Montana hostel — Hotel in Irkutsk

The Rolling Stones hostel, in the touristy (by Russian standards) town of Irkutsk, seems to have a good reputation. But on our visit, it's not really deserved.||Upon arrival we were met by a totally indifferent receptionist who commanded us to take off our shoes and said check-in wasn't for a few hours. We already knew this, and were simply asking to leave our bags in the meantime. (In fairness a much more helpful replacement appeared when we returned, so there are good staff around.)||Our room was in a basement that had just one toilet between countless guests. It was also in the single shower room, which is annoying for obvious reasons. There was also a 'kitchen' on this level with was nothing more than a small fridge and cooking surface - actual cooking equipment was conspicuously absent. There was a proper kitchen upstairs but the dining room (doubling as the reception) is so cramped you wouldn't want to eat there||At night we were competing against the noise of the street our window faced as well as the paper-thin dorm walls either wide of the room. Perhaps one should accept in a hostel that it's never going to be completely quiet but for some reason here the ambience was especially intrusive. ||Perhaps also worth mentioning is there was a power cut (maybe not the hostel's fault, though it did make the basement pitch black) and water was turned off for a bit on the evening we were there due to outside structural works. It sometimes felt the place was still being built.||If you're planning on a short visit without spending much time at your accommodation and can sleep through heavy noise this place might suffice, but otherwise do yourself a favour and...

Unpleasant. ||||Firstly, due to the taxi scams in Irkustsk, we tried to call the hostel staffs to arrange taxi pickup service at the train station 5 times, on 5 different days as they are not able to confirm every time we call. Even after we arrived at the train station, we had to call again to confirm the taxi pickup. We waited for 20minutes and called again, this time round, the staffs got the pickup time mixed up (we agreed 9pm and she heard 2am). ||||IN THE END, WE TOOK A SCAM TAXI, A 200 RUBLES RIDE AND THE DRIVER ATTEMPTED TO CHARGE US AT 4250 RUBLES. ||||When we called the hostel staff while we were on the taxi outside the hostel, she refused to help us, saying she can't do anything. We ended paying 2000 rubles to the driver. ||||The hostel was situated above a Shisha shop and the whole property smells of Shisha. There was no proper lightings making the place looks really dim and dodgy. ||||There is only 1 bathroom (toilet & bathing) for almost 7 rooms at Level 1. The shower head was broken. ||||Looks really different from the pictures we saw on Booking.com, we will not recommend this to anyone. ||||NOTE TO EVERYONE ARRIVING AT IRKUTSK TRAIN STATION: Either take a bus out or request your hotel/ hostel to arrange a taxi...

Unpleasant. ||||Firstly, due to the taxi scams in Irkustsk, we tried to call the hostel staffs to arrange taxi pickup service at the train station 5 times, on 5 different days as they are not able to confirm every time we call. Even after we arrived at the train station, we had to call again to confirm the taxi pickup. We waited for 20minutes and called again, this time round, the staffs got the pickup time mixed up (we agreed 9pm and she heard 2am). ||||IN THE END, WE TOOK A SCAM TAXI, A 200 RUBLES RIDE AND THE DRIVER ATTEMPTED TO CHARGE US AT 4250 RUBLES. ||||When we called the hostel staff while we were on the taxi outside the hostel, she refused to help us, saying she can't do anything. We ended paying 2000 rubles to the driver. ||||The hostel was situated above a Shisha shop and the whole property smells of Shisha. There was no proper lightings making the place looks really dim and dodgy. ||||There is only 1 bathroom (toilet & bathing) for almost 7 rooms at Level 1. The shower head was broken. ||||Looks really different from the pictures we saw on Booking.com, we will not recommend this to anyone. ||||NOTE TO EVERYONE ARRIVING AT IRKUTSK TRAIN STATION: Either take a bus out or request your hotel/ hostel to arrange a taxi...