Tau House Spa Dastarhan Hotel — Hotel in Almaty

For the first time I spent one night with my husband and my baby in this place. ||Starting by positive points, I admit that the location is very nice, pretty clean, the breakfast is fair, with correct service and the reception is good (they speak English at the front-desk). They are some nice areas for children as well (playgrounds, animals). BUT the very dark sides come:||- restaurants: the food is good, but quite expensive for the quality provided; the waiters don’t speak English at all, the English translation of the menu is poor and, of course, the waiters are not able to explain anything and, more over, they are not able to take an order when you basically point with your finger on the menu…In Avlabar restaurant, we asked for a alcohol-free beer, pointing on the menu. She answered they didn’t have. We pushed more asking “niet alcohol”, “no alcohol”, “alcohol free”, we made the sign for driving the car…Without exaggerating, after 3-4 min of monologue she discovered that, in fact, surprise…. they had it. We asked for the bill and it was long to understand the world “cash”. In Kazbek restaurant, we asked, pointing on the menu as well, for 2 different Georgian dishes (made in the oven as we had the translation) and she came with 2 soups… And the service is 15%.........||- rooms: correct, well equipped and clean (congratulations to the maids), but all the provided information is in Russian. To use the safe-box? Mission impossible, as all the steps to change the code are in Russian.||- baby friendly: It’s almost impossible to use a stroller - stairs to go in the reception, stairs to go out from the reception in the garden, stairs to go from the garden to the rooms and, of course, no ramp to pass a stroller, wheelchair, trolley..||- SPA center: very crowded, the receptionist didn’t speak English and she was very rude. We came with the bathrobes provided in the room and we asked for the towels at the entrance. Surprise: the towels were on charge, even if we were charged 150 EUR for one night of accommodation with SPA included. The explanation: we should have come with the towels from the room???...normally they are wet after taking a shower in the room… and of course, we should have used them AGAIN for drying after swimming pool, we should have used them AGAIN on the pool-chairs and we supposed to use them AGAIN after taking the showers in the room…. Good way to make savings…||Conclusion: tiring experience and it was supposed to be a relaxing one…....

For the first time I spent one night with my husband and my baby in this place. ||Starting by positive points, I admit that the location is very nice, pretty clean, the breakfast is fair, with correct service and the reception is good (they speak English at the front-desk). They are some nice areas for children as well (playgrounds, animals). BUT the very dark sides come:||- restaurants: the food is good, but quite expensive for the quality provided; the waiters don’t speak English at all, the English translation of the menu is poor and, of course, the waiters are not able to explain anything and, more over, they are not able to take an order when you basically point with your finger on the menu…In Avlabar restaurant, we asked for a alcohol-free beer, pointing on the menu. She answered they didn’t have. We pushed more asking “niet alcohol”, “no alcohol”, “alcohol free”, we made the sign for driving the car…Without exaggerating, after 3-4 min of monologue she discovered that, in fact, surprise…. they had it. We asked for the bill and it was long to understand the world “cash”. In Kazbek restaurant, we asked, pointing on the menu as well, for 2 different Georgian dishes (made in the oven as we had the translation) and she came with 2 soups… And the service is 15%.........||- rooms: correct, well equipped and clean (congratulations to the maids), but all the provided information is in Russian. To use the safe-box? Mission impossible, as all the steps to change the code are in Russian.||- baby friendly: It’s almost impossible to use a stroller - stairs to go in the reception, stairs to go out from the reception in the garden, stairs to go from the garden to the rooms and, of course, no ramp to pass a stroller, wheelchair, trolley..||- SPA center: very crowded, the receptionist didn’t speak English and she was very rude. We came with the bathrobes provided in the room and we asked for the towels at the entrance. Surprise: the towels were on charge, even if we were charged 150 EUR for one night of accommodation with SPA included. The explanation: we should have come with the towels from the room???...normally they are wet after taking a shower in the room… and of course, we should have used them AGAIN for drying after swimming pool, we should have used them AGAIN on the pool-chairs and we supposed to use them AGAIN after taking the showers in the room…. Good way to make savings…||Conclusion: tiring experience and it was supposed to be a relaxing one…....

Have stayed at same hotel abt 10 yrs ago, and thus had great expectations. Hence spared no costs and booked the Super-de-Luxe pack for 6 days, for 2 couples, expecting another stay in 'paradise'. Was however very disappointed: reception staff is still unable to speak English, the Spa resort (value of 10000 KZT / person / day) was partly under construction with several units not operational and totally no support from staff, Wifi wireless barely able to receive in the rooms, and no amenities for tourism (no brochures, maps, or other information about sightseeing around Almaty). This is obvious a hotel that only caters for local people, and has no interest in International tourists.||The rooms are clean and the service is good. The various restaurants are quite expensive (compared to local prices), but service and food are also very good. ||Due to all the issues, I expected the staff/manager to be more helpful, but they seem only interested in money and offer no compensations. As the hotel refuses to take responsibility for the restaurants and Spa center (separate business units), they try to circumvent any claims. I was really disappointed and will no longer return here.||Over the course of these 6 days I talked to several regular customers of the Spa center, and it seems the complaint list is steadily growing. Not good for a hotel that thinks to merit a...