Sunday, September 30, 2007

Maxima Irbis Hotel

On my recent visit to Moscow I stayed at the Maxima Irbis Hotel, part of the Maxima chain. It is an older building that has been totally renovated inside and is pleasant. It is located in a quiet, leaffy neighborhood --I could see white birch trees from my hotel room window--about midway between two Metro stations, Vladykino and Petrovsko-Razumovskaya, norht of the city center. It is not the most convenient location, but it provides good value for money. Service was good --everyone except the cleaning staff seemed to speak English, and there was an excellent buffet breakfast with scrambled eggs, green beans with ham, oatmeal, cold meats and cheese, juice, several types of bread including croissants, coffee and tea. I ate dinner several times in the dining room and that was also good and reasonably priced, less than $20 for a main course and a beer.

I booked my room through hotels.com, and that worked well. It averaged a little under $160 Canadian a night, which may have been a little more than you would pay booking directly with the hotel. I saw a woman paying 3100 or 3200 rubles for a one night stay, which is about $125, but I considered it worth the difference for the convenience. She may also have had a corporate rate.

The room was reasonably sized, comfortable and very clean, and the bathroom was elegant, with blue stone floor and grey tile. There was cable TV and a minibar, and one of the best things about the hotel was the very low rate they charged for phone calls to North America, only 7 rubles a minute, which is about 25 cents. This is far less than many hotels within North America charge.

The walk from the hotel to the Metro was interesting, over a suburban railroad track, through small kiosks selling things and beside a large public market that offered a variety of not overly appealing goods.

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