Mövenpick Hotel Samarkand — Hotel in Samarkand City

Considering the price charged, the level of service provided falls significantly short of expectations.

After a long day, I arrived at my room at 11 PM and requested water. I was informed that I could receive two complimentary bottles, but if I needed more, I should go to the bar to purchase them. At 11 PM, this was incredibly inconvenient—what if someone needed water in an emergency? Additionally, the two complimentary bottles were not replenished the following day, and I had to remind staff twice before they addressed it. Likewise they didn’t replenish the green tea sachets in the room, when asked they asked me to purchase, again had to tell them that they didn’t replenish them.

Upon checking in, I realized that the AC wasn’t working. I contacted the staff, and after 45 minutes of trying to fix it, they told me to open the window and try to sleep. When I declined, they offered a smaller room instead, promising the AC issue would be resolved by the next day. However, no one came to fix the AC by the time I left at 1 PM, and I had to request repairs again. It was clear that the night staff had failed to inform the morning team, leaving me without proper resolution.

The cleanliness of the room was disappointing. Mugs were left dirty, and the sheets weren’t dusted. When I raised the issue, I was told the room was on "Do Not Disturb," but I had actually placed the “Make My Room” tag, which clearly indicated that housekeeping had entered. Additionally, when I returned, the “Make My Room” tag was brought back inside, and the towels were folded, clearly indicating someone had entered the room. Despite this, the room was not cleaned properly.

There was a leak from the jet in the bathroom, which I expected the staff to notice and address. Instead, they simply turned off the tap and left. I had to ask for it to be fixed on the third day.

At the bar, I asked four different staff members to take my order, and each of them said they would do it, but it wasn’t until I raised my voice after 10 minutes that anyone finally took my order. Additionally, when settling my bill, I was repeatedly asked if I had a deposit on the room, and the staff checked this before I could sign. It was frustrating to be treated this way, and I believe they should trust their guests more.

Overall, the staff’s attitude was unwelcoming and unprofessional, with little effort made to provide quality service. The only positive experience I had was with the lady managing breakfast (unfortunately, I forgot her name), who was genuinely helpful and went out of her way...

If you’re looking for a masterclass in how not to run a restaurant, then the Movenpick Hotel in Samarkand is your perfect destination. First, let’s start with the seating: uncomfortable doesn’t quite cover it. It felt like the tables and chairs were designed to make sure you eat quickly—not that speed was a concern for the staff.

Speaking of which, the service was glacially slow. My wife and I were the only diners in a restaurant that can accommodate at least 60 people—a warning sign that I should’ve heeded. But alas, I was too focused on the promise of a signature dish.

We ordered the tartare, which was proudly listed as a Movenpick signature dish. Now, I’ve had the tartare at Movenpick in Switzerland, where it’s renowned and comes with a secret sauce that’s simply divine. But what was served to us here? An unrecognizable disaster, slathered with a horrendous soy sauce. To add insult to injury, the meat used was clearly unsuitable for tartare.

The dessert was no redemption either—a Russian pavlova with a meringue so hard it could have doubled as a hockey puck.

But the pièce de résistance was the bill. Not only was it presented to me verbally—without a receipt, which I had to request specifically—but there was also a little surprise waiting. I ordered a Bloody Mary, which was charged at 150,000 sum. I distinctly remembered the menu listing it at a different price, but the waiter insisted I was mistaken. I paid, though with some lingering doubt, so I grabbed a menu on my way out. Lo and behold, the price listed was 75,000 sum. When I confronted the waiter, he magically produced another menu from the bar showing the 150,000 sum price, claiming the restaurant’s menu wasn’t valid. I mean, seriously? This is the kind of scam you expect in a dive bar, not at a so-called renowned international chain.

I brought this to the attention of the reception, but all I got was a verbal apology. No action taken.

In summary, this was not just the worst dining experience in Uzbekistan, but quite possibly one of the worst in my life. For a place of this supposed caliber, it’s absolutely unacceptable. Never again! A complete and utter disappointment. And to top it all off, it’s unbelievable that there was no responsible manager on duty capable of providing a...

Samarkand is a beautiful city with lots of history and we were looking forward to being there so we booked 4 nights at the above hotel. Supposedly 5, but I wouldn’t rate it even 4. The hotel is built in the center of town and easily accessible to most places. Rooms are small and although we were told that the hotel is only a couple of years since opening , a lot of things are not functioning or not well thought out. Our room 2018 was smelling of sewage everytime we entered. We tried leaving the key in the mains to allow the air-condition to come on but every-time we left the key they would take it away and so every time we came back to the room we had the sewage smell. |There s a bath tub which doesn’t have a shower curtain or glass to prevent water spilling on the floor while showering and so have to deal with pools of water on the floor after showering. The windows in the rooms are so dirty that we could hardly see outside and decided to keep the nets close even during daytime. |Breakfast was very basic with this being a 5* we were expecting a lot more . Already prepared fried eggs were available for breakfast instead of freshly cooked or even a station for preparing eggs as other hotels have. Very few staff speak English and that becomes a problem . |I ventured into their beautiful built spa but the taps weren’t clean and I could see the place had not been cleaned for a while. Again in the lobby the tables weren’t clean. |On our last day we had lunch at the restaurant and it took the waitress half an hour to find the menu. . Most importantly our beds were seldom made and we come back to unmade beds like in the picture I took. Overall very...