Kavsar Boutique Hotel

We loved our stay last week at the Kavsar Hotel, and it was our favourite of all the hotels we stayed at in Uzbekistan. Our room was large and comfortable, and quiet at night, and the internet was perfect (excellent speed for streaming and skype). The hotel location was really convenient for exploring Bukhara and the hotel itself was charming. The breakfast room in particular was gorgeous, and the breakfast was also the best breakfast we had in the country - so many options. But maybe most importantly, the staff were super friendly and kind - everyone smiled and had a friendly word, they gave us an early check-in and late-check out, and when they found out it was my birthday, they went above and beyond and celebrated like old friends. I can't say enough good things about Rustam and Shah and all the staff at the hotel and would recommend to anyone!

We were very excited to stay at Kasvar, to experience a more traditional construction. Before arriving we negotiated a small discount as it was low season. The first odd thing was when negotiating Shaxrior would give a discount for the first night but would not guarantee we would get that same discount for each additional night. He said we would have to come and then "see if there would be a discount". We tried to negotiate on a deluxe room but were told that both were occupied for the next three nights. Eventually we got him to agree a small discount on a standard room for three nights. After checking in (and seeing the hotel was completely empty except for us) and putting our bags in the room and going out for dinner, Shaxrior struck up a conversation as we were coming back in. Introducing his younger brother who was unusually forthright for an Uzbek in staring at my wife, Shaxrior said their machine wasn't working and could we pay cash, maybe the machine would be working tomorrow but could we pay one night in cash? We said due to the foreign transaction fees on our cash withdrawal that we wanted to pay using our credit card which had no foreign transaction fee. He then changed his story and said the bank "had taken their terminal" to do "updates" (I've never heard of the bank not issuing a replacement terminal because no terminal = no fees for the bank) and that we could pay by making a transfer to his personal credit card to avoid the ATM fees. When we were uncomfortable at that idea, he then said we could pay *********** and just "pay less than the amount charged" - whatever that means. He was quite pushy considering that the listings for the hotel said it took visa and that he never told us before arrival that we would have to pay cash. At this time we decided that whatever was going on, we have never before been asked to pay a person's personal credit card, was causing us more drama then we wanted to deal with on our vacation. We went up to our room, got our bags and left to go to another hotel where payment was normal. We hope Kasvar enjoy having the hotel completely empty.