Kyoto - smoking rooms a problem?
 

Hi all, need some advice.

First time to Kyoto in about 1 week's time. Have booked the Granvia for 5 nights for its convenient location and reasonable price. However when I checked on the reservation just now, I was told by email that the room is going to be a smoking room (non-smoking all booked) but the room will be go through "special cleaning" to get rid of the smell.

I know there are lots of smokers in Japan --- is the smoke smell in a smoking room really strong and have any non-smokers been really bothered by it? Am not allergic to it but at the same time I might change my mind if the smell is really strong? Anyone know how bad it could be at the Granvia?

Any views?

BadgerHK

We've had smoking rooms in good hotels in Japan and in not so good hotels in Japan for the same reason...non-smoking rooms all sold out. I no longer accept smoking rooms and book only non-smoking.

Yes, they smell, some more than others. The "best" we had was not so much smoke smell as the chemicals they used to clean the room...not very nice and caused a headache.

We couldn't get a room at the granvia over easter and stayed at the Rhiga which is a 5 minute walk from the station. Had a really nice room, very nice staff and buffet bfsts were good. On easter sunday we elected to skip the buffet bfst and eat (included) at the sit down restaurant at the top of the rhiga (revolving) We loved the experience and recommend the hotel. Initially we were disappointed the Granvia was not available but this was no inconvenience. They also have a shuttle every 10-15 minutes that goes to the station (bus side)

We had a smoking room in Saijo (totally my fault, I messed up our reservations.) for one night and it stunk pretty bad.
I was happy that they bent over backwards to accomodate us.

I had similar experiences in different hotels in Tokyo. At Hotel Okura, I had to swap rooms as the non-smoking room was only available for a part of my stay. A couple of nights at the smoking room was ok, not that stinky. At another cheaper hotel, the ventilation must have been poor and I could clearly smell smoke coming from the next rooms. At another hotel, they booked me into a non-smoking room, but I could tell from the lingering smell and the presence of ashtrays that it WAS a smoking room.

Overall, more expensive hotels should be ok as I hope they'll have better insulation/ventillation/cleaning. If it's less than 4star, personally I would be really loathe to stay in a smoking room.

thanks everyone for your replies. Will cross our fingers and hope for a non-smoking to come through or the smoking not to be too smoky or too much of a chemical smell. And will keep the Rhiga in mind as an alternative!