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thanks for feedback been deciding mitsui or RC

Elliott Thomas

Hi all - extremely unseasoned traveler staying at the Mitsui in a few weeks. Is there any point in quickly getting gold status on the chance I’d be upgraded during my stay? I’d be staying December 12th - 17th.

nexusCFX

The only upgrade you might get would be a better view. Don't think it's worth going out of your way to do.

Also, I stayed here in October for 3 nights and then for 1 night last week. Great property. I think it's competitive with RC Kyoto in most ways, but the experiences and personalized service at RC are still quite a ways ahead of any other Kyoto property I've personally stayed at. I've seen a fair number of dates where Mitsui is pricing at half of what RC Kyoto is charging though (RC has gone crazy with their pricing) so this might become my usual Kyoto hotel going forward, or a split between it and Suiran / ROKU Kyoto if I'm wanting to spend some time more outside the city.

Tajador

Would you stay at the RC Kyoto if it's priced the same as Mitsui? For the dates I want personally, RC Kyoto has favorable pricing on points despite costing more in cash (360k for RC Kyoto vs. 384k for Mitsui for 5 nights).

nexusCFX

With those prices I would go to RC.

Aventine

RC is still an immaculate hotel despite being a few years older. I'd go RC too for the savings.

loganre17

Booked a one night stay here for New Years. Pleasantly surprised to see SNAs being accepted. I'll do one night here and two at the RC.

Little concerned about not being able to see the sights for the first day as I'll be swapping hotels, but it'll work out well, I'm sure.

Booked at a PointsSavers rate of 88K/night, with the RC wanting 100K.

ShopAround

I had a five night stay there last month and used SNAs to upgrade to a deluxe suite. It was about the size of my apartment with a huge bathtub with a television above it. I would come back to my suite every evening, fill up the tub, throw in the bath salts they provided and watch TV with Japanese subtitles. Room quality, food and service were all excellent, it was a hotel that I hated to leave.

theOtherHolmes

Just came back from Kyoto, stayed at RC for five nights, Mitsui for two and Westin for one.

RC easily beats the other two in terms of personal and discreet service, as well as amazing food, by a thousand miles. We will always choose RC over Mitsui if RC is priced equal or slightly higher.

The only thing going for Mitsui in my view is the new and nice hardware.

Westin is reasonably priced and treats elites well.

inyvr

I stayed for 1 night at both places (didn't have much time, but wanted to see which I'd prefer) about a month ago and found they were both wonderful. However, it's hard for me to compare them directly because Mitsui upgraded me to an Exec Suite from a base level room and RC "only" upgraded me to a Grand Deluxe Kamogawa from a base level room. I paid a little under 60k points for The Mitsui and about 84k for the RC, so you can definitely see why I was satisfied.

Assuming they're both the same price and both are base level rooms, I'd go RC. I will say that when I was looking at dates, Mitsui was about $700-900 CAD/night as opposed to RC which was 1.1k-1.4k/night. With a difference like that, I'd rather stay at The Mitsui. I'd probably be willing to pay about 10% more if we're following the assumptions I laid out earlier.

I actually preferred the breakfast at Mitsui, I'm guessing you visited Mizuki? I didn't really have a chance to use the services at either of them, but RC did manage to help me secure 2 restaurant reservations (albeit the restaurants weren't super booked), and they had a wonderful birthday amenity.

theOtherHolmes

The western breakfast at RC is really good. Japanese we dcouldn’t stomach too much. As for dinner, Mizuki at RC wins hands down (we only had the tempura set).

We got upgraded to a suite at Mitsui and a grand deluxe river view at RC. Both are nice and large. RC however has sent us plates of chocolate, sweets and fruits each day. They always seem to get the room ready when we are out, and never missed anything we asked.

Mitsui is more of a standard high end hotel- nice decor, modern room, and satisfactory service, but pales in comparison to RC.

