Our Russian Apartment in Moscow

The apartment can be found here:

All Russia Hotels located on Novy Arbat, 22 Moscow.

This rating is based upon 5 stars, 5 being the best and 1 being the worst.

Location was in fact worth 5 stars.

- We were right in the city center and within walking distance to the famous old Stary Arbat street and the US Embassy was pretty close too
- It was a 15-20 minute walk to Red Square
- Lots of stores and of course kiosks close by

The view from our apartment window.

Customer Service got a -1 star.

We had such a difficult time getting into the apartment. It took 3 different people and about 3 hours of waiting that I couldn’t give anything except a negative 1 star for customer service. If they would have been prompt at returning our money for that day as they promised, I might have given them 2 stars. The fact is that it has been over a week now and still no refund to our credit card…

Quality was good. Actually a pretty nice apartment, but too many issues - 3 stars.

- We got in early and they were rude to us for asking to come meet us early. A lot of good that would have done anyway.
- The bed was a bit noisy if you moved around too much on it (if you know what I mean).
- The advertised microwave was really only a convection oven.
- No toilet paper, had to go buy our own…
- There was an automatic dishwasher, but no soap to use with it was provided.
- Cold - the typical Soviet style heating didn’t keep up. There was an electric wall mounted heater, but only in the living room.
- The advertised hair dryer didn’t exist. But there were 2 clothing irons! Incidentally, we were able to stand underneath the electric wall heater in the living room to dry our hair…
- We made our own bed and cleaned up after ourselves. Guess this is to be expected renting an apartment instead of a hotel room. Kind of like not being on vacation though…

The heater in our apartment.

2 irons but no hair dryer...

Cleanliness was so-so - 3 stars.

- The dishes had to be rewashed before we used them.
- I think the bed linens had been replaced before we got there…
- There were clean towels when we got there.
- The maid who was supposed to show up Monday, Wednesday and Friday, showed up Tuesday to spruce up the apartment and Friday to change the towels and take out the trash.

Amenities were good - 4 stars:

- Good sized color tv with a satellite dish connected - actually found an English speaking station
- Free wireless internet
- Phone with free international calling