Marco Polo Hotel Gudauri — Hotel in Mtskheta-Mtianeti

The Good.|The hotel is situated right next to the chairlift that goes to the top of the beginners' green slope. It has its own rental shop on floor 1 that has knowledgeable and friendly staff. The hotel provides lockers for your clothes and ski equipment. You need to leave an ID. The shop takes CC. Lift passes can be bought just by the chairlift. |The lobby has plentiful chairs, some books to read, some games behind the front desk, and several ATMs as well as a photo desk. There is a ski shop and a bank. There is a large restaurant where breakfast takes place. There is also a bar with an English Georgian menu and reasonably trained staff. Just off from the lobby by the lifts is access to a 4 lane 10 pin bowling centre, some pool and billiards, 2 table tennis tables and fussball. The indoor pool is lovely, and the indoor padel tennis is great.|The front desk staff were polite and spoke fairly good English. The key cards worked all the time, unlike other hotels. The lifts are fast and frequent..although the top floor call button only has an up???|The 40" tv in the room was very easy to connect a firestick to. |There was a nepresso machine in the room. Teabags, sugar, coffee, 2 glasses, 2 teacups, and saucers. There was an empty mini fridge. The bathroom had been renovated and was very clean. The shower was powerful, spacious, and hot. There are lots of shelves in the room. An iron and ironing pad, safe, drawers.|Toothbrushes, vanity kit in bathroom. Soap and shapoo/conditioner in bottles fixed you wall|Adequate European plug sockets, standing lamp.|Breakfast was adequate with the visual spread of bread, meats, cheeses, yoghurt, some hot dishes, etc. Toaster, juices.|The hotel provided NYE entertainment for young children from 7 to 9. Magician, games, santa. They booked a UK band..the Alleycats, who were great. The new GM, Nike, is passionate about making changes and is aware of some of the issues with the hotel. I feel that he will drive change in the hotel. He acknowledged that the staff should reply to guests with, "Let me find soneone who can help you" rather than "NO."The hotel replaced our nespresso machine with a Lavazza machine and supplied pods. They provided a complimentary bottle of wine and note when addressing my concerns about the room and mattress. The room service phone was answered promptly, and the delivery was swift. Corridors were cleared of plates quickly. |The view was impressive from the balcony.room is clean, and room service/cleaning is good.||The BAD||There was no concierge, porter to carry our luggage on. However, one of the security guards helped.||The hotel is a little dated, and opened in 1988, the corridors are a little dark. The junior suite we were in is rather dated and had a staircase to the upstairs area that had a double bed, 4 shelf tv cabinet, approx 40" LG tv on the wall The Internet did not require a password, but the max speed in our room was 9Mb/s, and movies on the firestick buffered constantly. I had to my phones hot-spot and use my data!!||The bathroom needed an air freshener as it possessed an unpleasant smell, and the cistern kept getting stuck so that water constantly ran. The toilet itself was tucked away behind the door. Limited storage space. |There were no wall paintings, pictures in the room|The sofa bed is downstairs and is farctoo big for the room. When used as a sofa, it looks at the staircase, and there is no tv downstairs.|There were no coffee pods for the nespresso machine. |The safe is not bolted down and could be just taken.|There was no uht milk.|Upstairs, it needed a ceiling fan as it got quite stuffy.||There was a chair and side table downstairs but no chairs or table on the small balcony.|The room had a small water radiator in the bathroom and one under the window.|The room had a guest booklet, but it didn't mention things such as the nearest shop, |No coat rack or coat hooks.| Vinyl floor covering. |Breakfast toaster disappeared.|| NYE dinner was lo ely to see magician, santa and games in the lobby from 7 to 9pm, but then the kids and guests had to wait until 10pm to sit down for dinner. The hotel provided copious amounts of starters and main courses, but it was far, far too much, and so much food was wasted. I was told an extra bottle of water, 33cl, would be charged to my account....I paid 475 US for the meal for my wife and young daughter, and charging for a bottle of water seemed petty. The serving staff had mixed levels of English. ||The Alleycats were staying in a different hotel, which seemed strange.There was no cutlery on the tables or napkins.The housekeeper tapped on the doie, there was no doorbell, and just walked in. We had to keep the door locked. The spa pro idea massages but no sports massage, which seemed strange as this is a ski resort. The bowling, tennis, and billiards all cost extra.The. edge walls in the room were rather drab. There is no AC in the room.||The UGLY.||The mattress was extremely uncomfortable, and it caused me to wake over three times every night! I asked for a mattress topper and was given a mattress protector!. The mattress on the sofa bed was more comfortable.||One coffee machine at breakfast is totally inadequate, and the coffee beans used were very bitter. ||Breakfast offered eggs of your choice, but when I asked for egg white omelette, I was told NO ..the hotel does not have them. I had to use a translator app to ask, and the omelette appeared. The staff did not seem that happy and were frequently chatting to each other and not looking. They needed to write down the orders. Eggs of your choice meant fried eggs, omlettes, scrambled eggs only. There was no egg menu.||Recommendations|In addition to the above observations, the hotel would benefit from a visit from an organisation such as LQA. This would provide the GM, Nike, with a list of key areas for development.||Would I stay again?|Only if the mattress issue...

