Accommodation types in Moscow

At the moment accommodation types is Moscow do not differ much from those around the world.
In old soviet times there was a deficit of accommodation facilities for local people and their quality was rather low. Especially as compared to accommodation for foreigners which was always available, at international level, but at international prices not affordable to locals.
All this has been history for many years, but still we need to keep it in mind, as many big hotels in Moscow grew from old ones, passing through privatization. And their present quality depends on how much new owners decided to spend on renovation. Most of them are of good quality now, but some may still need refurbishment. Old hotels for foreigners have been transformed into luxurious hotels, very often within world chains, with location from good to perfect and prices from high to exorbitant. But that doesn’t differ much from what you can see in most of the capitals around the world. Some of them were renovated, such hotels as “National” and “Metropol”, they are sited it the old and very interesting historic building. Some were totally rebuilt, such as “Ritz”.

A special case with “Four Season” : it was totally rebuilt, but a new building is a replica of the old one which was called hotel “Moscow” and built between 30-s and 70-s. There is a legend about this hotel giving explanation why two wings of the hotel are different. It says that two projects were prepared by famous architect Schutsev and presented to Stalin for approval. At the moment of signing the project was thinking of something else and put his signature  on both of them. No one was eager to ask for clarification and thus built two wings in accordance with the different projects.

Also quite a lot of private hotels have appeared during recent years, they are of good quality and close to B&B standards.

As everywhere you can find apartments. Some of them are close to European type, but some may be just local flats given for rent on a daily basis, this relates mostly to apartments located far from the center of Moscow. Actually, it doesn’t mean that they are of bad quality, it just mean that the flats are of local type.
Also hostels started to appear, but they are not so popular in Moscow and (as always with hostels) you should double check.
A special story is accommodation located not in the city but around Moscow and in Moscow region. Traditionally territory around Moscow was considered as a kind of recreation territory and accommodation around Moscow was used mostly not just for staying, but as a kind of a close by recreation facility. Instead of going for a vacation to a far away place, many people were spending their vacation around Moscow. Who can afford it, take children out of city and spend some part of summer there. Thus these hotels normally have allocated territory, sports facilities, sometimes some medical recreation programmes. They are of wide rage of prices depending on facilities, location, catering choices.

No need to say that most of accommodation in Moscow and around is easily available via booking sites as well as via direct booking on line. Most of them accept main credit cards, have English speaking staff and provide visa support.

By the way, the picture on the top was done from a hotel window of hotel “National”, thus they really offer a fantastic view.