Renion City Hotel — Hotel in Almaty

If there were an option for negative stars, Renion City Hotel in Almaty would earn all of them.

This place is a trainwreck, run by staff who clearly don’t care and shouldn’t even be working in the hospitality industry.

Let’s break down this disaster:

We booked a room and knew the standard check-in time was at 2 PM. To be considerate, we called ahead to request an early check-in (fully understanding it wasn’t guaranteed). The staff told us on the phone - the room would be ready by 12:30 PM. When we arrived, they told us 1 PM instead. Zero issues - we went to lunch. But when we came back at 3 PM—a full hour after the standard check-in time—the room STILL wasn’t ready.

The male receptionist at the front desk was an absolute disgrace.

His attitude reeked of arrogance, and when we questioned the delay, he snapped, jumping into a conversation we were already having with the manager, saying, “We have 60 customers checking out every day. What do you want us to do?” “We gave your room to someone else so now you need to wait” Excuse me? How about doing your job and respecting the fact that we PAID to stay here and it is your responsibility to ensure some kind of service standard?

Finally, we got the room—only to discover that the door lock didn’t work. Yes, you read that right: we slept in a foreign country in a room that couldn’t even be locked. Oh, and just to add insult to injury, the shower bottles were empty. No conditioner, no body wash—just empty bottles staring us in the face after traveling for over 24 hours.

It gets worse.

We eventually decided to booked another night because we had an important tour planned early the next morning. This tour was the entire reason we came to Kazakhstan. We needed to leave at 4:40 AM, so at 4am we went to the reception physically to double-check everything. We specifically asked if we needed to move rooms, and the male receptionist assured us: “No, no need.”

Great—so we thought we were set.

At 4:40AM, we were ready to leave. But as we picked up the lunch box the female manager had kindly prepared, we were suddenly told, “Oh, actually, you need to pack everything and change rooms.” WHAT?! After specifically asking and being told we didn’t need to move, now we had to scramble to pack our bags in five minutes and haul everything downstairs.

The staff’s incompetence caused us to miss our tour. They LEFT WITHOUT US. The money we paid for the tour? GONE. And because this was our only full day in Almaty, there was no chance to rebook or make up for it. Our entire trip was ruined because of this hotel’s sheer stupidity and lack of professionalism.

The only redeeming quality of this place is its location, but honestly, there are plenty of better hotels nearby for the same price—or less.

Lesson learned: NEVER stay here. This hotel is a joke, the staff are incompetent and not suitable for service industry. the management is helpful only when she is there. If you value your time, money, and sanity, avoid Renion City Hotel...

Positive-|—The hotel is brand new - you can virtually still smell the paint drying and the newness of everything (and I kinda like that). |—The WiFi is good!|—The water pressure was great. |—Lots of variety at the breakfast buffet. Their main clientele are not Westerners, so it is not to Western standards. Only one coffee brewing machine, however. |—Many TV channels are offered, including a few English speaking ones. |—Everything is very clean. |—The Front Desk recommended a very good private tour guide for the day (group tours are virtually non existent on this city). ||Negative-|—The rooms are very small. It reminds me of a cabin on a cruise ship. |—It’s not apparent where to put your luggage. There is no luggage rack (there would not be room for it anyway). There’s a hanger rack thing near the door with a bottom shelf, but it is so small that even my small carryon luggage barely fits on it and certainly not laying open. And when I put my luggage on it, the wheels stick out into the walking area quite a bit. |—There’s no shelf in the shower to put anything. |—The good news in the bathroom sink, there was lots of hot water. But the bad news in the shower, the water was only warm (no hot). When taking a shower you don’t need to use any cold water - just turn on the “hot” water. |—The window opens, but only a crack at the top (literally). And it’s so weird on how to open they had to put directions on how to open the window on a card on the windowsill. |—Although there are two USB-C recharger ports, neither of them worked in my room. ||General-|—The hotel is in “lower” part of the city (so not really in the center), and is 5-10 minutes walking distance to the Green Bazaar and 28 Panfilov Park and its monuments. Get ready to Yandex (their local Uber equivalent) around for everything. |—The entire hotel has a “Flintstones” vibe to it (Flintstones was an old time American cartoon series about caveman/women). The hotels entire color theme is light brown. ||Summary-|I am undecided whether I would stay here again - there are a lot of positives, but also a lot...

The hotel is located very well and the rooms are new and nicely built. I had a wonderful stay and they even decorated my room for me and my wife.

Pros: Cheaper than other hotels with similar ameneties. I booked a superior room for 45000 Tenge with breakfast. Centrally located (many tourist spots are within walking distance), courteous staff.

Cons: Horrible breakfast with next to no vegetarian options so i'd suggest to book rooms without breakfast. Heating was busted and we werent informed about it earlier. They won't give you extra water and provide 2 small water bottles each day. This is insane considering they say that they are a 4 star hotel.

Overall it was a nice stay, and would have been a perfect stay if not for the above mentioned cons. Really they should change this only 2 bottles of water per day policy its appalling.

Tips: Make sure to book the superior room as the standard ones are really small. Approach for booking directly through whatsapp instead of OTA as those will...