Fantastic place, and I spend 45 nights a year (on average) in 4- and 5-star hotels on business. Stunning big gym (and few people using it). Good coffee available in the cafe at 1 a.m., 5 a.m., etc. Accomplished and warm staff, with most speaking completely adequate English. My standard room was modern and handsome, with the bathroom walled off with frosted glass. Shower water so strong it would poke an eye out. Windows open for fresh air.

Interesting, quiet location on Vasilievsky Island - a 10 minute walk across a bridge to The Hermitage and Nevsky Prospect shopping, 10 minutes across a different bridge to the Peter & Paul Fortress. Located at the fringe of the University area - safe and quiet.

The architect(s)married up two buildings (one quite old) with a bridge arrangement (with skylights) connecting them. Brick has been beautifully preserved in the former wine cellar of the large older building, which is now the spa, a wine bar and a sort of pub/rumpus room with six spanking new high-tech bowling lanes. Really very clever and tasteful.

I'll be amazed if in a year, you can't book a reservation at this hotel. We found it comfortable and dellghtfully quirky, central to all the sites we wanted to see, with an energetic staff focused on accommodating guests. Tough to find that in the States these days. . .

This hotel must be checked by International authorities for hotel liability for safety negligence.

I'm a 60 years old lady and in my first night on 20th of July of this year I have been experienced a serious personal injury (broken hip) in this hotel while I was passing through an artificial bridge in the lobby.

The problem with this bridge is obvious and dangerous especially for old people. To be specific, there is no handrail on the bridge at the last to meters in the lobby, which means someone can suffer a slip and fall accident (like mine).
Photo shown the serious safety negligence of the bridge in the lobby (left view) can be seen on their site at http://www.holidayclubspahotels.com/st-petersburg-en.html

The worse is that nobody from this "5 stars" demonstrated the slightest interest to my health or paid a visit to the hospital during my surgery or my 15 days therapy.

The last but not the least, is that this hotel didn't care to contact me in order to pay even a symbolic amount to indemnify me for this horrible accident.

For the time being, I'm still trying to stand on my feet without crutches.


Eirini Leonardos
Athens-Greece

We had booked into the Petro Palace St Petersburg - big mistake. Never stay there. On arriving, it was so horrible that we checked straight out. The only place we could find within our budget that had rooms was the Holiday Club. We took it.

Best decision ever! The Holiday Club St Petersburg is one of the most pleasant and calming hotels I've ever stayed in. We turned up three hours earlier than our reservation stated to leave our bags with reception: they apologised immediately for not having our room ready early and gave us all free glasses of champagne. Completely unnecessary as it was us, not them, who were at fault, but we weren't going to argue with that!

The room was ready a mere 10 mins later, still far earlier than the time we were supposed to arrive. It was modern, immaculately clean and beautiful. But the real treat was the spa. I've never seen anything like it. Hot rooms of various types, a magnificent pool, and a room full of real snow to cool off in. Friendly, helpful staff, and as many fluffy white towels as you'd like.

The only problem with the Holiday Club is that, if you stay there, you might not see very much of St Petersburg. The spa is so good you won't want to leave. I can't recommend it highly enough.

We stayed at the Holiday Club St Petersburg for 2 nights as part of our tour around Russia/Findland/Estonia.
It will definetely be a 5 star boutique hotel once it is finished but they are quite not there yet.
We were given room 560 which happend to be a room for disable people; no problem with that, the room was huge, very nicely furnished and the bathroom was fantastic, with a great shower but no bath which was a bit disappointing (I guess because it was for disable people) and the Molton & Brown amenities were a nice touch. Bed was very comfy and big and the room was spotless. We had dinner at the only restaurant that was open, which is a Spanish restaurant. Since I happen to be Spanish myself, I will say that the food was above average but I was more of a Spanish-Italian fusion. Breakfast was great but ver expensive at £18 per person. Breakfast was also served in the Spanish restaurant and I can say it was the nicest breakfast room I have ever experienced, and we have stayed in many 5 star places.
Problems: No shelf space in the bathroom, no soap bar, no information folder about the hotel, no porter to carry the suitcases, bedstead needs a valance sheet to cover it (sorry I am being fussy but it looked cheap), thin curtains are needed on top of the blackout ones (we had to options: pitch black or neighbours watching us), and of course, detailed information on their website about what facilities are open yet, and which ones are not.
Considering what we paid (about £130 per night without breakfast) and how expensive accommodation is in Russian, I would say that I'd gladly go back, but I am afraid that if they are planning to charge higher prices they need a bit of polish for a 5 star.