Inn Sport

The animals were kind, which was a plus. The rooms, though, were dusty and cold, with dirty bedding. The air conditioner remote was missing, some of the lights didn’t work, and the doors were very stiff.

I came from Odessa for an appointment at the clinic and only needed a room for one night. I paid for the most expensive one, but in winter the place still felt pretty run-down. It was cold, and the air conditioner barely warmed the room. I don’t understand why they don’t heat the rooms enough to be comfortable in a T-shirt.

After an 18-hour train ride from Odessa, we checked in expecting the rate we’d booked on Booking.com a month earlier: 900 UAH for three nights. We’d picked the hotel for that price and its nice courtyard with a pool. Once we filled out the forms, the receptionist quoted three times as much. We showed her the Booking.com page with the price and dates, and she called the “owner.” The owner arrived, started shouting at us from the doorway without greeting us, said she knew nothing about it, and wouldn’t even look at our evidence. She blamed Booking.com and said all sorts of things about us. It became a whole scene, with people around the hotel shouting too. The receptionist was understanding and helped us reach a compromise to bring the price down at least a little. With our suitcases, we didn’t feel we could just abandon the room and hunt for another hotel. The room we got was completely different. Only one of its five bulbs worked, the handle had come off, the freezer didn’t cool, and the air conditioning barely worked. That day, the receptionist told us the pool was available, so we swam. When we came back the next day, the owner was lying by the pool with a friend and complained that it was “private property.” We said we’d been told we could use it, and her friend replied that the owner had bad employees who should all be fired. The way we were treated spoiled the trip, and being there felt downright disgusting. We had no practical alternative by then. If you book through Booking.com, confirm the exact price beforehand.

We booked through Booking for one price, but on arrival they quoted us three times more. The hotel hostess made a scene in Russian, saying the mall didn’t have prices like that and Booking was entirely to blame. We didn’t have time to find somewhere else, so we paid triple for one room instead of the two we had booked. The administrator said we could use the pool. It was fine the first day, but when we came back the next day, the hostess was resting there and said it was private property. In the room, the shower handle was loose and unscrewed, the air conditioner ran but didn’t cool, the closet was packed with blankets so there was nowhere to put our things, and only one of five bulbs worked. That was the general state of things. The stairs were very steep, and covered in animal fur. The animals are lovely, unlike the owners. Be careful if you book here. Agree on the accommodation price in advance to avoid a “surprise,” and don’t expect much in the way of amenities.