This is my holiday in Gudauri Georgia and my second time snow skiing in my life. I found this hotel known as The Marco Polo Hotel Gudauri and it had good rates and facilities were decent. I flew direct from Qatar to Georgia on Qatar Airways and emailed to the hotel to schedule me an airport shuttle directly to the resort . The price of the return airport shuttle was $140.

Georgia has an amazing history and it is a very ancient country. The famous explorer Marco Polo and his family discovered Georgia on their return journey from China. They did not take the same root back from China and instead made their way up north where they encountered the southern Caucasus mountains and the kingdom of Georgia.

The Marco Polo Hotel was way more than I bargained for it was an incredible site and location. The hotel featured a children’s outdoor playground and indoor playground. The hotel obtained three bars and a restaurant with a scrumptious daily breakfast. It was very filling as I was skiing all day in the mountains. Most of the small market places in the area only accept cash but the Marco Polo Hotel has a variety of ATMs to draw cash from.

My room was very comfortable it had a double bed, private bathroom with a shower and a balcony in which I could enjoy the incredible view of the mountains. There was so much so see as the hotel is situated 2km above sea level.

Another impressive feature was the indoor pool and spa. The spa featured a massage area and a sauna for men and another sauna for women. When the ski cable cars closed at 17:00 I would spend a few hours by the indoor pool, order some drinks, snacks and even spent a good amount of time in saunas.

Of course I mainly came to Gudauri to go snow skiing. You can hire ski equipment at the hotel for the duration of your stay and the hotel as literally direct access to the ski lifts. The ski lifts are produced by the Austrian-Swiss manufacturer Doppelmayr. I always trust the Germans or the Austrians when it comes to engineers machines designed to carry passengers. There are 15 ski lifts and 64km of ski runs.

It was a clear day and decided to go paragliding from the top of the mountain it was an amazing view. The Caucasus Mountain is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The highest peak in the Caucasus is Mount Elbrus and it also the highest in Europe. The mountain obtains minerals such as iron contributing to the Georgia economy as well 6400 species of higher plants.

I had a spectacular time skiing down the mountains. I managed to adjust both my legs correctly in order to ski down the mountain without falling. I even attempted to ski down the highest slope which is Mount Sadzele. I was terrified at first especially seeing all the warning signs of avalanches but I managed to maintain a steady speed and skied down the slope.

After my skiing I would walk around Gudauri to see the Town. There are ancient buildings and some old castles you can look at. I also went to a bar called snow time bar and I had great meals and drinks there. I even built my first snowman on the...

I am 'inspired' to write this review while still in the hotel, as I sit in front of the final straw - an inedible borscht which lacks both meat and beets.     - We got a room sold for 4 people, but the second 'bed' was a broken, ancient sofa (see pictures) that was impossible to open without heavy effort by 2 people.  When opened, it would entirely block the space, and impossible to pass without climbing over it.  This was a problem, because it was on the way to the bathroom from the bedroom loft.- There were 4 hangers that were extremely uncomfortable to use as they were fixed, and 1 hook in the bathroom.  There were no other places to hang things or wardrobes at all.  There was a baby cot left in our room for some reason - we used it as a hanger and storage space.- There is a stair up to the bedroom loft, and the space under it would be ideal for a triangular wardrobe, but there is nothing there, so we had no choice but to put the suitcases under it rummage in them in the darkness, hitting our heads a number of times- The breakfast buffet in hotel is adequate, but dinner is atrocious.  Every other dish is inedible, and everything is twice as expensive as in restaurants outside. Order is often screwed up and you have to ask for forks, butter, and everything else 2-3 times, but, to be fair, this was the case pretty much everywhere else in Gudauri.- The ski storage area is a disaster - though we were sold a room for 4, the locker we got only had 3 pairs of holders for ski boots.  These turned out not to work anyway at the beginning, and hot air was turned on only after a complaint.  - In the spa area, the sauna and steam room were pretty good.  However, there was only 1 working shower, and the 'jacuzzi' outside was at most 18C.  There was a steady stream of people asking staff to make it hot, but all were told that it's 25C, and as such, warm enough.   Perhaps the hotel is saving on heating bills- We were lucky to be on the 3rd floor, but we heard a number of people on the lower floors complain about incessant barking during the night.  We ourselves, however, did not hear anything.- The general state of the hotel is dingy, dark and seedy.  Everything looks shoddy.  We visited friends in other hotels in Gudauri, within the same price range, and none were like this.  This was the first hotel built in this town by USSR in 1986, and it has a distinct Soviet ascetic.  - About the borscht, we tried a spoon and returned it as inedible, but the restaurant made us pay for it anyway, as well as for butter for the bread, separately.  We went to sleep a bit hungry (that might be a good thing, as we overeat on the slopes today) Follow-up: - The hotel staff are REALLY REALLY trying to make things work, and that makes up for a lot, but, it cannot fix the state in which this hotel is.  We were offered, for 2 days, a much more livable room, which made a big difference, but the toilet would flood the bathroom floor, and we were told it had to be replaced :( This really sums it up. At over $200 per day, this is not...