On The Square Hotel — Hotel in Lviv Urban Hromada

This newly refurbished boutique hotel on the ever-popular Rynok (Market) Square in Lviv, is a nice way to spend time in an area where all the action is.||||The hotel has 11 rooms situated over 2 floors in a very old building with no elevator. The stairs are not in great condition, so if you have trouble walking, this is not the place for you. Each floor has a 2 gorgeous rooms overlooking the front of the hotel onto the Square and these rooms are probably the quietest, even though they face the front of the hotel where all the bars, restaurants and musicians are. They are also very private, meaning, there is a little foyer between the rooms and the hallway leading to the other rooms. We had one of those rooms on our first trip in 2017.||||The other rooms situated toward the back of the hotel and onto an indoor courtyard are not so great. Last year, we had a very large room with a king sized bed on the 3rd floor overlooking the courtyard. We couldn't open the window without smelling smoke from the neighboring apartments - and although they are more quiet than the rooms facing the front, I would not recommend them. The third time we were in Lviv we had a room in the back of the office on the 2nd floor, which also wasn't good. We had smoke from the neighboring apartments AND noise from the office, which was almost nonstop. ||||The hotel does not offer breakfast, although you don't really need this offered - with so many great cafes and restaurants in the area - you'll have your choice of great breakfast options. ||||There are laundry services offered for a fee but sadly no airport transfers due to the location of this hotel. Taxis and private drivers cannot go near the square so you need to walk out to the main streets in order to get a car. ||||The best place to book this hotel is directly with the hotel, as booking.com and other third party outlets have non-refundable policies, but the hotel offers you lots of...

Overall:|We enjoyed the room and, because it was so central to the square and easy to reach, we were able to come-and-go to take a break or use the restroom as we spent the day walking the shops and cafes. The weather was perfect and the city had tons of charm. |Pros:|* right on the square with tons of shops, cafes and bars|* friendly staff that speak English|* clean room|* free bottled water|* modern rooms with lots of rustic charm|Cons:|* no a/c (they will provide a floor fan if you need it) but really they should at least have ceiling fans|* nightlife can get very loud as there is a popular bar very near and will go on well past closing time; maybe more activity due to festivals and election going on but very loud even after the bars closed. If the windows are closed it muffled sound a great deal but the room gets hot and stuffy with no air movement. There were actually ear plugs in the nightstand if that tells you anything. |* mattress was the hardest bed I’ve ever slept on. Really I could have slept on the floor and it would have been softer. I think it had to be a base and not an actual mattress, but it desperately needs a feather bed, gel topper, anything to make it softer. I woke up in pain every day. |* hopefully this is temporary- but our 2nd floor view was blocked by giant banner on scaffolding. You could see through it but it still affected the city and square views. It also blocked the view of the outside hotel sign which we didn’t even see until about the third time we walked into the hotel. Thankfully there is a sign in the tunnel leading to hotel stairs that we happened to see from street, otherwise we would never have found the hotel. |* no elevator, only stairs |* breakfast is not included...

I must preface my review by saying that this is a small hotel with possibly the best location you can get in Lviv- directly on the square around City Hall (Plischa Rynok). There is always action going on around you but the rooms are pretty well isolated and crowd noise is almost zero. Millions of cafes, restaurants, entertainment tour stops etc are all focused around the hotel's location. ||||While the hotel lacks some of the amenities of larger scale franchise hotels, it has what you need. The rooms are small but elegant. I would highly recommend booking the larger room because the extra amount of space is useful and it seems that those rooms are a little cooler in the summer heat. Their staff are very friendly courteous and extremely helpful. For such a small hotel it was very easy to organise a taxi back to the airport at an early hour for a price that was ridiculously cheap.||||I would highly recommend this hotel for young couples travelling through Europe on a budget. The location and the price point are unbelievable.||||Note: it is actually a little difficult to find at first. The sign for the hotel is in a little side alleyway just behind the doors so keep a lookout for it||||Note #2 the stairs are beautiful and old but quite steep (no elevator) so they might be difficult to navigate if mobility is an issue||||Note#3 although it is a chain, Lviv Croissants just around the corner...