Original Sokos Hotel Olympia Garden

We had late check-in and the receptionist was very kind and helpful. The room was great -we had junior suite and it was clean and there was enough space. We had a coffee machine and everyday we were supplied with new coffee capsules and bottles of water. The room had a great view and the hotel is 5 minutes walk from the Tehnologicheskaia metro station. There are restaurants and supermarkets nearby. The breakfast is extremely good, we will definitely stay here again!

stayed here during the recent World Cup. This place is amazing. Clean and great views of the city. Really close to the Metro and city center is a short ride away. The bar in this hotel is top notch, decked out in Soccer flags and memorabilia. If you have the chance get the continental breakfast included, it's fabulous.

This hotel's foreigner registration is redundant, confusing and contradicts the official guideline for foreigners. I had already registered myself before checking in at this hotel and thought I wouldn't have to do it again. The reception staff also gave me different explanations about this procedure. The first one said I needed to register in every new city or region. But I had already stayed at another hotel in St. Petersburg with no problem. Another staff member said I needed to register at every hotel, not just at the first one as I had understood. That staff also told me the registration fee was for my convenience, so I wouldn’t have to go register myself at the local authority office. (The staff was polite and kind, but it was obvious they didn't understand the official rules.) Then, another staff member said I needed to collect a registration paper from every hotel to show in case I was asked by the police, and that only the latest one would be valid, not the one from the first hotel. I then checked the official migration website of the Russian government. It said foreigners only need to register within 7 days of arrival, and don’t need to re-register again within 90 days. There’s no mention at all that foreigners need to re-register every time they change places to stay. I also checked other websites, which said the same as I had understood. I showed this to the staff, and they said the registration mentioned on the website was for the guests, but the one done at the hotel was for the hotel side. The last staff also said I didn’t need to collect a registration paper from each hotel – that my first one was still valid. All of this information from the hotel's staff contradicted each other. And if what the last staff member said was true, then the explanation about the registration fee being for my convenience also wasn’t true. It shows that the hotel lacks sufficient knowledge to properly handle this procedure. And their local policy doesn’t comply with the official regulations. I noticed early on that they collect a registration fee at check-in, but I thought it only applied to guests who hadn’t registered yet. The way they register guests again and again is also redundant and takes advantage of the guests. As one staff member told me, they charge the registration fee per reservation, not per stay. That means if I make two bookings for a continuous stay, I have to pay the fee twice per guest. That logic is ridiculous to me. In the end, their answers kept changing depending on my follow-up questions. However, all the staff were polite. I might have been a headache to them (just as they were to me), but they dealt with me kindly. Some even took the initiative to give me the explanation, without trying to avoid me. I really appreciate everyone’s attitude. But still, their local policy isn't fair to guests and dealing with the registration and check-in process at this hotel was genuinely exhausting. I've stayed at four other hotels before this and never encountered anything like this. Note: if your transportation method depends on the metro, the station is quite far from the hotel. It took me around 10 minutes to walk there. The room was alright.