Podol Plaza

I am writing this review from my experience during my last stay at this hotel and as a professional hotelier. I don't think it is a 4* hotel. Pros: - great location. As I am from Kyiv I can confirm the location is very central with walking distance to many of the main attractions. - breakfast was fine. Not a huge choice of food, but it is fulfilling. Cons: -staff. Most of them don't speak English fluently enough to provide information and explain things. The lady, who checked us in was good, but not very informative. - check in. Following previous point. Not informative as I've been with my partner and he is a foreigner, and I've expected reception to give some more details as well for him. - room. The size is fine. But it was facing the street and was VERY-VERY noisy for me, as the tram is in a couple of meters from entrance. I could feel vibrations as well when it was passing by. So I couldn't sleep properly. Shower doors were broken. Room generally wasn't very clean. A/C didn't work. Safety box didn't work. Minibar fridge didn't work. - amenities. Shower amenities were fine, but no additional water provided (you'll find 2 bottles of water upon arrival as welcome drink, that's it). - safety. We came in the evening - no receptionist on spot, only cleaning lady. We came in the morning to check out - still no receptionist. There is no double lock in the room. I didn't feel safe with this situation. Generally, I would say the quality doesn't match the price.

This just scrapes in as a 4 star hotel. 2/3 nights that I was there I had disrupted sleep because the walls are paper thin. I could hear the person in the room next to me shifting around in the bath. Also, guests were smoking in their rooms and the smell wafted into mine. The staff however are great and speak a decent level of English. The food was quite good, though they don't cater for vegans.

It is a very old hotel. Not much invested in the last years. I had to change my key 3-4 times per day during my stay. I was waiting security in front of my door to come and open the door because the key card wouldn’t work. If you forget something in the room, forget about it… you can’t enter again. Every other day I had to remind that no water was placed in my room. There was hair in the shower from the previous stay. I could easily hear the family that was checking in at 3 am and how they were argueing and placing their clothes in the cabinets. Breakfast was decent and tasted good. Despite all, the staff was friendly.