We spent 3 nights in the Cross Hotel Kyoto and enjoyed it. The location is wonderful. It is just a short walk from Nishi Market and other shopping areas. It is also a roughly 5 minute walk to two different train stations (Sanjo Keihan Station and Kyōto Shiyakusho-mae Station), making it easy to explore the city. Gion was also located just a quick walk across the river.
The hotel is modern and in great condition. We splurged a little for a deluxe room and really liked the extra space. (Sorry kids… they had a regular room.) The extra room and seating area came in handy to watch the World Cup games in our room! Overall it was a very comfortable space.
The bathroom was interesting. Like most of the bathrooms in our hotels, it was split and had the toilet in a separate room. But the main bathroom with the sink and bath/shower was an odd setup. The bath/shower was separated from the sink area by a glass door. There was a nice deep soaking tub and large tiled, drained floor area in front of it. The idea was that the room was enclosed and fully waterproofed so you could shower on the floor outside of the tub. It was great in theory but the shower head was centered on the wall and not over the standing area. So the result was that the water naturally fell half in the tub and half over the floor and you had to lean awkwardly to rinse yourself off.
The restaurant offered a really large buffet breakfast but we didn’t really find it all that impressive. There was a lot of food but not a lot that appealed to us. We were able to fill up on breads and sides but we definitely didn’t get our money’s worth out of this one. Still, the convenience of breakfast downstairs was nice.
The biggest negative of the hotel was the street noise. We hadn’t heard any noise at any of our other hotels so it caught us a little off guard. But the hotel is close to a popular nightlife area and we faced out on the street with the most action. The biggest surprise was not that there was noise but that it literally went on all night long. I left the hotel one morning at 5:30 to go to Fushimi Inari and there were people still in the street from the night before. I think higher level floors or rooms facing the other direction aren’t as bad but where we were it definitely impacted our stay.
Overall we liked the hotel but didn’t love it. We felt like it didn’t quite live up to its potential but is still a good option in Kyoto for its convenient location and large rooms.
