閑坐町屋 祇園龍泉 Traditional Machiya 5 min to Gion, metro, Kamo River

Excellent location and vibe. Felt like we were living like a local.

Couch and wifi needs updating.

A wonderful old Kyoto house converted into accomodation. The amenities were wonderful (kitchen, microwave, table, tatami area, washing machine) for our family. The location is in a lovely quiet street a bit hidden from the busy areas. It’s a beautiful area to explore and enjoy and easy to walk to major attractions nearby or just non-major beautiful places. The futon and beds were all very comfortable and the bathroom was clean and great for us. There’s a sento (public bath) down the street but I didn’t try it - maybe next time. There’s also an interesting cofffee roaster just out the door and the local convenience stores and supermarkets are less than 10m walk away. If you want an exciting environment, it’s 20m walk to the shopping centre of Kyoto across the lovely small river bridge.

The internet solution (pocket wifi hotspot) was not great. The little hotspot seemed to run out of battery and not stay on and its location in the house had poor cellphone reception so I had to move it to get it to work properly. The charging cable also seemed completely worn out. If a regular cable internet connection isn’t possible in this property then a proper wifi router with 4G would be better — perhaps the owners could install it in a high area in the house so that it gets cellphone reception.

We love the property; very spacious and cosy. The location is very nice also, but a little hard for us to find restaurants during our stay - There are many restaurants around but some that we tried to go were all reservation only. We had a rental car and there is paid parking very close by, like 1-2 mins walk.

The only thing I did not like is the smell of the A/C in one room when setting as heater but I’m sensitive to smell - my family did not feel it. And it is not a problem at all.

The location is absolutely amazing. The house is in a little alley typical of Gion and we felt like we belonged right away. Within 10 minutes walk we found quant sake bars, maiko frequented udon shops and ninja dummies. The tatami room has gorgeous mood lighting. Decent crockery and cutlery are provided. There are good laundry facilities.

There are beds but we wanted to use the tatami room. However upon getting the futon ready we discovered that there were no sheets, quilts or futon covers. Only the bare futon, duvet and pillows were in the cupboard and they... showed use (which is normal, hence the covers). I immediately texted the host and to their credit I received a very quick reply. They told us to just use the sheets, duvet and pillows from the beds in the next room. This was a decent solution but having just arrived it was a bit of an annoyance to have to essentially strip the beds from the other room before we could use the room we wanted. Especially since they could have easily provided the right bedding for both rooms. When we did get the futon ready we discovered that the quality was a bit lacking. My wife and I have slept on many futons before and we know it's harder but these were VERY thin around the hips.