On the plus side, it is very centrally located, but thats about it. I booked to stay 3 nights in September, I kneww it had only recently opened, but it looked ok, wasnt too expensive and was centrally located, only a 5 minute walk from Red Square.
Night 1 - I arrived about 10 pm on first night, as another couple arrived, but it turns out last room was double booked. The only person there was a caretaker, who only spoke Russian, so after a long conversation on the phone (it took about an hour), I agreed to go to their so called sister hotel, which was supposed to be 10 mins away, but it took the taxi driver over an hour to find it. It was now after midnight, we were hungry, thirsty and tired, but there was nothing to eat or drink. The sister hotel was a basic hostel to say the least, we had a room on the front, where the window was broken, and looked onto six lanes of traffic, which was busy and noisy all night.
Night 2- arrivd back at Artel, where a girl who spoke english, was... more