Sayen, Bar, Hotel — Hotel in Irkutsk

Very nice hotel, really. We stayed there overnight twice - on our way to Baikal and on our way back. A solid four-star facility - quick check-in, swift reaction to guests' requests, great lavish breakfast (never mind if you forgot to structure your menue in advance - they'll fetch your order fast anyhow), comfortable beds.||But our feeling was that Mr Shigeo Nakamura, its Japanese designer sometimes somewhat overdid it.||A prime disadvantage was sharp bed corners. We bumped them many times and even had to place our suitcases by to avoid injuring our legs at night in the darkness. Sooner or later the team will face (if not has already faced) a big problem with a bleeding or bruised guest or, worse, with his or her kid who has run into these stinging thingies and then there'll be hell to pay.||Another pain in the ... shall I say neck? was a toilet bowl - though some people might treat it as a funny gizmo. It resembles a jet fighter dashboard so be cautious to sit upon it - a wrong button pressed and people might find you somewhere in Tokyo.||A third snag was in-room air-conditioning. Both times it refused to function and in both cases a girl at the reception - but not us - started it. So it's either starting to malfunction or had something wrong with it from the very start. Such stuff often happens with smart houses.||Summing up - keep it simple, Shigeo buddy!||But with exception of these minor nuisances I'd definitively recommend the place. Just try to avoid...

Very nice hotel, really. We stayed there overnight twice - on our way to Baikal and on our way back. A solid four-star facility - quick check-in, swift reaction to guests' requests, great lavish breakfast (never mind if you forgot to structure your menue in advance - they'll fetch your order fast anyhow), comfortable beds.||But our feeling was that Mr Shigeo Nakamura, its Japanese designer sometimes somewhat overdid it.||A prime disadvantage was sharp bed corners. We bumped them many times and even had to place our suitcases by to avoid injuring our legs at night in the darkness. Sooner or later the team will face (if not has already faced) a big problem with a bleeding or bruised guest or, worse, with his or her kid who has run into these stinging thingies and then there'll be hell to pay.||Another pain in the ... shall I say neck? was a toilet bowl - though some people might treat it as a funny gizmo. It resembles a jet fighter dashboard so be cautious to sit upon it - a wrong button pressed and people might find you somewhere in Tokyo.||A third snag was in-room air-conditioning. Both times it refused to function and in both cases a girl at the reception - but not us - started it. So it's either starting to malfunction or had something wrong with it from the very start. Such stuff often happens with smart houses.||Summing up - keep it simple, Shigeo buddy!||But with exception of these minor nuisances I'd definitively recommend the place. Just try to avoid...

We stayed here 2 times on the same trip - basically, before and after visiting Lake Baikal. Both times the check-in was smooth and quick. The rooms are large and clean - as someone else remarked in the reviews, perhaps a touch of Japan in the rooms - the toilet is a Japanese one, for example. ||||The mini-bar is well stocked. I could not find the heating controls for the room and since the room was quite warm I simply opened the two windows - perfectly fine climate control!||||We ate breakfast in the top floor restaurant - where we also ate our last dinner - they are open until really late. The beef stroganoff was marvellous, a fitting end to our trip. The beef tartar was excellent too - shame that they did not carry any Russian wines - foreigners do like to indulge in local wines I find, and so perhaps management can maybe take this comment on board - should be no big burden to carry some of the better Russian wines and sparkling wines.||||All in all, a great stay - we are glad that we did not stay anywhere else - we chose the hotel on the basis of being more expensive than the couple of big brand (albeit middle-tier) hotels in the city - and we were pleased indeed...