Michael W
Google
This hotel is overpriced, inconveniently located, and clueless about customer service. These things are often issues with Russian hotels, but this place was far worse than average.||||The hotel is located in a "suburb" (village) 20-30 minutes from Sheremetyevo airport and more than an hour's suburban train ride away from the city center. Given that they don't confirm arrival details with their customers or remind customers of the free airport transfer service, you may end up paying a flat rate of 2300 rubles ($35) for a taxi to this place, as we did. As for the free transfer back to the airport, the hotel staff underestimated the time we would need; the traffic made us late, so that we almost missed our flight. So much for convenience!||||The other reason we almost missed our flight was that the hotel staff tried to get us to pay for our room a second time.||||When we arrived at the hotel, we were told that the hold on the hotel's credit card charge for the room could be released immediately, via a call to the bank. I asked if it would be better for me to simply pay by credit card. No, I was told, there's no difference. Then I stood there while the bank was called and the hold was removed on my account. I was told the room had been paid for.||||The next day, when we went to check out and catch our flight, I was told that the hold had *not* been removed, the room had *not* been paid for, and that I had to pay for the whole stay again, in cash! Needless to stay, this caused a debacle that not only resulted in our having to pay again, but almost made us miss our international flight.||||I haven't even mentioned here that the rooms are not up to Western standards-- there is no elevator, the furnishings are worn out, and the whole room smells like mildew and rusting pipes-- but all that was really a secondary concern. The bottom line is that the one thing that was supposed to recommend this hotel-- namely, CONVENIENCE-- was the one thing most obviously lacking.||||One more note: you might think that these issues arose because of the hotel staff's difficulty communicating in English. But no! I am a fluent Russian speaker who has spent years living and/or working in Russia, and all these (mis)communications happened in Russian. I can only imagine what kind of "customer service" this place offers to those who don't speak Russian.
