Hostel Loco — Hotel in Almaty

The staff at Hostel Loco are very helpful and gave us a wonderful introduction to Almaty. Especially Ksenia who was fantastic and made us feel at home!||The hostel is located in a residential area about 5-6km from the centre of the city. It is about 30-40 mins to the centre with public transport. About 600m walk from the hostel there are some restaurants and local shops, including a pharmacy, groceries and ATM machines.||The hostel is small but cosy, with comfy couches and a small but well equipped kitchen. The staff gave us a basket for our food and showed us around the kitchen. ||We stayed in a private double room which was very small. The bed touched the wall of three sides and was raised about 1.5m from the floor - you had to climb up. The room was very hot and we couldn’t turn off the radiator, we needed the fan and to sleep without any blankets, despite it being March.||The hostel was very noisy at night as many people spent the whole night watching tv and playing music in the lounge next to our room. Also there were always people sleeping on the couch at all times of day - are they paying guests? It made it hard to feel comfortable in the lounge and kitchen with people sleeping there all the time. Also, the nighttime noise was very frustrating. Noise is of course to be expected in a hostel, but this was non-stop and inconsiderate. For example, people watching tv on their computer could wear headphones and other guests would be better able to sleep!||The highlight of the stay was the two resident cats! They are adorable and very friendly and playful. But they get into the rooms, so don’t stay here if you are allergic!||This hostel is a very friendly, safe and comfortable place to stay in Almaty, however there are a few issues for them to work out to become...

Positive: I liked that this place is in a residential block, not far from shops and Russian consulate. Everything is kept clean and kitchen is ok. Staff will help with anything you need. I stayed for 2 weeks to get my Russian transit visa and do some maintenance on my motorcycle. This place is good if you just need a decent place to stay.

Negative: I was in a private room with its own WiFi router, bandwidth was good but the connection constantly dropped. Staff don’t like to communicate, they prefer not to know you. Other guests are mostly not travellers I have no idea who they are because they are not even saying hello. This place is not good for getting to know locals or travellers. In hindsight I should have rented an entire apartment for about the same price, which would have been equally lonely, but...

Location: far from the city centre but easily accessible by bus or tram||24hour supermarket next door ||Hostel: quick WiFi, computer for booking tickets, use of kitchen, tea/coffee available||Staff: eager to assist but often useless -booking a taxi (a guest had to do it), booking a tour (told me at 10pm the night before that the driver could not make it)||One single toilet for a 10 bedroom hostel which was in the bathroom, so if someone was having a bath I’m not too sure where you would go to the toilet! There was a separate shower room.||No AC or fan in Kazak summer resulted in very hot sauna like rooms at night: we...