Andrey and Sasha Homestay

My husband and I just spent a delightful week in St. Petersburg, Russia. We didn't want to stay in an expensive cold hotel. Neither did we want a hostel or (what looked like) a very empty-looking airbnb. Andrey and Sasha's apartment was PERFECT. Ideal.||||The location was walkable to everything. "Zoom," a very close restaurant, was our favorite for multiple nights, and groceries were close.||||As others have noted, Andrey and Sasha live busy lives and are not around much. However, when Andrey was around, he was very interesting to talk with and he watched over our airport pick-up and drop-off with great attention.||||Our short time talking with other guests was fascinating. The place was absolutely clean and the antique decor much to our liking. The bed was very comfortable, the shared bathroom handsome and convenient. There is a hand-held shower, which is easily turned into a shower. ||||This is like a beautiful shared airbnb, not a homestay, which was much to our liking. Be forewarned: 95 STEPS UP TO THE 5TH FLOOR, but worth it.

I stayed in Andrei and Sasha's new apartment in the New Holland district of Saint Petersburg and I wouldn't trade places with the highest-priced hotel. The location is excellent, close to the Neva River and walking distance to St. Isaac's Square. The design of this apartment made it for me: exposed bricks, high-ceiling with exposed wooden beams, antique chandeliers, cozy kitchen, large modern windows for great light in the day, beautiful (and heated) tile floors, claw foot tub. I felt that I was living in an older era of this great city, but with the comforts of modern conveniences like the hidden and whisper-quiet washing machine. Besides being warm and fun hosts, Andrei and Sasha are true artists. I've photographed several details of their design to incorporate into my California cabin. I can't recommend them enough and would give them not 5, but 6 stars if I could.

An absolute gem. No, it does not offer as much vodka as you can drink, as sometimes advertised, but it gives you an insider's view on life in St Petersburg. Very central - you can walk nearly everywhere. The rooms are characterful and spacious and BEAUTIFUL with antique decor - very very atmospheric. We received the warmest of welcomes - with beer and vodka and delicious homemade soup. For the rest of the time we didn't see our hosts often which did not matter at all; actually quite nice to have the apartment to ourselves.||The only negative is the steps - 90+ to get to the apartment, and no lift - this is St P after all. If Andrei did not carry my luggage up when we arrived I would have had to book in somewhere else! Unfortunately when we left he obviously was not in the mood to do so again....||I would STRONGLY recommend this homestay - I could wax lyrically about the atmosphere, the decor, the cosiness etc etc.||If I ever return to St P, which I hope to do, I will book here immediately!||(My stay was in late Aug 2014)

