The sweeping ramp and reception area that first greeted us then set me up for disappointment. The staff were well trained, effective and hospitable. check-in and out were quick, the porterage was good. The twin bedded room though was rather small in comparison to the two previous hotels we'd stayed in, in Uzbekistan. Not quite cramped - but I guess we'd just been pampered before. But the level of cleanliness, the degree to which they were furnished and appointed was faultless. The bathroom too was a matching ”foot or two” smaller than we'd have liked. The dining room, and the breakfast served there were faultless, tasty (do try the 'ring bread' , and the service very efficient.
The lobby manager was extremely rude and they have no such thing as customer service. The receptionist agreed to a late check-out till 12:30 pm (not much of an extension). When I called the reception the next morning to request for some more extension beyond 1230, the lady manager said that we will have to check out at 12 only! I was shocked and I asked her if I hadn't called, would you have bothered to inform me? She very rudely said that that we have to vacate the room by 12 noon or we will be charged an extra days charge. At the check out desk their cars machine did not work or they deliberately didn't swipe it correctly, so we ended up paying in cash! The same cards had worked earlier in the morning at the shops in the local bazaars of Bukhara. Worst experience in the entire trip in Uzbekistan where people were very friendly and helpful.
I stayed in this hotel in November 2023 and very liked. Rooms are big. People very polite in hotel. Big bed. King size bed for family. Most feedback on website are very old, so i had to come check by myself and to my surprise i am very glad
This former caravanserai is right in the middle of the old town, a perfect place for exploring from. Our room (140) was in a newer part of the property on the first floor (one down from reception) & meant taking a flight of stairs down & then up again. This no step free access to this part of the building so be prepared to carry your luggage. The room itself was large with good air conditioning & WiFi connection. Unfortunately the safe didn’t work, but was quickly replaced (but the replacement was not secured & could easily be picked up to take contents away). The bathroom was ok, but the shower had a tendency to overflow, so just be careful. Breakfast was in a large room in the basement & was an impressive selection, lots of cakes as well as fruit & hot selections. If there are a lot of people then getting coffee can take time as despite there being two machines the staff insist on serving you & there is only one person on the coffee station & they only use one machine. We also feel that as we were just a couple and not able to speak Russian we were given a lower level of service, always being pushed to the back of a queue or allowed to be interrupted by other guests pushing in. The hotel though doesn’t make full use of its facilities, despite having a central courtyard there are no seats there, in fact there are only about six chairs on the verandas in total and they are outside bedrooms so feels a bit odd to sit there if it is not your room. There was a small courtyard outside our room but again no seats & we only had one chair in the room so couldn’t even use that to sit together outside. Despite the website saying there is a bar, there wasn’t, we were rudely told ‘if you want a drink go over the road’. And the restaurant was shut, supposedly opening again the week after our visit. We did find our way to the roof thanks to a very helpful member of staff, & there is work being done to open a rooftop restaurant, we used some chairs that the builders had left and had a wonderful view of the sunset over the old town. The new restaurant should be an asset. Overall the hotel is ok, needs to capitalise on the assets better, and treat all guests the same.