Emir Guest House in Karakol

I genuinely wanted to leave a 5-star review because the family here are, on a personal level, super sweet. When we arrived for our almost week-long stay, they welcomed us so warm-heartedly. They frequently invited us for tea, helped us out, and even folded our laundry and put it nicely into the wardrobe.
Their kindness felt incredibly genuine, which is why the end of our stay feels so hurtful and disappointing.

Unfortunately, behind the friendly hospitality, we felt taken advantage of financially. The first red flag was when they tried to book a mountain tour for us and quoted a price that was 1,000 higher than the actual cost—which we assumed was a heavy commission, but we let it pass.

The real breaking point was check-out. We moved from a very large room to a much smaller room, yet were charged the exact same price ($25/night). Worse, we were charged over $15 for just two loads of laundry (one white, one colors). I have traveled extensively and have never seen such an exorbitant price, not even in expensive countries like Germany. It left us feeling scammed.

Aside from the financial disappointment, the stay itself had some challenges. The hotel is far away from everything; you have to walk at least 15 minutes just to find food. Furthermore, while we initially thought the internet was good, it was not stable enough to actually get remote work done, and we lost electricity three times in five days (which I think is normal in the area).

It breaks my heart to write this because the staff were so lovely to us to our faces. But hospitality requires honesty. I feel deeply let down that such sweet people ultimately treated us like a target to get more money out of. 😞