We just stayed at the FS Kyoto and this is a great summary. I'd agree with just about everything with a couple of exceptions. We had the same type of room but with an upgrade to the lovely garden view (courtesy of BESVISOR/FSPP).

Since you didn't have breakfast, I will describe that briefly. There is a giant buffet with both American-style and Japanese (and Chinese) items. There is also a menu for items from the kitchen. Solid breakfast with a ton of options.

The room service dinner we ordered one night was meh. On your housekeeping issue, we pretty religiously hit the make-up room button when leaving, so we didn't have that issue. I also like that they have butler closets for pickup/dropoff.

We were coming from the Aman Tokyo (with an intervening weekend in Kanazawa), so we were measuring it against a very high standard. I'd say that the FS was definitely a clear cut below the Aman. The room was nice, particularly the bathroom, but in a pretty conventional western hotel way, and the narrowness of the room was definitely something you felt. Definitely not the airy commodious feel of the Aman. But perfectly nice, and I liked that you could open the window (it was a little steamy for us to leave it open for long in mid-June).

I agree that the location is a bit of a pain. I certainly would have liked a neighborhood suitable for some wandering (this was our first visit to Kyoto).

My biggest complaint with the FS really was the Concierge/Front Desk service, particularly pre-arrival. They were stunningly non-responsive to email, requiring numerous follow-ups just to get someone to answer (and not even that helpfully). I ended up using online reservation services for a couple of places because I couldn't get he FS staff to assist. That definitely ended up costing us money in booking fees, etc. Similarly, we took a one night break during our stay to spend the night at a Ryokan in town (Hiiragiya). They could not wrap their minds around it, and we had to keep explaining why we had two separate reservations, which was fine, but when we checked back in, we assumed that they had taken care of putting our bags back in our new room. Of course, as it turned out, nobody had any clue that they had our bags, and they had to be tracked down. Nothing disastrous, but at the cost, not what you're looking for.

One highlight on the service side is Raul in the bar. Not only was he friendly and made a mean drink, but he gave us excellent recommendations for some of the hip cocktail venues around town. We also had dinner at Sushi Wakon in the hotel, which was quite good if not at the level of other sushi experiences we had in Tokyo.

This sounds pretty whiny overall, but all of the good stuff that was covered in the OP's review is all true. The FS Kyoto is a high-level luxury hotel and we had a lovely stay. In particular, the garden setting lends a lovely feel to an urban hotel (and the low hum of the kids from the school next door during the day was kind of charming). But the hotel and rooms themselves while nice are not that distinctive, and given the somewhat out-of-the-way location and the service issues we experienced, I would probably try somewhere else next time (by which time the Aman Kyoto should be open -- assuming I hit the lottery in the meantime).

Cheers.

Al