Akvarel Hotel

Wonderful
Traveller Type: family with young children
  : A very well placed quality hotel. It’s located in a tranquil historic lane in the heart of Moscow, with no direct access to cars, packed with top brand designer shops and decorated with beautiful lanterns that make a surrealist and romantic picture. The hotel is small in size but tastefully furnished and offers high standard services. There is a welcoming atmosphere, the staff are young, polite, speak good English and are always available to help. The rooms are very quiet and well heated, spacious enough, comfortable and with large windows, king size comfortable beds; they’re equipped with all accessories (bathrobes, slippers, vanity kit, shaving kit, shoes cleaning kit, hairdryer, etc.). The cleaning staff is fast, discreet and never intrusive. There’s a flat-screen TV with Russian TV and radio channels. The breakfast area is small but cozy, with chairs and sofa and a book shelf on Russian art and history (some books are in English and French). There is free self-serving fruit-scented water and non-alcoholic mulled wine and, because we arrived on the 30th of December, we were welcomed with a glass of Prosecco. By the way, we highly suggest visiting Moscow around the new year; its absolutely magnificent with literally lights and decoration everywhere! The breakfast is cooked on the spot for each person, like in a restaurant. The menu includes sweet and salty dishes. Another thing worth mentioning: until the last day we were uncertain wether actually confirming the reservation, due to ever-changing rules with flights around the Covid pandemic. The hotel contacted me one day before the expected arrival and asked me to pay the amount for one night in advance. I asked them to kindly await the results from my PCR scan and they agreed. On receiving negative results, I tried to issue the payment but for some reason it didn’t go through. Nevertheless the hotel confirmed my booking. I really appreciated their disposition towards the customer!
  : The payment system and the possible choice on the included breakfast. I care to say, the problem with the payment was NOT depending on the hotel, but it’s worth mentioning for other travellers and I would urge Booking to try and find a way around as I was told that it happens quite often!My balance for the booking was around 1850 euros and despite having more than enough funds and allowances on account and being cards set for worldwide operations, the one solution payment didn’t go through! I tried with two different cards and it didn’t work so I started feeling quite anxious as I didn’t have enough cash with me to cover for the full amount. We tried to make a small payment just for the first night and it worked so we had to take it from there making small payments every day. The consequence is a quite high commission fee paid on the total amount (about 80 euros) which is really unpleasant. I assume this depends on some dodgy situation between European and Russian banks which don’t really help out travelling people. I urge all people travelling to Eastern countries to verify things well in advance with their banks.About the breakfast: If your reservation includes breakfast and you’re staying longer than 3 days, you sort of get a bit bored with the menu and you have to pay an extra amount for any choice beyond the standard menu.

Wonderful
Traveller Type: solo traveller

Disappointing
Traveller Type: family with young children

Wonderful
Traveller Type: family with young children

Wonderful
Traveller Type: review category business travellers

Pleasant
Traveller Type: solo traveller

Very Good
Traveller Type: young couple
  : location
  : clean, near everything

Wonderful
Traveller Type: young couple