Boulevard Palace in Samarkand

An OK hotel, with clean rooms but beware of the hidden charges, poor maintenance and a bad attitude when things go wrong.

The rooms were very clean (a bit of mould around the bathtub). The hotel has a soviet chic (or what I would imagine it to be). Lots of ornate wallpaper and carpet.

Breakfast was decent, but avoid the Nescafé Americano which they charge an outrageous 25k for. The beds are hard as a rock, but that seems to be an Uzbek thing. Aircon was passable, when it was working and only if you have a small room. Dont expect aircon to be effective if the temperature outside is 35 or above (so anytime from May to September). Shower was ok in our first room, but not very good in our second room. Staff were friendly, unless there was a problem.

We had an issue with the air conditioner in the first room. The front desk tried to help and played with the remote control in the room; after a few minutes he put down the remote and just walked out without saying a word. We were left to guess whether it was fixed, broken or if he was returning with a technician. The Aircon didn’t get better so 90 min later we asked for a room change. They obliged, but only after waiting 45 minutes for that decision to be made. That included 10 minutes at front desk (with the night manager in the next room, with the door open to the lobby) dinging the bell and even calling reception. After coming out of his room and walking past us, I had to follow him to explain the issue and the request. He then screamed on his phone to his boss (which left us extremely uncomfortable aw the cause of his anger), then he walked away from us without a word and refused to do anything. After sitting and waiting then finally searching the hotel to find him, I asked “what’s going on” and he replied “I don’t know”. He then promptly decided to change our rooms. To pre-empt the management response (although I’m not sure they care enough to respond), the new room was clean but had a single double bed so the 45 minutes of waiting and cajoling was just to get that decision from him. We agreed that they would separate the beds whilst we went out to dinner. Note that the hotel was not even half full.

It turned out that our issue made them check all the air conditioners, and they were replacing three units. So maintenance isn’t a big thing here.

Our big problem was when paying. They had lots of hidden charges and fees. I had booked direct with the hotel and the total cost of the reservation didn’t (according to management) include US$3 per person per night tourist tax. The reservation said nothing about additional tax to be paid, so it should have been included. After much arguing he refused to either see the point (that the additional tax is included in the room rate or they should advise that the room rate excludes additional taxes) or refund the extra. He stated it was on the website terms, but he couldn’t find it after 10 minutes of searching. I couldn’t find it either. He blamed his IT guy (what a way to take responsibility) and was on the phone to him when I left. Apparently I was supposed to see a piece of paper on the desk which advised of the tax, and that trumped my email reservation, his website and all established norms. But their terms didn’t allow me to cancel when I showed up, so I guess they can add any additional charges they feel fit. Again, beware.

They also charged a bank fee to use credit card. According to him, everyone in the world pays a fee when they use their credit card (I leave it to you to judge if that is true). He said it was the bank charging it, and not him. Interesting that has not been my experience anywhere in Uzbekistan, so it is just this hotel with hidden bank charges.

All in all, it was clean but everything else was some sort of compromise and it was expensive. Good location, clean but with problems and significant hidden charges. It became significantly more expensive (10-15%) than the rate I thought I was paying so I would have looked at alternatives at that higher price bracket.