from UK, 04 October 2008, 15:57
Comment: On reading the reviews complaining about small rooms, I spotted on Hotels.com that booking a suite instead of a single room equated to only $20 more a night, so I booked suite 104A for 4 nights. This was large, with 2 armchairs and a sofa in one lounge room (that had thoughtfully been turned into a bed by the staff who were unsure of numbers in my party on the first night), a bathroom with big jacuzzi style bathtub, and a comfortable double bed in the bedroom. The maid service was brilliant, I even dropped a small bit of paper in an out of the way place to see if they spotted it and they did! Very clean and good value. People seem to expect Western Europe english fluency, friendliness and service from staff in Eastern Europe but the latter was isolated for 70 years under the Soviet era and is still recovering. This will come eventually and the staff here were pretty good and do try hard. Location is perfect. As Bulgarian taxi drivers are still notorious for ripping off foreigners I could avoid them and walk all round the centre from the hotel instead. Incidentally the 3 times I took taxis further afield, including to the airport for 10 Leva, I didn't get ripped off, probably because the bellhop flags them down for you in the street and gives the driver your destination. Breakfast was better than you'd get in Western Europe with their wretched continental breakfasts. Here there were cold meats, scrambled eggs, hot meats, cereals, pastries and fruit.
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