Viesnīca Elīna — Hotel in Jūrmala

First of all:We didn't expect the best after reading the reviews, and some things might be bad for others, but are not for us. For example the rather old fashioned furniture, appeared funny and not to bad to us (you can see it on the other photos). The nice wooden houses look good and well kept from the outside. Otherwise Elina is near busy shopping Street Jomas, and it is not far either to the beach or the Majori train station to Riga. And they have a nice and cheap little grocery store within the hotel, open 7 days until 22 hrs. But now for the bad things (and the reasons for our rating): ||||1) The cleanliness: It is ok to have old furniture in the room, but it is definitively not ok to have a dirty flat. It was not really "extremely dirty", but def. not clean. There were dust and crumbs in almost all of the cupboards (see pictures), the taps in the bathroom are coloured from rust and scale (see pics). If you walk barefoot (even after cleaning) you have black feet after three meters. ||||2) The noise: The enivoronment is really close to Lienes Street, the biggest four-lane road in Jurmala. Depending in which house you live (they have four), it can be very loud, even at night. We lived directly by the road and had to decide: Either dying of hotness in the night, or not sleeping at all due to 24 h traffic noise. ||||3) The outfit of the room: We rented as a couple a flat for up to five people (at least there were five beds). The space was there, but not the facilities: There were exactly three plates, two bowls and one (!) big cup in the kitchen. I never know, how five people can live there. There is neither a sieve, nor a knife to cut bread in the flat. The cooker is one to plug in the wall, it has two plates, but looks like from 1985 (with all dirt collected from then). You can store things in the fridge (which was new), but there is no coffee machine, no toaster, no frying pan, no tin or wine bottle opener etc. Cooking was an adventure...!||||4) The expectation and reality: We booked on booking.com: As other people reported, the description there is very wrongful: Wi-Fi is only available in spots around the main house (in one of our three rooms it was acceptable), there was no balcony in our flat (as in the description) and you cannot pay with a card (as described). ||||5) On the last day, the flat owner walked in very late (around 09.45 h pm) to show our flat to a woman who wanted to rent in from the next day. This might have been ok, if he a) knocked before he entered or called us or gave us a hint and b) didn't insist since we just were showering and ready to go sleeping (before our flight left early the next morning). This was a very awkward moment since he neither apologized, nor seemed to understand our embarrasment. ||||Considering the price of the apartment (we payed about 110 Euro a night for the 30 sq.meters) and the things mentioned above, we cannot recommend Elina, even if we wouldnt't say it is dangerous or horrible, but it seemed...

The only thing to like about this place is the location and, if you're lucky, the free parking outside.||||The hotel reception is impossible to find, if you don't speak Latvian (luckily, I do), as the signs in English are written with so many mistakes, you just don't get what they're actually meant to say. The staff, when you finally manage to find them, speaks very poor English (which would have caused big issues, if I had left my partner to sort our stay), and was generally very fidgety (?). The room we stayed in was very dated, which we wouldn't mind, as long as it had been cleaned. Well, it wasn't. We hadn't seen such a dirty place calling themselves a hotel in our lives. Starting from the bed throw, that had been drawn on by a child (we thought it must be achild, but you never know, eh?), continuing to pillows that were at least 30 years old (or at least, you'd think so by all the marks on them!) and the sheets, that had seen better days,and then to the bathroom that had dead bugs and flies on the windowsill and black layer of mold in the shower cubicle. To add on, the bathroom sink just wouldn't drain at all, the room had a window going out to the top of the communal staircase, which meant- if the light was left on in it, our room would be lit even in the middle of night, we were given two single duvets for a double bed, the staff just kept walking up and down the stairs and corridor all night long, whilst carrying a big bunch of keys, and kept slamming the reception door, that was right next to our room, making the whole experience as being in a weird prison. Oh, and the TV remote doesn't work, and neither does the TV itself, really. And don't hope for soft towels, that could be changed on request, as they don't have any to provide, nevermind, for them to be clean and fluffy, and matching in the first place. I've probably forgotten to mention something, but you get the feeling, I hope. STAY AWAY FROM...

0 stars, Absolute disaster of a stay. From the moment we got there there was no parking, and we were instructed to park near the gate Infront of other cars, we were careful to leave a gap so that cars could still get in and out. The room was something from the 1940s, with outdated furniture, no sepetate beds, gaps inbetween doors. There is no cutlery even though it's self catering, no shower, and the bed sheets were dirty. To top it all off, while out in the town we received a call from reception asking us to move the call because it was blocking the entrance even though they instructed us to park there... We made our way back to the hotel and we're greeted by a man (don't think he was even a guest, just parked his car there) who started a verbal conflict with us about our car blocking his way even though 2 cars were able to enter the carpark after we parked there. Disgraceful behaviour and organisation from reception, management, guests (or not guests, who knows because they told us that they allow people to park on their grounds to go to the beach), and overall cleanliness and basic standard. €160 for a night? You're better off getting a tent and camping...