Viciebsk

Stayed in this hotel for one night during a group trip, so did not have much choice. And it was a good example to the saying that if you cannot change the situation, change your attitude. Or as my companions said – imagine you have to pass a quest. The name of the quest is back to the USSR:||- shabby rooms, old furniture (if you feel nostalgic you might enjoy it), bathroom equipment is not working properly, you have to wait for 10 minutes to get warm water (no cold water is needed for a shower), quite cold in the room and the window is taped up, the bathroom stinks, in rush hours be ready to wait for the elevator for 20 minutes.||The staff are quite friendly (taking into account the hotel condition you automatically expect the back-to-the-USSR customer service) – helped with WiFi, returned the documents in due time, dealt well with a group checking-in at the same time.||It was an interesting experience and recollection. But if you are not ready to see staying in this hotel as an adventure I would not recommend it.

I put the rating of 3 stars ONLY because the room was reasonable and the reception staff spoke English. For the international hotel (or because they think so) it is high time for the manager or the owner of the place to catch a wake-up and realize, that if you want to attract the international visitors and I do not mean the Russian-speaking tourists, (especially during the crisis for the country) - you have to adhere to the INTERNATIONAL MENTALITY AND EXPECTATIONS!!!! Only receptionists speak English..... The restaurant staff - they look and behave like dopey birds (mind you, they did not understand much in Russian either). The breakfast still includes 3 set course selections. If you want juice and not coffee with your breakfast - you have to pay extra for the juice, if it is not included in the set menu (twisted logic rules!). No such a thing as a buffet or free selection (although at the reception desk the free choice for breakfast IS mentioned in writing, but the restaurant staff didn't have a clue about that). The breakfast menu is in Russian but the dinner menu is in English.......Ehhhhhh....why so???? Funny part is that you HAVE to book breakfast. Even if it is only for a day. Even if you are not going to eat it. The food was alright though. Apart from the fried eggs. DO NOT ORDER FRIED EGGS! They come raw, not fried. My ones were almost chirping on the plate.||Fun parts about the room. Despite the fact that we booked a premium suite (lots of space, recently refurbished up to scratch, guest room, bedroom, 2 bathrooms, kitchenette, a balcony - cool stuff!), there were still bits and bobs that can give away the post-Soviet mentality of construction, f.e. no teas and coffees in the rooms(feel free to drink hot boiled water).2 separate water supplies in the bathrooms were fun. One has the hot water instantly, with the other one has to leave the water running for 10 minutes before it gets hot. Fair enough, but can anyone actually leave a note(preferably bilingual) on the wall, that that is the case? Soaps and shampoos were provided. No shower gel in the fancy shower cabin though - go get your own(which we did). The bedroom was very nice. The sheets were not sparkly clean, they have been well-used.But it is fine. Two single beds moved together instead of a double bed( not good enough!). Great bonus - you can open the windows for the fresh air supply, which is great, and you can actually smoke in the room if you want to. And also we had the aircons in the room.You have to buy cards for the Wi-Fi access (even though we had a PC in the room) - no free stuff here, haha, very modern indeed. The cleanliness of the room was fine, with one day out of 10 of cleaning missed for the unknown reason. The INCIDENT that actually destroyed my impression from the hotel and the review for the party concerned (and I really hope that you are going to read this, Vitebsk Hotel management!) was the following. In the rules of the tenancy that are given to every staying guest there is nothing to say that any of the visitors who come to you have to produce a passport at the reception. The only thing that mentions visitors is that they have to leave after 11pm, fair enough. For 7 days we had a crowd of friends-relatives coming and going without any hindrance or questions from the reception or security staff. On day 8 here comes my father and my stepmom for a short look at the room. They came with us (myself and my husband), hubby was caught short and had to rush off to the loo hoping that we will meet all together later on in the room. At the lobby here comes the "bouncer" aka the security guard towards us, asking my parents to produce passports in order to get access to the room with us! Needless to say they did not have their passports with them(why on Earth should they drag them around?), so the guy decided not to let them in... We could have sorted out the issue, but my father started arguing in the heat of the moment, and his wife decided for them to leave not to cause any further conflict. We AS HIGH PAYING CUSTOMERS were absolutely shocked by the treatment of a peasant bouncer, who considered himself to be an owner of the place and doing a highly important job of annoying people. The receptionist on duty was of no help either, agreeing with the attitude of the bouncer. After a conversation with my husband they gave us a call to the room with a kind of an apology, saying that such are the rules for the visitors. We looked later on at the so-called rules at the reception desk( in Russian), but the rules could not be found on any printed guidelines anywhere else! My questions are A: Where was the actual management of the hotel on duty? B: Why the rules are not disclosed in full straightaway and are not listed in the tenancy rules in the rooms? C:Why nobody else was stopped for 7 days and for the following 2 days after the incident? And as a matter of interest nobody was stopped from visiting 2 years ago when we stayed in the same hotel? D: Why nobody approached us in a polite manner in the first place to explain the rules and when the incident happened? One important fact: our 10 day stay in that suite (room 1120) paid the monthly salary for about 7 staff members of that hotel, especially taking into consideration that we were probably the only people staying there. And some peasant bouncer and an immature receptionist all of a sudden forget that WE PAID THEIR FLIPPING WAGES!!!!!!! Lovely Don't Give a Damn attitude, which possibly reflects the attitude of the hotel management in general. And afterwards they are surprised why there is no business......Indeed, why?

