Dostyk Hotel

The price was USD 240 per day, or INR 20k per day, and for what you get, it felt like a total waste of money. Service was below average, and breakfast was mediocre. I found a better spread at budget hotels in India. The AC is fixed at 24.5 degrees, even in summer, so if the room feels hot or stuffy there’s nothing you can do. They also give you an AC comforter. The TV is outdated, so YouTube doesn’t work. For that price, they could at least have put in a decent smart TV, so foreign guests like us wouldn’t have to watch Kazakh local channels we don’t understand. I was checking out at 130am on Sunday and asked to check out late on Saturday, only 130 hours, but they wouldn’t allow it and charged me for the full day. In this age of algorithms and AI, this hotel came up when I searched for 5 star stays in Almaty. Don’t let the photos fool you with their old world vintage Soviet look. The hotel has been renovated and feels like any other hotel. Save your money and stay somewhere better, like Novotel or another place nearby. Avoid!

I really liked the place’s refined charm. The accommodation was excellent, and everything else was good too.

The rooms are impressively spacious, especially the huge bathrooms with robes, a bidet, and separate tub and shower. Downstairs, the restaurant does excellent Kazakh food, and Teplitza around the block is open around the clock with a big patio. The bar is lovely but usually quiet, more suited to a nightcap than meeting lively strangers. The pillows felt a bit small to me, and the shower sometimes couldn’t settle on a temperature. The front desk won’t exchange cash, though the bank next door will. Dostyk sits in the Golden Square, handy for museums, parks, and restaurants, yet the hotel itself stays peaceful. It has the feel of a place from another era, with broad corridors, heavy doors, and marble. It was where Soviet officials stayed back in the day, and the style still comes across as understated and elegant. You get a five-star feel without the crowds or corporate atmosphere of larger chains, at a price that feels like good value. The airport pickup was smooth: a clean van with the hotel branding, a professional driver waiting just outside customs with my name on a sign, and it cost less than a cab. That saved me from dealing with the taxi drivers at arrivals. Dostyk is a quiet, low-key kind of luxury, and the small inconveniences didn’t take away from the stay.

The noise made it hard to rest. I changed rooms twice, including paying extra for a deluxe room, but the doors still let corridor sounds straight through. From 7:30 in the morning, housekeeping staff spoke loudly and kept their walkie-talkies on. Sleeping past 7:45 was a real struggle. Rooms facing the road also picked up traffic at night, with little sound protection from the windows. What bothered me most was how management responded. They offered only a slightly larger room at the back for another $45 a night. The early morning corridor noise was never dealt with, even after I raised it twice more, and the staff seemed indifferent. I’ve travelled abroad many times and have never felt so ignored as a customer, especially at a five-star hotel.