Tsentralnaya Hotel

With free WiFi and breakfast included, this historic hotel is a good choice for budget travelers. It's right in central Odessa, so I could walk to the main tourist sights and take the tram to the market. The room quality was below standard, though I still slept comfortably.

We had an early checkout, and they kindly put together a takeaway breakfast for us. The building is in decent shape and has an old-fashioned feel, and the location is great. The room we got didn't match the pictures for the one I booked on the website. It had carpet instead of a wooden floor and was much smaller. The waitress was rude. At 7:30 in the morning she shouted at me for no reason, or maybe because I couldn't understand the language. She didn't try to communicate with us, even though body language is universal. Her expression, tone and huffing were inappropriate, and she had no good manners.

For peak summer, it's great value and centrally located in Odessa. It's a dated two-star hotel, with limited breakfast. There's little or no WiFi in the rooms, so you have to go into the corridor. You can eat outside in the courtyard if you want.

The place looks nice, but my experience was awful. I rented a room for a longer stay, and it was the worst decision I've made in 10 years. The old, worn-out equipment they gave me kept breaking, and I was made to pay for brand-new replacements when things failed after just two or three days. Someone warned me this might happen, but I ignored them. Their old electric cooker stopped working after I used it for only four days, and when I reported it, they told me to pay for a new one. I really don't recommend it.