Kazakhstan Hotel in Almaty

I usually leave a good review unless a hotel is truly awful, but this one was absolutely terrible! I strongly advise against staying here!
1️⃣ The hotel is currently under renovation. There are four elevators in total; two are designated for staff only (possibly for maintenance), and one of the remaining two was broken. With a fully booked hotel, all guests had to use a single elevator. I was on the 24th floor, and waiting for the elevator, both up and down, completely drained my patience.
2️⃣ The hotel room reeked of body odor! Goodness gracious, the stench gave me a headache. I didn't even dare to take off my clothes to sleep. Opening the window made it too cold, so I just lay down in my clothes.
3️⃣ At breakfast, I found a hair embedded in a baursak after I had already put it on my plate. It was so disgusting that I immediately lost my appetite. (It wasn't just on top; it was baked in, meaning it was there when the dough was made.) I told a staff member, who said they would get me a replacement and took it to the kitchen. They never came back, and there wasn't even an apology, not even a perfunctory one, which might have made me feel a little better.
4️⃣ The two complimentary bottles of drinking water in the room had an indescribable raw, unpurified taste. I took one sip and couldn't drink any more. It tasted like it came straight from a tap (this is just my personal perception of the taste, not a statement of fact). I've stayed in so many hotels, but I've never experienced anything like this before.
5️⃣ The hotel staff forcibly charged hotel guests for parking. The rental car company delivered the car to the hotel in the morning, and we spent a little time signing the contract. When we tried to exit the parking lot, we couldn't get out. A hotel staff member came and demanded a parking fee (I don't have Kaspi). I told him we were hotel guests, and he asked if we had arrived last night. I told him to check, asking if the car had just arrived. He was unresponsive. I was in a hurry to leave, and the parking fee started at 300/400, but I gave him 500. He said it wasn't enough. I told him I would go and ask his manager if I actually needed to pay, and only then did he raise the barrier. (It was snowing heavily in Almaty that day, and it was really cold. I didn't want to run back and forth, and I was in a rush to leave, so I didn't argue further.)
6️⃣ After breakfast, my room key card inexplicably stopped working. I walked around the same floor twice until I found a housekeeper who helped me open the door. It's possible the hotel facilities are very outdated, and the staff are just used to these issues.

In summary, I strongly do not recommend this hotel!!!

Kazakhstan Hotel, Almaty – A 4-star in name only:
I stayed at the Kazakhstan Hotel in Almaty, booking a superior room in what is advertised as a 4-star hotel. The price was far from modest, but the experience was a string of disappointments.
- Neglected rooms: dated furniture, stained carpet, cracked tiles, and a shower that looked like it hadn’t been updated in decades. The air vent was visibly dirty, and the walls showed clear signs of wear.
- Questionable cleanliness: sheets lacked freshness, the bathroom felt unhygienic, and details like dirty electrical outlets and damaged surfaces were hard to ignore.
- Unfriendly and unprepared staff: not only did they avoid smiling and seemed bothered by any request, but they didn’t speak English. Every interaction felt like they were doing me a favor, not providing a service.
- Disappointing breakfast: the buffet was a parade of poorly presented dishes. A spinach and cheese soup with a questionable texture, an omelette sliced in a way that defied logic, a bowl labeled “Rice” that contained… chicken nuggets. And the most surreal moment: after previous guests had wiped out the Nutella, I asked if they had more. They brought me a mysterious brown spread called “bool.” Now, replacing Nutella with “bool” is almost a crime against breakfast.
- Unstable Wi-Fi: even checking emails was a challenge.
In short, the Kazakhstan Hotel relies on its central location and historic name, but offers nothing that justifies the price or the stars. If you're looking for comfort, cleanliness, and basic professionalism, I strongly suggest looking elsewhere.