Caravan Hotel — Hotel in Karakol City

This hotel has an amazing potential, but the management is TERRIBLE, and it seems that it has been going on with this same pattern for months (check latest reviews). Customer service and welcome front desk is inexistent. You walk upstairs after entering the building and you have to wait or make yourself notice. None speaks English (even few simple words) and the whole conversations are done using the google translator which makes it extremely hard to communicate and understand each others, prolonging all the times to do the check in. We arrived and our booking wasn’t been saved and put in schedule, we booked a month if not months in advance by email and received an email directly from the manager with our confirmation. We literally risked to not have an accommodation for the night.

Rooms are not bad but as they completely forgot our booking they had to rearrange us in a triple room and put a mattress on the floor for our 4th person.

The morning after we went to do breakfast early as we asked if we good anticipate it (and we really had to insist for it) even tho they said breakfast was at 8am there were already many people downstairs already eating.

To give you context, many people coming to Karakol are sport people and outdoors people, from hikers to skiers or cyclists and everyone start their day early, breakfast early is a must.

The breakfast isnt so rich neither that good but that is ok. On the counter there were different containers and hot water boilers for teas and coffee. No sign of danger or heat around. Sugar was next to it and I casually grabbed it touching the extremely hot boiler burning myself and unfortunately dropping the sugar container which it was in glass. I broke it. I promptly informed the waitress of the pieces of glass which looked at me very badly. These things happen all the time especially in hotels and restaurants and are part of the job.

We finished breakfast and we went upstairs when suddenly the receptionist came with her phone very aggressively in front of me telling me we need to pay the little glass container. The way she came at us was very rude, and honestly out of the ordinary as I never been in a hospitality venue were they asked for money when something got broken by mistake.

After I told them their method and request was absurd they started threatening me telling me they would call the police. The chef came, which at the beginning I thought he was the security, with threatening manners and aggressive look stepping in front of me and I presume insulting us in kyrgyz language. The whole conversations were carried by google translate cause none could speak English and the manager didn’t want to come to speak, then they sent another receptionist who could speak better english and bit more polite as she didn’t really know what happened. The waitress of the breakfast started making stories up that I lied about the burning (absurd things she was saying like: “I heard that you dropped the glass container but you didn’t get burned” SHE HEARD THAT, she wasnt even in the room when things happened). Really poor talks and lies JUST to get EXTRA MONEY.

They also were aggressive and saying they would go check the CCTV and I said please do it but at the end they didn’t as it was only a way to intimidate us.

We paid cause it was definitely not about the money, we were super late as they made us waste time. We were and have been upset, disappointed and honestly disgusted by how the situation was handled and how clients get treated, but after reading other similar reviews of the previous weeks things made more sense

I truly hope no other customers will be ever get treated this way. The chef should have mind his own business without stepping in with threatening manners and threatening to cal the police for such a thing on a client is regrettable.

As you know everyone travelling has different experiences based on the individual circumstances but this is a note for you to remember how to act or what to expect from the people working and managing this place.

Karakol...

We chose this hotel primarily for it's proximity to the main bus station where we planned to arrive late at night by bus from Bishkek. The hotel is a 15-20 minute walk from the bus station, and easy to locate.The night manager didn't speak much english, but the day staff were easier to communicate with.The rooms are spacious and the internet worked well. The only problem that we had was a lack of elevator, which would have made carrying the bags upstairs much easier. ||||There is no air condition here, but some of the rooms have a fan which is more than adequate. It is hot in the day, but can get really cool at night, as Karakol is surrounded by mountains. Breakfast was included in the room rate, and is served on the ground floor. The reception area is actually on the 1st floor, and there are no guest rooms on the ground floor. The supermarket which is just outside the hotel entry doors was well stocked, and very convenient, as was open until quite late in the afternoon. There are quite a few F&B options nearby, a 24 hour pharmacy (Anteka) and it is a very safe area to explore. The tourist information center, central square and orthodox church are all within 10 minutes walk from the hotel.||||If you sleep with the windows open, you may be disturbed early in the morning by the :call to prayer" from the two nearby mosques. We had our bags stored for free when we went hiking in the mountains overnight, and had an overall good experience...

Location is pretty good, there is a supermarket at the bottom floor and some amenities across the road. It isn't disabled friendly though as there is no lift and stairs are needed for all rooms.

The rooms seemed clean but can get hot and there isn't AC in all of them so be careful when you book.

The toilet didn't flush as it didn't fill with water (this seems to be common in Kyrgyzstan but is still a bit frustrating) and one time there was a water outage (again, this is more of a city issue so couldn't be helped).

The main problem with the hotel was that one member of staff was incredibly rude. She openly lied and when caught out became aggressive. When going to reception later in the day for laundry, she used it as another opportunity to complain and insult us. After checkout she insisted on checking all the rooms and then complained about petty issues like the towels not being pristine. Her attitude is completely unacceptable in a customer facing role and she needs training on how to deal...