I stayed in the Coop Inn in December 2011 with my wife and 2 daughters. Right from the outset I'll say if you want a nice, clean inexpensive hotel within literally minutes of a multitude of shopping, transport and eating options, then look no further. Book the Coop Inn now.

Located merely streets away from the famous Kyoto shopping arcades of Teramachi and Shin Kyogoku, and the world famous Nishiki market, hotels do not come much more centrally located in Kyoto than the Coop Inn.
The hotel is a considerable distance from Kyoto station, at approximately half an hour walk, or 10 minute bus ride, but Kyoto station, and the nearby underground shopping arcade Porta was so crowded that we avoided the area unless we were arriving or leaving Kyoto anyway. So being located away from the crowded nightmare of Kyoto station was a positive rather than a negative for us.

Finding the hotel was very easy. Upon arrival the hotel staff spoke a moderate amount of English, but more than enough to get check-in done with ease. Counter staff were efficient and polite without being overly friendly and welcoming, but nice enough. We were given the key to our room, which was on the top floor at the end of the corridor. We stayed in a Japanese style room to accommodate the 4 of us, and it was a very generously sized and comfortable room. The rooms were basic but very clean, as was the bathroom, and the hotel was extremely quiet (being on the 9th floor probably contributed to that). Free wired internet was available in the rooms, and the hotel has basic coin operated laundry facilities available, as well as the usual vending machines.

My only complaint about our room was with the air conditioning. Our room had a binary air conditioner fitted. In heating mode it seeminly only had 2 settings. "Off" or "Cook". This meant that we could not leave the air conditioning running overnight to keep the room warm, because the first night we tried we had the thermostat set on 22 degrees, awoke with the room insanely hot, and the temperature guage on the wall reading 30 degrees. One of th hotel staff also tried to adjust the air conditioner so that it wouldn't cook us while we slept, but without success.

The hotel's location is what made this hotel a winner for me. Located within 5 minute walk of the best shopping and eating district in all of Kyoto, and within 15 minutes walk of the heart of Gion, for the exceptionally reasonable price we paid for this hotel, the Coop Inn is nothing short of an absolute bargain. If you want to stay somewhere close to the heart of the Kyoto shopping and eating district, you aren't going to do much better than the Coop Inn without paying considerably more money.

We decided to have breakfast in the on-site restaurant “Patio” on the first morning we stayed there. Man I wish we hadn't. Coop Inn staff, if you're reading this I'm sorry to say this, but it was woeful. Hands down the worst meal we had in Japan. If you're thinking about having breakfast at the hotel, Don't. Just don't. Seriously.

The breakfasts were 800 yen if purchased the day before or 1000 yen if purchase at the restaurant in the morning. Why it is cheaper to pre-purchase I've got no idea, particularly because the restaurant only had a handful of people in it. No discount for children either. So 3200 yen poorer we went for breakfast, and found out why so few people were dining there.
The signs were initially positive. Many different western dishes, as well as cereal, coffee, juice, rice and some Japanese side dishes like pickles. The western dishes were horrible. Each dish had obviously been left sitting in a warming tray with a candle under it for a considerable time, and as a result all of the food was cold. The scrambled eggs were cold. The small boiled sausages were cold, and the potato wedges sitting in half an inch of water after being steamed in the warming tray were cold. And wet. The coffee was undrinkable, the juice was room temperature after sitting on the bench, and I didn't feel like playing side-dish roulette with the Japanese pickles, so I left them alone. On the plus side the cereal was ok, and the rice was ok. 3200 yen for cereal and plain rice. I almost laughed when the waitress asked if I wanted to pre-book for the next day.

When I return to Kyoto, the Coop Inn will be right at the top of my list of places to stay. It is clean, comfortable, quiet, very well priced, and perfectly located. I might just avoid the breakfast next time.