National Hotel — Hotel in Tverskoy District

5 stars for location of the hotel. But if you are a guest who likes to be treated with respect then this is not the place. Moscow is great and there are MUCH better hotels then the National. I wouldn’t recommend to stay here, while people like their front desk. manager Elena continue to work there and be "the face" of the hotel. Hotel National is supposed to represent Moscow and its people but it does not. It represents the Soviet era of Russia. Breakfast is absolutely overrated and simply atrocious. Yes, you get caviar, in a small glass jar. You have to run and make sure you get it, because everyone grabs caviar. The smell in the breakfast area is treacherous. It’s as if you are sitting down next to someone who is frying meat and then your clothes stinks the whole day. For such a beautiful location, the breakfast is absolutely disappointing. The buffet itself looks dirty. Everything is sloppy. Service is great in the breakfast area! But the food is not. Just go downstairs to Jivago or go around the corner and get good food there. Now we move forward to the service itself. The front desk manager Elena should not be working with people or training staff. She has zero customer skills. After our first day and breakfast in the hotel, our clothes were soaked with the smell of food. I called the receptionist and asked a refund for breakfast and to dry clean my boyfriend’s jeans for free. It is not ok, that in a hotel of this level, you come out stinking. I was told it has to be looked into and that 99.99% it will be done. Long story short, I had to reach out again! And finally on our last day, we were offered free dry cleaning but it was too late. But nothing about the refund. And the check out, the staff told us that there will be no refund for breakfast. I asked for the manager and Elena came out. Elena interrupts customers, cannot be empathetic, does not apologize, does not listen, does not care. Nothing. Absolutely zero. She is the typical representative of a Soviet service. Absolutely unacceptable for this location and this hotel. It’s not even about the fact that refund wasn’t granted. It’s the whole experience itself thanks to people like Elena. The room itself is old - expected for this hotel and not an issue. But the air conditioner is not temperature regulated. So when you have the ac on, then you turn it off, it continues to blow and it becomes extremely cold in the room. The blankets that they use are some blankets with cotton balls inside. Cheap blankets. The reception manager Elena should not be working in hotels. Perhaps should not be working with people. She is the typical representative of old school Russian service. But Moscow changed and so did Russia, however Elena still remains in her era. There are ways to deescalate situations and work with a disappointed customer, even when you cannot issue a refund or solve the problem as requested. You can say “we truly apologize for this inconvenience”. At least that! But even that did not come out of Elena’s mouth. Seems like simple stuff but it’s not. All that came out “management declined your refund”. Ok.. and? Overall, we travel all over the world. We stayed in the best hotels and not so best hotels. And Elena should not be working even in the “not so best hotels” or hostels. Because she has no idea how to work with hotel guests. The hotel's location is great but the service ruined the whole experience. Sorry. Not "service", actually the lack of service. We will tell our European friends how great it was to vacation in Moscow and Russia but we will for sure tell them to skip the...

I won't elaborate on the other reviews who already describe this hotels wonderful history. I think all these things are amazing and I'd love to see them in a Museum. But I do not want to stay in the Museum. This hotel is simply too old and is in no way a Luxury Collection property by 2015 standards. Maybe 40 years ago. But certainly not today.

I always like to start with the pros.. so: 1- Location, location, location. Right across from the Kremlin (with some rooms having views of it) and next to the Metro. 2- Very friendly staff with good English speaking skills. A plus. 3- There is a foyer when you enter and a 2nd door that you can close to the room. Wonderful since it stops all the horrible hallway noise you generally hear in so many hotels. 4- The Internet is super fast which makes work easy to accomplish.

Cons: 1- I was upgraded to a Junior Suite as a Platinum guest. It's a regular size room with a little sitting room off of it. You'd think this would be a plus, but you'd be wrong. I had no view (just a courtyard) and the room is old. 2- No iron in the room although you can call down for one. 3- The bathroom while large has the shower in the tub. To get into it you must climb over the tub which is one of the highest tubs I've ever seen. I cannot imagine how anyone over 65 can climb into it. 4- The shower head is attached to the tub faucet and is so taut that the shower head cannot swivel. It just sprays water towards the wall. Barely any getting on you. 5- Yes, the shower madness continues... one day the shower sprayed out yellow brackish water. It was disgusting. Eventually the pipes cleared and what appeared to be clean water came out. Still I was super scared the whole time worried it would change back while I was in it. 6- The room is sparse. There is a bed, with barely tolerable pillows. They seem to have a pillow menu, but it's all in Cyrillic and there is no English translation. The armoire has those old hangars which you pull out of the little loops that don't come out. So hard to use. 7- No in room Platinum amenity. 8- I did not receive turndown service during my stay. 9- Breakfast for Plats has been downgraded. No longer are we offered the wonderful buffet breakfast in the room overlooking the Kremlin. And this room and breakfast is lovely! What we are offered now is a croissant and yogurt in a bar downstairs. No view. And it costs our 500 point amenity to get it. And they call this breakfast? 10- The gym was small and had barely any machines. It has free weights, but no bench. Barely usable.

It appears people seem to like the history of this hotel and stay here for that purpose. As for me I do not like to stay in a Museum and prefer to visit them. Perhaps if they offered the full breakfast again, a few welcome drinks in the bar (or in room Plat Amenity), added English to their pillow menu, placed an iron in the room, & fixed the shower issues I'd...

Please excuse my "nickname" I can't get SPG to unlock it. I would instead say "SPG Fan".

I've stayed at the Hotel National a few times. As a business traveler I'm usually happy at most hotels if (1) safe, (2) clean (3) quiet.

The location itself is historic. That is a plus. Convenient to many historic locations. Plus. Restaurant options were good. Plus. Very near many other restaurants. Plus. Money exchange on site. Plus. Hotel employees - in addition to the desk staff - recognized me from past visits and greeted me pleasantly. A nice surprise.

At any hotel, my view on problems is "together" we can work it out. I'm a guest. It's a business. We can make it win win.

And Yet... One Negative - The 6th floor regularly had cigar smoke in the hallways. So either it's not a non-smoking floor or security can't see someone walking with a cigar on the numerous security cams (or decides not to do anything). My point - If you choose a non-smoking room it is still likely you will smell smoke. Those around may not be smoke free - and their cigars / cigarettes will be carried via hallways / ventilation to your room.

Another Negative - It was October, the air con was off (switched to heat). That's fine but most days were warm enough to make the room uncomfortable. The windows barely open (for safety) and no electric fans are available to cool a room. I finally convinced the staff to let me open the window past the safety point - I'm an adult and have no children or pets with me. That worked but took 5 conversations. It seems unlikely no past guests asked about cooling options. There should be a "standard response". Example: Are you too warm? We can (1) open your windows past the safety stop - after confirming no children, no pets, reminding the guest not to put anything on the window sill - that might fall - AND/OR (2) provide a small electric fan to create airflow. I can buy a fan for less than $10 US - so the hotel having a couple is not an unreasonable request.

The few remaining issues were resolved with the staff - and so need not be mentioned.

However, the negatives given above are enough to make me think carefully before I try Hotel National on my next visit. (1) No smoking means no smoking - enforce it (2) A warm room should be resolved in one call.

The room price alone sets a "high bar" on performance expectations. That it is SPG Luxury Collection more...