Originally Posted by
Pickles
I was just there on a Sunday night, and it looked pretty full. You can always tell by how full the breakfast was, and there was only room at the counter. Rates have definitely been creeping up, I paid JPY 28K for late June which is on the high side. On the plus side, I got bumped to one of the 5th floor rooms, which I really like.
Well if you look at the rates for a Sunday night (or any weeknight) in June 2016, the HDR for the base room is now ¥38,000 plus T&S, for a total of more than ¥45,000, which will go up a bit more when the consumption tax is increased from 8% to 10%.
As much as we like the HR Kyoto, ¥45,000 for a standard room during seasons of crappy weather (although the rainy season in Kansai has been mostly sporadic in recent years) is very high. I'm sure the rate increases have seemed a lot less steep to guests thinking in US$.
Nice that you got one of the deluxe balcony rooms. In about 30 stays as a diamond we've only gotten it about 4 times. It is hard to predict; sometimes unavailable when the hotel is far from full, but got it once in peak foliage season we got it when the website was saying the hotel was sold out.