Tsar Palace Luxury Hotel & Spa

To start with it was not an easy process to actually book this hotel. Although I live and work in Russia very few sites offer a good translation. Luckily I was with a native Russian and he was able to help us make the booking. That said, we booked a junior suite for three adults and this price included breakfast and one spa treatment per person. As we wished to visit the Catherine Palace while we were in Pushkin we booked that and then rang to check with the hotel what spa treatments were on offer and specifically asked whether we needed to book them before we arrived. We were told that there was no need and that they were all available for us once we arrived at the hotel. Then they asked when we were arriving as our booking was for the 30th of April and not the 1st of May as we had arranged. They no longer had the junior suite available and so we had to pay for an extra bedroom, something we had not bargained for. When we eventually arrived in the hotel on the 1st of May we immediately asked what treatments in the spa we could have. We were told that we could not go to the spa until 9 pm that evening and we could then choose which treatments we wanted. We were also told that we could book for the spa for the following morning at 9 am. I’m checking into one of the rooms we were astounded to see that they were in fact three beds but as we had now paid for an extra room we decided that we might as well just use both. This was at considerable expense to us. While we were in our rooms we decided to order room service and then choose the treatments we were going to have later that evening. When we telephoned the reception we were told that all spa treatments finished at 9 pm and that there were no slots for us at 9 am the following morning. Quite naturally we were rather annoyed by this and one of my friends asked to speak to the hotel manager bute was told that he had left for the evening. We visited reception and my friend was able to speak to someone else from the management. She said that she could arrange two massages but not three for that evening but that the ones in the morning would be absolutely fine. She also agreed to meet us at 9 am the following morning. She never arrived.. I decided not to have any treatments but my two friends did and had to pay 9000 rubles for the privilege. This was not made clear at our booking and during subsequent conversations. To say this was shoddy service is an understatement. The hotel was well appointed with lovely clean bedrooms and sparkling bathrooms but we had come specifically for rest and relaxation and a spa and not to spend our time in the bedrooms. Room service food was lukewarm, unappetising and far from the standard of a five star hotel. On our last morning I ordered some coffee and a piece of cake in the lobby area and one friend ordered a Caesar salad one having specifically asked whether it included anchovies. Well what arrived, was in no way what could be described as a Caesar salad.