Based purely on the quality of the hotel, I would rate it a two stars hotel. It dates from Soviet times, and so does the interior of the rooms. It's all very basic, and not exactly cheerful. It did seem to be clean enough though. Staff is doing what it is supposed to do, some with a deep sigh, others with a smile. Almost none speak any other language than Russian. There's a few things which could make you choose this hotel however. It's located in the very centre of Vitebsk, with the main objects of interest in walking distance. The other point is that Vitebsk simply doesn't have that much choice. So, if you choose this hotel, choose it for it's location, and do not expect much more.

The location was good and the price is also good. The receptionists are very helpful and they speak English. They are also very helpful when you send an email if you have any question before hands. ||||The only negative thing I would say would be the breakfast and that is because there is no English menu and unfortunately no one speaks English in the breakfast. The breakfast is not included in the roomprice so you have to find a way to order in the morning and unfortunately if you do not know any Russian, then there is absolutely no way you know what you are ordering which is disappointing. This could be fixed so easily, just an English translation of the menu... I hope they do this. ||Otherwise, yes the hotel is a bit worn out and old but the room is cozy and clean and I was there in January, weather outside was very cold but the room temperature was perfectly fine.

It all started with our arrival late at night. We were welcomed by a receptionist who spoke reasonable English. We had to pay for our full stay in advance. Luckily they accept cards which seem not to be common in this city. The reception lobby is huge and fiiled with vast open space. I asked whether we could get a drink as we had flown from London and then travelled by car from Minsk airport. We were tired and thirsty. There was no facility to get a hot or cold drink. The room was a revelation. Talk about going back in time: this was out of the 1950's We had booked a suite and I am glad that we did. It consisted of an entrance hall with plenty of space to hang coats and leave shoes. There was also a large fridge in the hall. Off the hall were a bathroom and a lounge with a TV and a kettle. No tea or coffee sachets. The lounge led to the spacious bedroom with a lovely old king size bed. The bedroom also had access to the bathroom. We stayed 6 nights and were very comfortable in the rooms. The windows opened two ways and we were able to get some welcome fresh air which we needed as the hotel is very warm. The bathroom was OK. The toilet paper reminded me of what we used to call Bronco. It was grey in colour and a bit rough. The shower/bath was damaged and the bits off the plastic shower holder kept falling off. When, oh when are hotels going to learn that buying cheap plastic fittings is just not worth it? There was plenty of hot water and even some minute soaps and some sachets of shampoo. One or two of the tiles were screwed onto the wall in a precarious fashion and I was concerned that they might fall off while I was in the shower but fortunately I escaped scott free.||Breakfast was very very poor. Naturally the menu was in Russian. Fortunately my wife is a native Russian speaker so was able to assist. The waiting staff do not speak anything other than surly Russian. They do not make you feel at all welcome and some of them spend the entire shift sitting at the bar facing away from their customers. There are three set menus each day. You may only have what is on the menu that you choose. If tea is on your menu you may not have coffee or juice and vice versa. It is forbidden to mix and match. Quite frankly to the western taste the food is horrible. Pasta for breakfast with nothing on it? Dumplings which have been sitting around so long they have congealed into a solid mass. Bread which is so dry that it needs something to make it better but only some of the menus contain butter. Some of the dishes I understand were traditional food but there was no attempt to cater to an international clientiele. However you could order a beer for breakfast if you felt so inclined. I seriously suggest giving this part of your stay a miss. I must say though the little strudels were a highlight if they were on your choice of menu.||There is a bar in the hotel which seems to open sometimes but never on a Monday or a Tuesday. We were only able to go in once during our stay and were served promptly and efficiently. When I asked if they had any Tequila I was told that they had it in the restaurant bar upstairs. When I suggested, in English, that someone fetched some I was ignored. ||The basis of this is that this is a very old hotel which no amount of refurbishment can make better. It is very conveniently situated close to amenities and sights and of course shops. The staff at reception are OK, the room was cleaned very well but the rest of the staff should be shot at dawn every day for a week. One word of warning. When I booked I booked based on nights. The staff had taken this to mean that my final night was in fact my day of departure. Fortunately they had plenty of rooms available so I was able to "extend"" my stay. The suite was cheaper than an English Travellodge so maybe I expected too much.

