Minsk Apartments

The location is excellent, but the stay was bad and nowhere near worth the price. Almost every time I came in with a backpack or suitcase, security checked me at the entrance. It felt like a great way to find out what being a foreign tourist in the USSR might be like. The renovation is dated, though I’d call the room’s overall condition average. The mattress creaked a lot and there weren’t many outlets, although the cleaning was good. Equipment outside the courtyard-facing windows made a constant hum all day and night. The cooling system didn’t work well, and the noise made it impossible to open the window. Every so often I could also hear subway cars rumbling underground. The Wi-Fi kept cutting out too.

The room card wouldn’t work, and after I asked for help, I was blocked by the hotel’s Whattsapp support. I also asked for a receipt and never got one. At breakfast there weren’t even fried or scrambled eggs. In a four-star hotel, they asked my room number first instead of what I wanted to drink. The room was cold, with the window open for some reason when it was 9 degrees. The bed was worn, and there were too few sockets in awkward spots. I paid a lot for very poor service. The staff were arrogant and looked down on me. Have I mentioned their arrogance? It was an absolutely bad stay. Thanks for the experience ;)

My stay was in 2000, so I hope a lot has changed since then. It felt like a typical "Soviet hotel," with lots of staff doing the same jobs and a woman counting everything in the room whenever you checked in or out. As a foreigner, I could eat in the restaurant, but Belarusian people weren’t allowed to eat there with me. Again, this was back in 2000.

The location was good, the staff were nice, and the rooms were clean. They also provided useful things like razor blades and toothbrushes.