We stayed five nights in this hotel at end of June 2008. In general we thought the quality and service were excellent. The hotel is located about 15 mins walk from Palace Square (Hermitage). The frontage is surprisingly plain for a five star hotel but the interior is beautifully fitted-out. Bedrooms are finished in natural wood with very good facilities, albeit a little cramped for space. Breakfast is excellent and the bar provides food 24/7.

The hotel has a fleet of Audi cars and provides a reliable taxi service, which can be booked in advance for travel anywhere in the city to restaurants, theatre, etc. at a cost of 400 Rbls. Also to the airport for 1600 Rbls. A most useful feature of the hotel service is that a driver and car and an English speaking guide are available to provide private tours in the city for small groups. We choose to take three of these tours. We had the same guide, who spoke excellent English, for each of the three days, and this was the highlight of our stay in the city. Our guide was able to take us past the inevitable long queues that form at the various sights and museums in the city.

We booked this hotel in good faith after seeing adverts on several web pages. The hotel (5 star) boasted 6 restaurants, bars, wellness centre, saunas, gym, bowling alley etc. etc. We duly paid our 5 star price but upon arrival we were told by a very embarrassed receptionist "sorry, those facilities are not even built yet". To say we were disappointed was an understatement. It got even better when we found there were no tea and coffee facilities in the room, no business centre and not even a "do not disturb" sign in the room - we had to enquire at reception for one of these! The parts of the hotel which are open are very nice and I think that when complete, it will be a great hotel to visit, but do not be fooled and try to visit this hotel now as you will be very disappointed. To charge 5 star prices for a hotel with only one restaurant and one bar and no business centre etc is a complete rip-off and the only recompense from the management was a glass of cheap champagne or orange juice - just not good enough!!

The hotel is tucked away on Vasilievsky Island. The hotel itself is very nice; rooms were spacious, very clean, and quiet. The best feature of the room was the bathroom (had a very powerful handheld hose and a wonderful square rain shower). Contrary to an earlier review, I did not have one altercation with a mosquito. I could tell that the hotel manager read the review as a new Raid plug-in device was provided in my room during my stay. Since I was there on business, I used the internet frequently. The food was very good, and the lobby bar was active during the evening. The main issue I had with the hotel is the location. It was nice being away from the hubbub of the city, but I felt that this hotel was remote. It is about a fifteen minute walk to the closest subway station, and about a twenty minute walk to Nevsky Prospect. Cabs are very expensive in St. Petersburg. What you should be aware of is that if you have an early flight out of Pulkovo (i.e. a flight that departs earlier than 7:00am) you really don't want to stay at this hotel for the bridges typically go up in early summer from 3:00am - 4:30am and there is no real way off. I booked the Hotel car to take me to the airport, and was there too early for my flight (would rather have slept a bit longer instead).

Nice rooms put some fairly large issues. It was a relatively warm night, so I opened my window to allow for a breeze. Although I was on the 6th floor, I must have let in dozens of mosquitos. As soon as I noticed 5 minutes later I shut the window again (deciding that stifling heat was better than mosquitos), but it was too late - I was bitten all night long and only slept less than 2 hours because I was so uncomfortable. While I thought this was a totally random experience, at breakfast the next morning a colleague of mine shared the same story! Apparently this is only bad on rooms that are facing towards the sun...

Room service was also a bit of a challenge - for dinner first night it took almost 80 minutes and pre-ordered breakfast the next morning was delivered 40 minutes late - good thing I wasn't counting on a knock at the door to be the thing that woke me up!