invalyd

Just heard back and they booked me into the suite. I guess the only way to use a TSU here is via brute force.

blitzen

Glad it worked out for you but "brute force" and Japan usually don't go well together

skywalkerLAX

In all fairness, the reservation team there isn't your PA. "Monitoring" means they can have a look every now and then if something opens up but that doesn't mean they do so every 30 minutes of the day. If someone cancels then the availability goes back into the pool automatically and in case another guest catches thats then you're SOL.

Not sure who you talked to when you mention "Hyatt Concierge" and what they consider unreachable but it sounds nonsense to me that the hotel wouldn't answer the phone. Maybe calling the general WOH Globalist number would have worked out better. IMHO this concierge contact both in terms of calling and emailing is absolutely useless.

Glad it worked out in the end but I can see this property exempting itself from TSU in the future just like PH Sydney did. The hotel is way too small to accept suite upgrades in my opinion and it cannibalizes their revenue.

ainternational

Where are the moderators? There are more posts on taxis and buses in Kyoto than the hotel in this thread! Let’s stay on topic - the hotel.

invalyd

I was referring to Twitter concierge, which has generally been helpful for me.

I agree , the hotel should have exempted itself already and we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

However, I have most definitely applied TSUs at 6am local time at many properties (PH Tokyo, GH HK most recently), so Hyatt not being able to reach theirown property seems a bit absurd.

justned

At the hotel, the majority of the guestrooms(floor 5.6.7) are located at a different building/tower which requires you to take the elevator to floor 5, cross a bridge and take another elevator up to the floors to your room. Floor 5.6.7 each have 19 rooms, so majority can't avoid it. The walk is tedious if you need to go out often or go to the front desk. If you are paying that much, I assume you would stay at the hotel and use it's amenities and not plan going out anyway despite the popular location.

Fitness center is great, bath place is free with two steam rooms, but there are only two baths which can fit like two people each, better just have the bath at your room to get more privacy and avoid the elevator swaps and walk.

Breakfast and afternoon tea is at the a place called "the living room" which is basically at the lobby. I personally don't like these open seating concepts, but that's me.

Hardware wise on par with Ritz Kyoto, newer but Ritz still feels more luxurious, maybe just too much wood used at Park Hyatt. Service wise some growing pains, room key cards not working for both of my rooms, giving my room to someone else after check in(thought I was going to get walked).

Anyway, still enjoying the stay. Food at Kyoto Bistro are reasonable prices considering the touristy price in the area.

I also stayed at Suiran for one night and unless you need to stay at Arashiyama and get that million dollar view, I would just stay at Kyoto and do a day trip. Ritz and PH are much better every way, this is not saying Suiran is bad, just not at the level of Ritz and it's my own opinion.

gengar

This was my experience at HR as well. At the nearby FS, there were never any taxis waiting, so I always had to have staff call a taxi unless one just happened to be dropping other guests off at the hotel. My guess would be that the PH is more similar to the FS.

The "reservation team" may not be a PA, but then they also shouldn't be telling guests that they will be monitoring availability if they're going to do a worse job at it than the guest will. That only creates poor expectations.

And just FYI, it is easy for any property to withhold room availability even in these waitlist situations. Clearly, in OP's case, they just didn't care enough.

LAXGUY

I would like to clarify the cost of the Western breakfast in the Kyoto Bistro, based on my recent stay on points.

If you are a paying customer for the Western breakfast, i.e. if it's not included in your room rate, you have three options:

A. The full buffet, including hot/prepared dishes like eggs or pancakes, costs 4000 yen

B. The cold/continental buffet, which gives you everything on the buffet except for the hot dishes, is 2400 yen, including tax and service.

C. There is an a la carte menu so if you don't want either buffet option you can order, say, a croissant and coffee, juice and pancakes, etc. (small savings over the cold buffet, depending on what you order).

In addition, fresh grapefruit and orange juice, plus croissants, are available in the lobby every morning and are complimentary for all hotel guests. You can't serve yourself (at least not when we were there) but all you have to do is ask a nearby staff member.

We found the continental buffet to be of excellent quality and, compared to other high-end hotel breakfasts in Japan, to be a fine value at roughly $22 US per person.

OsakaWino

For additional reference on the Bistro breakfast, turks33 posted both Bistro breakfast menus in #253 , together with some very nice photos.


Are you sure about that? It has already been confirmed that the Bistro does not charge service, but the menu clearly states that consumption tax (ie, 10%) will be added.

Yes, the cold buffet does seem like a great value. It is the first time I've seen fresh figs on a breakfast buffet. And for those having the full breakfast, it is really nice that all hot dishes are prepared to order; I'm not a fan of warming plates.


This is new info, great to know and a very nice touch.

One thing I do wonder is if they include a juice and coffee selection when the Japanese set breakfast is ordered as room service. PH Tokyo does. If no one knows I will be asking when we stay next week.

keykoo

I just arrived at this hotel and the check in process is pretty horrendous. Not really sure what’s going on but the lobby is full of people waiting to check in. I’ve been sitting here for the last 30m but it seems like others have waited a lot longer.

I booked using points and my baby is sleeping in the stroller so I don’t care as much, but I’d be pretty upset if I paid rack rates. Hopefully the rest of the week goes better.

justned

Ask for a latte or cappuccino or any food, they will give you to keep you happy while you wait. Lots of elites doing late check-out at 3pm and they can't clean the room fast enough.

keykoo

I assumed that was what was happening, however no one told me anything. They just did all the paperwork and disappeared for good before I overheard an older Japanese gentleman complaining. I was probably waiting for an hour (again baby sleeping so we weren’t in a rush) before she woke up and we just left to walk around. At no point did anyone come by and inform us what was taking so long.

We just got back to the hotel around 18:15 and there are still people waiting to get into their rooms.

invalyd

Every issue brought up about this property so far seems to suggest they are drastically understaffed. Seems like they should start by hiring more people.

Will be checking in this week, hopefully it's not as bad as it seems.

OsakaWino

They are definitely having teething problems! Googling Park Hyatt Kyoto in Japanese turns up numerous hits for help wanted.

If you're checking in on a weekday it will probably be a lot better. They may have granted a lot of late checkouts for Sunday. Unfortunately we are checking in next Sunday and I guess I should expect to be kept waiting.

I wonder if the Afternoon Tea in the Living Room is still as busy on weekends as when they first opened. If so, that eliminates the Living Room as an option to put guests who are waiting for their rooms. If they had any sense, they should be sending guests over to the Bistro for a beverage if they are going to keep them waiting so long past stated check-in time.

invalyd

Will definitely report back. I'm not familiar with the physical layout of the property, but PH Tokyo does a good job of keeping non-staying visitors out of the way as there are direct elevators to the Manhattan Bar, I fear that is not really an option here if they continue to push the afternoon tea as a revenue stream.