Pickles

To be fair, I don't recall women attendants at the spa and changing rooms of the GH Tokyo, the PH Tokyo, or the Andaz Tokyo. But I do recall seeing them at Gora Kadan and Asaba ryokans, which although not "Western chains" do have a fair bit of foreign guests. Not to mention onsens and sentos up and down the land, as recently as... 3 weeks ago. It is also extremely common to see women cleaners and attendants in men's public bathrooms all over the place, including fully "Western" areas such as Marunouchi. I even recall that at the public restroom in the lobby (behind the cigar shop) of the GH Tokyo, so there.

I don't know what kind of bubble life hailstorm and OsakaWino lead, but believing that somehow this is a dying retrograde practice is just digging a hole, as evidenced by the finer and finer contortions required so they don't yield an inch: "I'm talking about Western hotel chains, that should be obvious", "Dave Barry wrote his book in 1991", etc. Give it up, fellas, it's not a good look.

Anyway, back to the hotel at hand, it is possible that the PH Kyoto has female attendants in the male onsen area because it's short-staffed. It could also well be because it's very common to run an onsen that way. For all we know, they're just running things the way they've been done in the land for centuries, not considering that Western visitors may be just shocked, shocked and horrified at such a practice. The staffing decision at the onsen may have been made by a facilities manager independently and without the knowledge of the Western GM, and the manager just did what he saw elsewhere in his experience. Or (in a very Japanese twist) assume that Westerners don't like onsen, so you won't be seeing them there, problem solved.

If you really want to register your displeasure, next time you see this happening, just blow your nose in the tenugui, that should ahem, clear things up. But from the descriptions here, it seems to be more of a glorified bathtub than a proper onsen, so I'll probably give it a pass if I ever stay there. I'll head up to Kurama instead and use the onsen up there, which is great, even if women clean the men's changing rooms.