Cronwell Inn Stremyannaya

We stayed in this hotel for 4 days while visiting St. Petersburg in August 2014. We arrived from Moscow by over night train at 8 am and went to the hotel which is about 10 minutes walk from the station. We were able to leave our bags in storage until the room was ready. Just be aware if you have a foreign passport with a visa you will need to give the hotel staff your passport so that they can register you. They charged us 200 roubles and gave us a copy of our passports. They return the passport later in the day. The room was small but comfortable, clean bathroom and working air conditioning. There is free wifi in the room, just get the code from reception. Also don't forget to try the English tea which is available from 5-6 and is free. It comes with a nice selection of baked sweets. Overall the hotel is in a great location near the main Nevsky street and near a metro station. Highly recommended.

We found the reception to be strangely bureaucratic comparing to all the other hotels we stayed in St. Petersburg. We also felt like there were little traps in every corner to charge people money in a dishonest way. Not a bad hotel in hygiene or room quality but would not stay there again or recommend it to anyone as these little things affect your holiday mood and can be quite annoying. The breakfast is not bad but the receptionist duties and manners need to be updated to the present time. And the Sherlock Holmes concept is so antagonistic when there is so much material in Russian culture, it is a shame they couldn’t come up with something more sincere and authentic.

4 star hotel is a joke. The service is not accommodating. We paid for 3 nights and due to the political situation departed after one night. No refund or understanding at all that a pleasant stay is not possible. Bread for breakfast is white and brown toast. Great! Are you serious? I had a much better treatment for 30 Euro per night in Russia in Smolensk.