LoungeLizardHugo

Wow crazy stuff. Michelin starred breakfast? Didn't know such a thing existed . Agreed with your viewpoints, however $26 upcharge won't stop me from trying it. At least once. If I get my preorder in soon enough. Lol!

Seriously, looking forward to my booking at PH Kyoto in May, going to pair it with an Aman Kyoto stay on the same week to compare and contrast. But will Japan ever open, that is the only question that really matters...

Pseudo Nim

Wow, that’s pretty crazy. I mean I loved the PH Kyoto, I wrote about it a few times, it was certainly among the best hotel stays in my life (and I just casually stoped by a couple of times in the same week - had I known how difficult it’d become to get into it I might have stayed longer), but I’m a little disappointed it’s nickel and diming here and there with availability, upcharge and so on. So what if it’s a Michelin star breakfast - like, it was very good, but I think it’d be in their best interest to have Globalists try it free so they’d want to explore more and go there for dinner - setting the initial expectation that everything costs that little extra is a bit sad, imho.

demue

IIRC, the Club lounge breakfast at the IC ANA Tokyo is also done by their 1* restaurant so it is not that much of a "unicorn" out there and seems a bit the wrong direction, but my guess would be they get a higher number of Globalist than other hotels. YMMV.

OsakaWino

Wow, that is unbelievably chintzy!

The Bistro menu shows the Western breakfast at 4000+ and the Japanese breakfast at 5500+ until the end of Oct, and from Nov both are going up 1000 to 5000+ for Western and 6500+ for Japanese. At the very least they could offer at a surcharge equivalent to the difference of 1500 yen, rather than the 3000+ surcharge (3000++ if ordered by room service).

We found the Japanese breakfast to be pretty good, but certainly not great. It was a bit better than that at PH Tokyo, but the charge for that is only 4200++, and the Japanese breakfast at PH Tokyo includes juice and coffee, neither of which was included with the Japanese breakfast at PH Kyoto, at least when we were there.

PH Kyoto also continues to block awards for many dates, even when a standard room is available at the Standard daily rate.

hailstorm

This is of course a violation of World of Hyatt T&C, and they should absolutely be called out on that if it affects one's stay.

Neric

We've ate at the restaurant for dinner, That's why they are getting the Michelin star - it was awesome. The breakfast is good but is a far cry from the dinner. It was popular when we were there, but I had no issues reserving one in advance. I'm sure with the popularity of the restaurant increasing it will only increase demand for the breakfast.

Pseudo Nim

The problem is exactly what you say, though; the breakfast is a far cry from the dinner, and frankly, while good, is nothing particularly mind-blowing; so I think it’s a shameless cash grab for people who may want to try “one-star dining” but not spend the one-star money. And walk away somewhat underwhelmed because, well, it’s just breakfast.

Neric

If they promote that as a reason to pay - then ya that's not good. Having an upcharge does help with the demand. When we stayed before paying full price for the room also meant free breakfast - either one (limited quality). Do we know if that's changed or is this just changing what Globalist can get if they book using points.

FlyerBeek

Good catch. That makes it worse, actually. In principle, the most they should really be charging is the price difference between the western and Japanese breakfasts (not double the difference - even if it is only an additional $15 more).

Unsure. The email specifically referenced the change as being for the "standard breakfast benefit for all Globalists" - so I would assume it applies to both points stays and paid stays that don't otherwise include a breakfast package. I know they have regular room rates that don't include breakfast (for non-Globalists).

-FlyerBeek

LoungeLizardHugo

In July there was no points booking availability AT ALL for any day of Jan-July 2022. In late Sept they opened the floodgates and points bookings were freely available. I booked multiple points-nights in base room for May 2022 and easily applied TSU and received confirmed upgrade to suite.

I suspect when the availability opened, folks, like me, immediately jumped and that very quickly drained all the availability (at least for peak months Mar-May), the property does not have that many rooms. Back in July I brought the lack of points bookings to the attention of my Hyatt Concierge (who is awesome!) , and he said he would keep an eye for opened availability. He was good to his word and contacted me just a day after I found the openings myself and booked them.

Folks will inevitably cancel bookings so my helpful suggestion is watch the availability like a hawk for something to come open. I see no reason to think anything sinister is going on with the property, just supply/demand.

Oh, yeah...who the hell knows if Japan will allow tourists next year eh?

Neric

I'm planning a trip for November and this is what I got back from management at the Andaz (since they have no control either):

We are hopeful that international borders into Japan will start to lift from Spring/Summer season with less restrictions.

We canceled 2 weeks we had booked at the end of this year including 4 nights booked on points at Kyoto and an upgrade with yen to the 2nd best suite - sucks we had to cancel it

Lomic

Andaz is probably just covering their asses and giving very safe estimates. I've been keeping up on news articles from Japan and most seem to indicate that if the current COVID rates generally don't spike again soon, we'll likely see the 10 day quarantine requirement for international visitors from certain areas (e.g. US, Europe) dropped not too long after Japanese elections conclude at the end of October. I currently have a Japan trip booked for late February and am pretty optimistic at this point.

Though back to this thread topic, since I managed to snag 4 nights a PH Kyoto it's definitely a bummer that they're dropping the free Japanese breakfast for globalists. Combined with PH Tokyo dropping Twilight Hour benefit for globalists, my bit of a "luxury" Japan trip for my first time as a globalist keeps losing benefits which existed when I booked the stays, which is a bit disappointing.

OsakaWino

Feb might be iffy. The previous PM Suga was all gung ho for opening up as soon as possible, but the new PM Kida is more noncommittal. One minor party is proposing a long-term 10-day quarantine for all countries. Of course they'll only get a few seats, but the argument resonates with the public. I'll be voting with the mainstream on Sunday, but if there were a referendum on US visitors, with the US averaging more than a 1,000 deaths/day, I'd have to say I'm not too comfortable with even a US proof of vaccination. Still, the gov here likes to emulate the US, so maybe there'll be some easing, but I would't count on it if the ruling coalition gets trounced (ie., stays in power but loses a lot of seats) in Sunday's election. In short, keeping foreigners out has populist appeal; a lot of people wanted to crucify Bach for walking around Tokyo at the close of the Olympics.

Back to PH Kyoto, a search of about 20 random dates showed standard award for most (when available), just one peak, and no-off peak (even mid-week in Jan & Feb).

Warriorconcept

I'm still nervous about my May booking, feel about 75-80% confident.

Since it's around Golden week I'm there prices shot up to 35k. Really regret not transferring last night to book..

CoffeeTraveler

A lot of availability popped up this morning for dates that I was tracking in October 2022. I figure the hotel was holding back some inventory until peak pricing structure launched. It ended up costing me 5k points but I was finally able to move my four nights to the dates I actually wanted, so all in all it’s a net positive for me. I’m disappointed to hear about the surcharge for the Japanese option for Globalist breakfast. It was a draw to making the booking and feels like being baited and switched.