Best Western Plus Astana — Hotel in Astana

We planned this trip 6 months in advance. Originally we were set to stay at the Ritz Carlton but ultimately landed on the Best Western because their amenities looked good while the costs would be substantially lower than the Ritz. The atmosphere was what you would expect at these prices. That is, it was decent. The staff was very friendly and accommodating up until our last day. We had a 2am flight out, which meant we would go to the airport before midnight. We had originally considered checking out of our hotel the night before to save money, but ultimately decided that it would be nice to have the room to rest and shower before taking our overnight flight, so we paid for the last night even though we left at 11:30pm. We spent our last day sightseeing that including walking several miles all over the city. It was hot, so we were needing to shower by the time we got back to the hotel in the early evening. When we made it to our room just hours before our flight, we discovered there was no running water. This meant no toilet, no sink and no showers. The hotel staff insisted they had given notice of repair work that needed to be done on the hotel plumbing, however we were never told anything. Instead, there was a sign posted at the elevator with what looked to be fine print in English on the bottom. We never saw that posting which meant we were completely unprepared. There was literally nothing the hotel could do for us…no facility anywhere to go to the bathroom, to brush our teeth, or least of all take a cold shower. Since they could not provide the most basic of services on our final day, there was no reason for us to stay and not just simply head to the airport. I asked the staff to please give us the courtesy of one night’s refund and they refused. In my opinion, anyone staying at the hotel should have been refunded for that night, and I told them that. This incident made us regret our decision to forego the Ritz. ||I would NEVER stay at this hotel, the Best Western Plus in Astana. Nor would I recommend them to anyone else....

While the hotel is well located, it was missing something pretty basic—heat. It seems this hotel gets its heat from a central municipal source. For whatever reason, the heat had not yet been turned on the day I arrived. It went to below freezing outside that night. I was not forewarned. Nor provided extra blankets. I slept in my clothes under the heavy comforter. I went down to the front desk and asked for a space heater—they had none available.||While I guess this is normal procedure in this city since the locals did not seem to be bothered, I would have hoped for more sympathy from the staff. Fortunately, the heat was on the next day.||The housekeeper skipped my room after the first night but did show up the following day.||When in a foreign country I don’t expect many English language TV channels. This hotel had 1, EuroSport, which seemed dedicated to English billiards.||There were plenty of outlets, but no dedicated charging ports. Not a problem since I always travel with my own.||The room itself was typical in size for this price range, the bed was comfortable and the bathroom was well equipped with excellent hot water. It could have used a bit more counter space.||The included breakfast was plentiful if...

I stayed 2 nights. The first day's breakfast at 9 AM left me almost nothing to eat. I asked the resto lady to add the food which I would wait, but she said all I asked was finished. How come? It was still 9 AM, while the breakfast time is until 10.30 AM. The second day I came to the resto earlier at 7.30 AM which is the starting time for breakfast, but the resto has already fulled with groups of children leaving no space to sit & the resto's attendance told me & my husband to come back in 30 minutes. When we were there at 8.10 AM, again the food were all gone. Hello??? Was it the way how you treat guests? This time I complained to the reception but she could not do anything except calling the manager who would only arrive at around 9 AM. What a bad service! It was also weird, when I returned from sightseeing on the first day, my room's card did not work to open the door, so I needed to went down to the reception, only to found an answer that 'yes the card finished every 24 hours'. What a silly operational! I checked in and paid for 2 nights which the room's card could be set for 2 nights, but instead of doing that, the reception opted to set each day just to make guests had diificulties to ask for...