Hotel Asia Samarkand in Samarkand

3.5 stars if being generous A 3 night Adventures Abroad tour stay from 27 April in room #216. A 2 story hotel, so no lift; but the eager porters got our bags up the stairs efficiently; and collected them on our departure day. A quick and professional group check in too. The hotel is in a very good location for many of the key Old Town sites. Rooms not facing the road would have to be quieter. Our std room was clean and spacious. The usual Stan’s rock hard mattress (which we do not mind) and the usual high edged step over bath / shower. Good room lighting. The fly screened window could be opened and the split air con worked; but kept turning itself off for 75% of the time. Thus our room was constantly too hot at approx 25 C, 24/7. There is a permanently on heated towel rail in the compact bathroom though, which on a 30 C day overheats the whole room; not just the bathroom. Why not supply an ON / OFF valve; which would help save energy too. Being on the upper floor I suspect a lot of room heat was coming from the roof. Nice towels for the first 2 days but then much thinner ones for the last night. The anti slip mat for the base of the bathtub was appreciated. Lots of hot water but only ok water pressure. No kettle was supplied. Why? A $2 box of tissues would also help make all of the Hotel Asia venues closer to 4 star stays for world travelers. No hand lotion vials either with this chain. Management are you reading this? For our 1st night we were supplied with only a single bed quilt / top sheet on a king sized bed. Why? The following morning this was rectified after a request and we also then got 2 hand towels. Who audits the housekeepers? There is an in room safe but it was not attached, so we declined to use it. There is a suitcase stand and a bench over the small fridge worked well for our 2nd large suitcase. In room wi-fi was easy to access but the data transfer speed was only just ok by early evening. There was clear info in the room re the ok value laundry service; which if we had known about earlier we would have planned to use. Others in our AA group then found this timely service very efficient. Breakfast was only ok. The stock of juice kept running out and only very few tubs of yoghurt ever appeared each morning. Quite limited fresh fruit too with the local markets overflowing with strawberries; but none on offer here. More bananas please. Hot food again was not being kept food hygiene safe hot. Nice brown bread was the highlight. Food was not topped up for the last hour of the service on our sleep in day. A flat white, etc coffee can be made to order. Much to like with this stay BUT not yet a 4 star outcome.

One positive about this hotel is their location. It is within walking distance of Registan Square. Our tour group spent two nights here. We had a triple bed room. Room was okay. AC made awful clanging noise one night waking us up so we had to turn it off for a while. Beds were okay, but not really comfortable. We didn’t have a walk in shower, only tub with shower head. Needs to have a safety bar for climbing over the edge. Toiletries were tiny bars of soap and blue and pink small bottles of shower gel and shampoo. No water kettle or tea/coffee in room. Breakfast buffet had minimum items and once again had food that should have been served hot, but was barely warm. Some staff don’t speak any English so communicating needs was challenging.

The hotel is very well located for visiting the old town. Unfortunately, the room smelled terrible, as if someone had been smoking in it for a hundred years and the windows had never been opened. The mattress on the bed was a disaster, if you could even call it that. It was like sleeping on a wooden cot. The breakfast was wonderful and freshly prepared. All in all, I would not recommend this hotel.

Third Asia hotel on our tour. Like the two before this one (in Khiva and Bukhara) three stars. Nothing lavish in any of the three our tour used. The location of the Asia Samarkand is sort of out of the way and in a fairly dismal area. Mattress quality poor and basics in the bathroom. However, this Asia had a shower instead of the almost two and a half foot high tub which is very hard to enter and exit which were in the previous two Asia hotels.

This is the most old fashioned hotel I’ve ever stayed in . The decor is revolting. Everything clashes and is from the 1970s. There’s no lift , be warned . Unless you want to drag luggage upstairs ask for a room on the ground floor. There was one hard pillow and an empty duvet cover. The bed was extremely hard and the air conditioning very temperamental. The shower was over the bath but on the plus side there was good water pressure and a heated towel rail. Breakfast was grim. No toaster, not much of a selection at all. Dinner wasn’t great either. When we arrived the carpet had just been washed and was covered in sheets making it even harder to get up the stairs. The staff were nice but the hotel definitely needs help.

The hotel is well located and clean, but the service is poor (you have to wait at least 10 minutes to get a coffee) and the rooms are dated (old furniture and very hard beds). It definitely doesn't deserve its 4 stars, as it is only decent, not luxurious.