPTIONAL about moving P guests up. If you look at the detail section of your reservation online this has probably already happened. It will get better as time passes and availability is more know at the property. You will enjoy this Hotel. I give a brief summary here how I used their services.

Upon arrival into Kyoto station took their shuttle to Hotel. South entrance pick-up. Upon arrival at Hotel my room was already upgraded to the Executive Floor. Room on 10. Took myself to the room. No big deal. Had two friends over for drinks/snacks in the Lounge before heading out to dinner. 2000 yen charge per person. No big deal also. Woke and had breakfast in Lounge on 10. Japanese breakfast. Friends picked me up and we headed out to Mt Kurama. My rate was 8000 yen prepaid. An excellent Hotel with services beyond that of the Hyatt. For total convenience only maybe the Hotel Granvia Kyoto would be better. Of course no room upgrade or Lounge. Enjoy Kyoto and this Hotel. Stick with it. You are a Platinum and can always make the pitch at the Hotel if you are not getting what you deserve. Regards

RTWSTARALLIANCE

Mod. Please feel free to consolidate after people have a chance to read or comment on.

We arrived in the evening. Given a room on 9 which we were told was Executive Level. I know from previous stays this not to be the case. It was small in my opinion and smelled of smoke. Now that I have options in Kyoto had no problem letting the Hotel know I was disappointed. I lost my contact here earlier this year and since it has been a disappointment.

A staff member met with me and gave us some options. The first being a junior suite in the newly renovated wing. I will start by saying my wife is not comfortable with the place. She said it feels like a cheap apartment. OK. I can agree with that. So here is the layout.

You enter onto carpet. Directly to your right is a huge walk-in closet with iron board and iron. The living room of this junior suite is stark. You have a sofa, lamp comfy chair, table and mini bar desk combo. The built in desk has a lamp with wired high speed internet access. You have a frig which is filled. A door separates the room from the bedroom. Your bathroom has a slider door with a separate toilet room and shower/tub room with the Westin Heavenly shower heads. The ventilation in that room is awful. You have a single basin sink. The bathroom is in stone. You have two beds and a chair. Kinda the same tv set-up but the bedroom has a dvd player. Both rooms have Sony Bravia flat panel lcd tvs.

The place needs something. You can tell the budget for the room was minimal. The room has no comp water and the Lounge attendent was so so about giving me one bottle. All lights are controlled by one switch at the front door. All on or all off expect the small lamps. Weird. So my wife is correct a cheap apartment or business mans hotel wing. I am 50 50. I like the extra space.

schriste

So is the style different than the rooms renovated in the past few years?

What was the "executive" room like? I just booked a 5 night award stay for November in an "executive" room (this hotel usually has pretty good rates so I pay, but I guess November is leaf season... so rates are 50,000 yen +).

RTWSTARALLIANCE

I think this Hotel in my opinion has rooms in three different styles.

1. Executive Floor rooms on 10 and 11 with Molton Brown.
2. Rooms in that same wing renovated a few years ago which are ok.
3. Rooms in this older section/main wing which were recently renovated and becaome available to occupy on May 1. The room is stark, functional and done on a budget. I slept well and it was quiet.

The front desk agent called our first room Executive. It was on 9 and it was typical in my opinion. It would fall under two above. I would contact the Hotel and make sure the room is on 10 or 11. Maybe Yasuki can help us out here.

yasuki

I did not stay at Westin Miyako Kyoto for one year and during my absence they renovated some of thier rooms, so I can not tell thier rooms exactly.

10th and 11th floor is the exective, and 8th floor is called the SPG floor. SPG-P members would be offered the DX room on one of them. Also there are several kinds of rooms. Some rooms have the separate toilte and shower booth, and others are not. Some rooms have the balcony and others are not.

Molton Brown is now offered only for the suite rooms on the executive floor.

mario33

If I remember correctly Exec Floor rooms (Floors 10 & 11) do not have a balcony, is that correct ?

MIKESILV

We stayed in 1102 early April and that room did not have a balcony and if memory serves I cannot recall seeing balconies on the adjacent rooms facing the courtyard as that one did.

mike

yasuki

Yes, I think so and I have never been offered the DX room with balcony.
I know that some family rooms and junior suites have the balcony but this "room layout" of DX room has the balcony.
http://www.westinmiyako-kyoto.com/en...est/index.html

RTWSTARALLIANCE

I like this Hotel as stated but glad we have options in Kyoto. The Hotel has 500 plus rooms so with this new wing renovated I would expect more groups. The Lounge was packed every time there was a serving. The staff seems indifferent and certainly lacks what one would expect at a Japanese hotel. Of the Lounges we had this trip we both agree the Hilton Osaka was the best.

KathyWdrf

Sorry to drift off-topic for a moment, but I'm glad to hear the Hilton Osaka still has a wonderful lounge and service! (The best ever anywhere, IME.)

I've been wanting to visit Kyoto again and often think I might stay at the Westin Miyako there. Thanks for all your updates.

yasuki

I am for your opinion. However, there is a problem in the room as you know. It is narrow. Here is the list of the area of the room that would be usually offered for the top tier in Kansai area. Please refer.^

hotel : area : lounge : shower booth
Hilton Osaka : 30 : o : -
Hyatt Osaka : 40 : o : o
Westin Osaka : 42 : o : o
Sheraton Osaka : 31 : drink coupon : -
Hyatt Kyoto : 28 : drink coupon : -
Westin Kyoto : 38 : o : o or -

MIKESILV

It only goes to show that different stayers can have different experiences.

My wife and I stayed three days at the Westin property in early April and although the hotel was fully booked the lounge was surprising empty most of times we used it ( that is in the mornings between 800 and 900am and in the evenings for a drinks around 630/700pm, in fact on the last morning we had it entirely to ousrselves..
Disagree entirely with regard to the staff. The lounge staff were quite efficient and friendly and the concierges did a very good job IMHO.

After the stay at the Westin we did go on to Hilton Osaka for four nights and I agree entirely in your assessment of that property and also the Hilton Nagoya where we stayed at after leaving Osaka.

Still overall as lounges and staff ( not fair to compare properties) go I would rate the Conrad Tokoyo where we spent a total of six nights four at the beginiing and two at the end of our stay as best overall.

mike

websterlewis

The wife is right I have stayed recently on several occasions and the new upgraded rooms do feel just like a cheap apartment even down to the leaning
Holiday Inn style lamps. It's a shame really because the Club rooms , that were renovated a few years ago have really nice fittings and furnishings and are much classier rooms.

Also they used to have ( I fear these have been turned into the cheap Junior suites) really very nicely preserved Showa era large rooms which used to make me feel like Mishima in his prime.

I did get the feeling, though, that Plats were being pushed into these renovated rooms as a positive enhancement.

I like Miyako Kyoto a lot and look forward to my stays there- but as often been discussed on these boards, it has many identities for many different guests - one night there was a school group taking over a whole corridor and these two poor teachers were sitting at either end of the corridor until, I presume, well after I went to bed at 1 am.

Possibly the management thought we need to upgrade these rooms in the old wing before they completely fall apart but the average price they are going to sell for is 10,000 yen a night to tour groups and conventions - so let's make sure we don't spend too much and put down poor quality - but hard wearing carpets and bad curtains.

I will still be choosing it above the Hyatt because they have a lot of decent quality rooms, which as a Plat come in quite a bit cheaper than the Hyatt most of the time, and for me the view from the lounge is a BIG reason for staying there, as is the really nice local area - it is much better situated than the Hyatt - which I also like (but - for me at least- the Hyatt's service is fine until something is not in the text-book and then it is woefully lacking).