Mitsui, I could be wrong, but it feels like trying to be a Western high end hotel a wee bit too much….

nexusCFX

Agree with your points. I liked the RC Japanese breakfast a lot though, just not your thing?

I will say that for many dates I check, the comparison is something like 78k jpy at Mitsui vs 140k jpy at RC, so that's obviously something to consider in comparing the two. With points I think it's a no-brainer where to go though.

loganre17

Spent two nights here before two nights at the Ritz. I'll post some of my general thoughts here as well on the RC page.

I was upgraded to the Onsen Suite, room 002.

Upgrades

• RC: woudn’t expect these to be as common. I was proactively upgraded to a deluxe room, and inquired about a suite at check-in. I was told probably not, but 15 minutes later I was told a corner Minami would be available.
• Mitsui: proactively upgraded to a very nice garden suite. However – for a lark I decided to ask about the Onsen suite and was told it would come at an additional cost. On the day of check-in, the hotel offered it to me for free, over the app.
  • And yes, the Onsen was spectacular. There was a bit of rain coming down and the Onsen suites are positioned separately in the basement - perfect for rain acoustics

Hard Product:

• RC: the RC is still fantastic although slightly older. Some finishings were wearing and some drawers were a little finnicky
• Mitsui: the Mitsui is up there with one of the best I’ve ever experienced. Of course, it’s brand new, but I really think lots of thought went in to the material used.

Service:

• RC: the RC felt more put together. There were lots of international interns, but the staffing felt like a step up compared to the Mitsui. My dinner reservation was booked while at breakfast without me having to explicitly ask, it just came up naturally in conversation.
• Mitsui: staff felt younger and slightly less experienced. At dinner, a few tables were left uncleared even after 15 minutes. While it feels terrible to call this out, the hotel and food is very expensive, so this really shouldn’t happen.

Food:

• I liked the western breakfast at the Mitsui and the Japanese at the RC. If you’re a fan of breakfast and want to try both, I’d pick the Mitsui. The Western at the RC was really a let down. It seemed like they left something out…
• The bar at the RC was more purpose built. The space was more welcoming to drinks only, whereas at the Mitsui it was shared space in a restaurant.
• I think the restaurants at the RC were better in all. However – as good as it was, I don’t think Mizuki (RC japanese restaurant) was worth the price, when you could walk for 5 minutes outside for something half or a third the price.

I think the location of the RC is better. It’s 10 minutes from Gion and 3 minutes to the Keihan line.

Here’s some pictures of room 002. The pictures don't do it justice. It is absolutely huge.











I paid 92K/night for the Ritz and 70K/night for the Mitsui. At that price, I'd go Mitsui unless you really like eating in hotels. The same? RC

Happy to answer specific questions.

nexusCFX

I really don’t know about this hotel. I’ve stayed here in Oct, Nov, and now in Jan. I would be surprised if there’s any Guy Jean who doesn’t live in Japan who has been here more than me at this point, but I don’t get a welcome back on check-in even just from them checking my guest history rather than actually remembering. It’s like being a new guest every time.

Managed to get deluxe suite upgrade. Certainly no onsen suite like above even though all suite categories available . No idea how they pulled that off.

The service isn’t bad in its functional aspects but it’s so impersonal. Meanwhile Suiran was so happy to have me back after four years and upgraded me from standard room booked at dirt cheap breakaway rate to a corner executive suite which is the second best room to the presidential suite there IMO. See my post in that thread for details.

The rate here isn’t bad for the hard product by any means but I really don’t know if I’ll be back rather than staying at Suiran. I’m not a first timer, I don’t need to be in central Kyoto. It’s not that the service sucks but…for the price honestly it does suck.

Nice2CU

All the upgrade treatment I guess it is because you are Titanium or higher? For Platinum I doubt there will be much to offer. Looks in Sakura season it's about 120k per night. The hotel looks nice but I am still not so sure if I will spend so much Marriott points or just stay with Hyatt Place at 15k. They are not in the same league but location wise no big difference. I am somewhat tempted by the Onsen though.