Hotel Gagarinn

Excellent in most respects - but no Directory of S

This facility is brand new (still under construction) so everything is brand new and in good working order. The location is excellent - right next to one of the main entrances to Arcadia beach. Numerous restaurants, small stores and currency exchange are all very close by. A big shopping mall with a large and well-stocked food store is right next door to the hotel...on the 3rd floor. A tram that runs to the city center and local buses are all very close by too. Front desk staff all speak good English - but very few of the other staff do. Laundry service is excellent, fast and reasonably priced. I rented a suite for one week (on the 18th floor) with 2 rooms and it was an excellent deal at today's exchange rates. There was a huge amount of storage space (way more than needed for even 2 people) - 2 TV's - 2 beds (the main one was not very comfortable - way too soft for me - woke up with a back-ache everyday because the mattress was so soft) - an large in-room safe that held everything I needed to secure including my 13" laptop...and a nice view of the city. The room was overly warm with no way to control the temperature - but there were 2 windows that opened (one in each room) that solved that problem.

There was no "Directory of Services" in the room - and when I asked the front desk staff why not, I was told "it was still being developed and would not be done until sometime this summer." This is a MAJOR SHORTCOMING (and problem) in my opinion because a guest has no idea what he/she can (or can not) get in any hotel without such a book. The buffet breakfast was also very poor in my opinion - containing only a few items, most of which were cold even if they were supposed to be warm or hot. In view of the overall quality of this hotel (which is excellent), the buffet breakfast is another MAJOR SHORTCOMING that needs to be corrected - even if the price (100 UAH during my stay) has to be raised to improve the quality and quantity of buffet breakfast substantially. Only one woman during the buffet breakfast hours spoke English - and if she was not around when you showed up, good luck!!! My only other complaint was construction (and repairs) noise - lots of it constantly during the day because the hotel is still under construction. I found this to be very annoying.