A very basic hotel though centrally located and ideal for business travellers who want to stay in central Vitsebsk. The rooms although they are clean are absurdly planned, poorly designed, with no air-conditioning making the rooms especially hot in summer and cold in winter. A very old-fashioned soviet-style public-run property with poor services including catering. It has 4 stars on the veneer which indeed strikes as soon as you step inside

This is a very centrally located hotel. I was last here 2 years ago. This time I was in a recently renovated apartment. The renovation has been done to a very high standard. We had 2 bathrooms. They were beautifully appointed as one would expect when paying this much money. When are hotel managements going to realise that a 10 kopec toilet roll holder which does not work does not match the rest of the lovely room. When oh when are hotel designers going to realise that placing a shelf right above the bathroom basin prevents anyone using the basin without bashing their heads. This is utter stupidity!||The rooms were lovely and almost comfortable. The sofas were very deep so that if one sat with ones bottom at the back of the sofa near the backrest ones feet were up in the air. To place ones feet on the ground one has to sit well forward on the sofa with resultant lack of back support. There was a dining table, a kitchenette with microwave and all cutlery and crockery. A kettle but no tea or coffee on offer. Not at all like a western hotel where even Premier Inn offers tea and coffee. The beds were comfortable but I expected a double bed but got 2 singles. The bathrooms work off different hot water systems as I discovered on my first day. One bathroom has hot water instantly as does the kitchen. The other one has to have the hot tap running for 15 minutes before hot water is available. Soviet architecture?||We had paid for breakfasts. DON'T. The service is non existent. There is a choice of 3 menus, all in Russian. They obviously do not cater for, or want foreign guests. If you want coffee you choose one menu. If you want orange juice you choose another one. The menus cannot be mixed and matched. YOU WILL EAT WHAT WE SAY YOU WILL EAT. Very Soviet. There are no smiles. There are no greetings. My wife's 3 eggs on the first day, I think they were supposed to be fried, were RAW. The whites were transparent and sliding all over the plate. We tried an evening meal there. It was just as bad with worse service. Do yourself a favour, eat out.||As my wife is from Belarus we had loads of friends and family visiting us in our room. We had loads of fun and were sure to get them out of the room before the 11.00 pm deadline. On our 8th day we had lunched with my father in law. We had each had 2 beers before walking back to the hotel. My father in law had been so impressed with the room when he helped us up with our baggage on our first night because there is no such thing as a porter, that he wanted to take a few photos. Needless to say after a long walk the beers were starting to take effect. I arranged with my wife that I would run up to the 2nd floor toilets near the restaurant while she took the family to the room where they could each use one of the bathrooms. When I got to the room my wife told me that some officious security guard had refused her parents entry to the hotel as they did not have their passports with them. I was livid and rushed down to reception to find out what had happened. Soviet wall of silence and ignorance and pointing out of rules (in Russian). My in laws had by then gone. I went back to the room and looked up the rules which I had been given on my arrival. These clearly did not state that guests had to have documentation. I again remonstrated calmly with the receptionist who was the only person on duty. She would do nothing. On the final 2 days of my visit we had many friends and relatives visiting us in our room without restriction. It annoys me that some petty so called official can abuse his power to such a degree as to cause anguish to his guests. His guests by the way were probably paying something in the region of 10 months of his salary just for the pleasure of staying at this hotel for 10 days. I will not ever go back there despite the very nice room.

Hotel is Soviet style multi-story building, very central, to the train station 5 min by taxi or a 20 min walk. Rooms (no AC, TV only Russian) start around $ 40 and are really Okay and very clean. Breakfast is included and not bad. Staff is nice and speaks English.