SMOLNINSKAYA HOTEL - St. Petersburg

I was staying in a superior room with a double bed. My suite was very clean, with new furniture and nice modern bathroom. The color theme of the room was red + white. The room furniture had classical style. The water pressure in the shower was high, so I could shower fast and convenient. My big complain about the room was that the drainage of water in the bathtub was broken, and so water was going down very slowly and therefore I had to take shower half way up to my knees in dirty soapy water. Already the next day somebody came in to remove the part, which controls how fast water goes down, and so the problem disappeared. Also I did not appreciate the light switch system in my room: every time I had to switch randomly all the switches to find the right one. When nobody is in the room (the key card is not in the special slot), everything powers down (including electrical outlets), which saves energy but I could not charge my laptop while being away from my suite. The hotel is located in the center of the city with plenty of non expensive cafes around, including a pie place which (I think) works 24 hours a day. A subway station is about 5 minutes away from the hotel. Wi-Fi Internet worked just fine and was fast but it did require periodic reactivation of the connection.

This is my second stay. The location cannot be better - it's close to everything. The breakfast and the restaurant for dinner are excellent. The staff is very nice. The hotel itself is ok, there are minor issues - like pillows not being comfortable, the walls are very thin (you can hear your neighbours caugh) and the TV reception is not great. But overall it's very good - would recommend and would definitely stay again. The staff is very nice and very responsive, which is key.

The advantages of the hotel: the rooms are impressively clean and nice for the price. Everything in my room looked new and polished. The color theme of my room was green. The room had a double bed (actually 2 single bed put together with a double mattress merging them), 2 chairs, a table, an LCD TV on a wall in front of the bed (did not try to watch it), a large wardrobe, and a large mirror. The hotel is located very close to the famous Spas-na-krovi cathedral - it is almost around the corner. The walking distance to the nearest subway station ("Nevsky Prospekt") is about 10 minutes. The total time it takes to get to the airport Pulkovo-1 is about an hour (walk, line 2 of the subway, bus #39). Disadvantages: the room temperature control did not work - I tried to set the temperature to over 30C, but could not make my room any warmer (but it was pretty warm already). The water pressure in the shower cabin was low, so it was taking me longer than usual to take shower. The system of light switches in the room takes a few minutes to figure out. The first time I could not get into my room since the front desk forgot to activate my key card. The table in the room was not quite even, so my laptop was not wobbling while typing only in a specific orientation.

We felt that this was one of the better hotels we had ever stayed at and the bar at night was lively with entertainment. The rooms were comfortable and the layout of the hotel was very nice. The service was excellent. The only drawback is that they state they have an indoor pool but it was more like the size of a whirlpool for bathing. If you are looking for a real pool, this is not the hotel for you! The location was perfect and the city is beautiful!

This guest did not leave a comment.