Guest House & Hotel Shijo Omiya

Worst hotel of my travels in central Japan. This was supposed to be the cheapest place, but ended up being the most expensive. Somehow they snuck in extra fees, which no other hotel on this site did, and those fees were actually higher than the initial fee! I asked hotels.com what this was about and was told it was for "city taxes". The manager sent me several emails leading up to my stay, which was annoying, telling me about the various rules I would have to follow. Obviously he didn't pay much attention because he kept asking how many people would be staying too. The room had someone else's hair on the bed and bathroom floor. The soap was practically gone. Various small things were lacking that most hotels have (even cheap ones). Breakfast was a joke. You walk to another building which is full of other people, with barely enough space to sit down. You are allottedj 2 pieces of white bread. I didn't see any butter, jam, or condiments, so ate dry toast. The drink machine dispenses questionable water when you push the "orange juice" or "cafe au lait" buttons. You can just have black coffee or bright green children's melon soda. Each visitor is allotted 1 egg, and they are raw, so you have to cook them, but the stove is slow and people are waiting to cook. I didn't have the patience to wait to cook my 1 egg, so left it. You need a code to open the door. They don't tell you that you have to open the casing around the number pad.

For the first 2 nights, we had a smaller room. I’d wanted to book 4 nights but could only book 2 and 2. I was not particularly happy with this hotel. Although they say it is 24 hour desk, that is not true (there was only people at check in). To get to our room, we had to load the luggage in an elevator but we could only use the stairs. The windows have coverings in front of them so we can’t open them and look out. The room is an okay size but the beds are so hard! The bathroom is oddly configured with a step up and the floor feels flimsy. The pipe to the shower/bath is from the sink. And they tell us not to use the toilet while showering. There is a safe but not nearly enough electrical outlets. There is a laundry machine for use. I wouldn’t stay here again. The free breakfast was 1 egg, one roll and you had to wash your own dishes. Shower curator moldy. No new towels or bed making. Will be glad to leave. I’d hoped the larger room for the second reservation would be better. It was much worse. The room stank of ammonia, there was hair imbedded in the carpet which the man at the desk tried to vacuum up but was not able to do so, and there were stains in the carpet. Also mold around the bathroom sink. I checked out early as this was totally unacceptable.

We stayed in amazing hotels in Japan but this one was a scam and the guy is a disgrace to all other Japanese hotel owners. Breakdown of mis-stated “facts”: 1. Non smoking property! Lobby was full of smoke smell and we thought well our room is non smoking but even there the bathroom was smelling of smoke and took continuous fan and sprays till morning to get rid of it (or maybe get used to it idk) 2. Mold all over bathroom under the sink, on shower, the curtain was nasty (pictures attached) so now shower for us. 3. Free continental breakfast! You get 2 medium bread rolls per person and ONE RAW egg that you can cook by cleaning the dirty pan yourself! There is a coffe machine no milk or cream I know continental has a loose meaning but this one was really stretching it. 4. 24 hours front desk, nobody was there in the morning to complain to. We dropped the key and checked out and found another hotel. 4 agents from Hotels.com customer service tried to reach to them and couldn’t find them till 10-11 am. And they guy refused to do a refund for the other two nights. This is a scam, I seriously doubt all the other reviews on expedia related sites at least nobody leaves “amazing breakfast” unless it is a paid review. More disappointing was how hotels.com handled this and refused to give my money back at least for the remaining nights. I sent them these photos too but apparently they are okay with molds in bathroom and owners lying on their website. 0 customer protection