Opening Soon: Four Seasons Kyoto’s Introductory Offer
Look out, Ritz-Carlton Kyoto. When the Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto opens later this year nearby hotels will get some solid competition.
The Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto is set to open late October in the Higashiyama-ku district (think close to Kiyomizu Temple). The hotel will have 124 guest rooms along with 57 Four Seasons Private Residences. 10 of the guest rooms will have balconies and 13 will be suites, including the largest Presidential Suite in all of Kyoto at 2,637 square feet.
Even the standard rooms (Deluxe room type) at the Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto start at a roomy 527 square feet (Ritz-Carlton Kyoto’s start at 483 square feet), have marble bathrooms, and offer custom beds that come with your choice of mattress topper – plush, signature or firm.
The property will also have an indoor pool, fitness center and spa, and four onsite restaurants and bars. There’s all-day dining at Brasserie that overlooks an 800-year-old ikeniwa (pond garden), edo styleSushi Wakon, Shakusui-Tei with traditional tea house experience, along with a casual Lobby Lounge.
The first date the reservations system allows is October 16, 2016. To kick off their opening later this year, the Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto is offering a hotel dining credit for bookings.
Here’s a link to the introductory booking page.
To see what the room rates look like I did a random search using the weekday date of October 16, 2016 and selecting the lowest category Deluxe Room.
The rate came back at $771 a night (The Ritz-Carlton for the same date was $651). When selecting popular dates in December and November the price shot up to as much as $1,288 a night but then went back down in early January 2017.
The introductory offer’s dining credit is 12,000 JPY (about 108 USD) per room per stay, for dining in the hotel’s restaurant Brasserie (pictured in top photo). This is a great benefit and you can use the credit for any meals during the day. If booking the Ritz-Carlton Kyoto through Virtuoso you get a $100 resort credit plus daily breakfast, but it is not known yet if the Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto will receive Virtuoso benefits.
My stay at the Ritz-Carlton Kyoto was outstanding, and the town was really fun to explore. I’d imagine that the new Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto will be pretty phenomenal as well.
I don’t get it when western hotels open in Kyoto without making any serious attempt to feel Japanese. I mean, I know business travelers have to stay somewhere– but that somewhere probably isn’t Higashiyama.
So who is this for? People who go to Kyoto but who, confoundingly, want to pretend they’re at a resort off the PCH?
I get that ryokan can be outrageously expensive and too burdensome for everyday touring (in terms of their check-in times, dinner hours, etc.) But there are great, Japanese hotels in Kyoto too. Heck, judging from the pictures of this Four Seasons (a brand I otherwise love), I’d take frankly prefer the Hyatt Regency Kyoto.
I loved my stay at a Ryokan @Rose, which was wonderfully traditional and perfectly comfortable. I do think that some western hotels make an effort to keep some consistency in order to make travelers feel comfortable and “at home” while adding some Japanese touches. Without staying a the FS Kyoto it is difficult to say how well they did at integrating the Japanese side but at the FS price point, those wanting a truly Japanese feel might want to explore other options as well.