I found this place on the Lonely Planet website, quote: "three apartments they rent out (by the room or in their entirety) – all centrally located and eclectically decorated with lots of designer touches and an eye for beautiful furniture..." I was booking last-minute, and had understood by now that paying 300 Euro per night for a mediocre hotel room in high season was nothing out of the ordinary in St. Petersburg. So I checked out the reviews, found nothing but 5-star raves, and wrote to inquire about availability. I had read that they were not quick with their replies, which was an understatement. After the first e-mail contact I got into the habit of phoning Sasha in order to finalize the booking since we had little time left before our departure. She offered the Homestay (which came with some pictures looking attractive enough) at 90 Euro and a whole apartment to ourselves at 150 Euro. I told her we weren't the bathroom-sharing types and that we were happy to pay 150 Euro per night for what I expected to be a fairly decent accommodation in a central location. I called her once more to verify the location and she said, "It's right next to the Homestay. Don't worry, it's a nice place, you will like it." We took her up on the 30 Euro airport transfer and although I'd never been to St. P, I'd studied the map so often by now that I realized we were dropped off at a totally different canal, i.e. Fontanka and not Griboedova. Okay, no big deal. Still central, right by Nevsky Prospekt, although I would have preferred the other location. I had told Sasha we only had 2 days so we didn't want to lose time waiting for the keys. She was only 5 minutes late. Fine. We then were led through a dumpy courtyard and dumpy staircase, and still I thought, that doesn't mean much, expecting a nicely renovated apartment behind the final big door. Alas, it felt as if we stepped almost 100 years back in time. We never found out who normally lives in this studio, but it was a mess, and the person's stuff was everywhere. The previous guests' luggage was also sitting in the apartment. They would pick it up later today, she said. I told her I'd prefer her to be there when this would happen, now that we had our own stuff sitting there. Whether she came, who knows... She changed the sheets in front of us, which I thought rather strange, yet at this point also comforting, in the sense that at least we knew they had been changed. It prompted me to ask her whether the apartment had been cleaned prior to the arrival. She said yes, a little white lie, judging by the layer of dust and hairs in the bathtub corners. The little kitchen was grimy too. The whole place was a dump and I felt like a total idiot when handing over 450 Euro for our 3 nights. I just wasn't in the mood of starting our brief trip with a big fight and I also didn't want to lose time looking for another accommodation. The room itself wasn't a big deal to us, and the kitchen we barely needed anyway. The Wi-Fi worked well, and the place was quiet (I'd expected a canal view somehow, but that might have been my misinterpretation, for our studio was in the back). The bathroom however, was a disaster, and in hindsight, the shared bathroom at 90 Euro doesn't look so bad now. Sitting in a yellow-stained bathtub with a hand-held shower could have been comical, had we not spent 450 Euro on it. We felt scammed. The toilet seat (a tiny round model I'd never seen in my lifetime) has a substantial piece missing (see photos!) which made me fear my flesh might get caught on the sharp edges. In all fairness, Sasha was welcoming and helpful and (not surprisingly) slightly apologetic when taking my payment, explaining this was a very busy time. Okay, I understand the concept of supply and demand, even though as a hotelier, also renting out apartments myself, I would not be able to sleep at night taking this much money for such a dumpy place. That aside, what Sasha should have done is at least warn me that this place was not renovated and in a totally different location. Reluctant to write a review, since I am not a fan of complaining on-line, I wrote an e-mail after our stay to Sasha to tell her we'd enjoyed meeting her, yet didn't feel the place was in an acceptable state for its price. I never received a reply, which tells me she has no intention changing anything and so I would like to warn others to verify well which apartment you'll be checked into. I feel generous giving 2 out of 5 points and the extra one is only because she was friendly and we were in a central location and the Wi-Fi did work as promised. But come on, how much effort/time/money does it take to change a toilet seat? Or do they not make those little round ones anymore?

We loved our stay at Andrei and Sacha's! Their apartments are full of fun stuff, lots of details, millions of cups and knives. It's just great! Sasha invited us to her birthday, it was an incredible experience.

I stayed at Andrei & Sasha Homestay a couple of weeks ago. This wasn't the first time, and definitely won't be the last. Cozy place with very friendly owners and a superb location: walking distance to all the main sights like St Isaac's Church, Hermitage, Nevski prospekt, Church on Blood, and night life spots. Highly recommended!

We just love this city and this appartment! It's a perfect spot for our group. We find the city more and more enchanting... Sasha & Andrey are the most welcoming hosts and we get a bit of a local feelings in their lovely appartment. Thank's again, see you!

In a reasonably central location, a few minutes walk from the metro stations at Sennaya Ploshchad, and from Nevsky Prospekt.||||The metal entrance door was not very welcoming, and the stairwell was dirty and full of general junk as well as a grubby old sleeping bag and lots of cigarette ends – a bit grim. The only way to get out was with a key, so if you mislaid the key you would be unable to exit the front metal door in a fire, which made me feel uncomfortable.||||Characterful and cosy inside the flat, particularly the kitchen/sitting area, but very cluttered with stuff, reminding me of student flats.||||Unfortunately we were not welcomed on our arrival, either with or without blinis as other reviewers have reported, but were instead instructed over the phone to collect the key from a mystery container - that had subsequently been used by someone for rubbish and as an ashtray. Additionally, although we had been promised the 'largest most beautiful room', this was not available on our first night so we had to sleep in a very small room. The double bed was pushed up against the window and it felt as though you might roll over in bed and slip out of the window (on the 4th floor!), and you could only get out of bed by climbing over the other person. It was very cluttered with someone else's stuff, and felt as if the occupant might return to claim their room at any minute. It was also not possible to lock the room from the outside. We didn't stay after our first night, to see if the large beautiful room became available.||||I think if someone had been there to welcome us on our arrival (and the room we had requested been available), we might have had a different view of it. One of the reasons I normally like to stay in homestays is to speak to the hosts and get a more personal view of the place than by just staying in a large hotel.||||If we had stayed longer, we would have found it very useful being able to use the kitchen and the washing machine.