Hostel - Guest House Meyman

Once we'd finally found the entrance to the apartment, the host was extremely rude and nearly turned us away even though we had a proper booking. We spent an hour arguing before she gave us a room, and communication was very difficult because she didn't speak any English. She let us park inside the residence area, then came storming into our room in the middle of the night and told us to move the car a couple of blocks away. No explanation or apology. In the morning, as we were trying to leave quickly, she blocked the front door and demanded another 1500 KZT on top of what we'd already paid. At one point she even mimicked our English. Her rudeness was unbelievable. Thank goodness the other hostel guests helped us out. I would not recommend this hostel, especially to people who don't speak Russian.

The price was another problem: our Booking order said 10k kgz for four people, but they wanted 18k. Staff offered no workable solution, wouldn't give us a better price, and didn't even apologize. We decided to leave and went to Sky hostel instead, where things were much better. Getting in was hard too. The hostel was difficult to find, with no sign or open door, and you had to call. We had no SIM card, so at 11:20 PM we had to ask someone else to make the call. Once inside, the elevators weren't working, and we hauled our heavy luggage up the stairs to the 9th floor. An extremely unpleasant older woman then said the room we'd ordered wasn't available because they were nearly full. Since it was late and we were exhausted, we agreed to use a service room on the ground floor. I've never had such a bad hostel experience and can't recommend it.

The rooms, toilets, and kitchen were clean, but the receptionist seemed a bit dodgy. Our reservation was for four people at 10 000 KZT, yet when we arrived there was no room available and we were told to sleep on the floor in the living room. First they asked for 14 000 KZT, then another 3000 KZT, making it 7000 KZT more than the original price. We ran out and looked for another hostel at 1 AM. A really bad experience.

We left the hostel at 1 AM after arguing about the price, and that turned out to be our best decision. They were asking almost twice what we'd agreed through Booking, and the staff were really bad and didn't speak English, despite what the listing had promised.