Rayyan Hotel Samarkand

Excellent hotel right next to Samarkand's train station. (A maximum 5-minute walk, which was super convenient for us.) The room was clean and had everything we needed: a kettle, fridge, mugs, tea, and coffee. The bathroom was stocked with soap, shampoo, gel, and toothbrushes. There’s an outdoor pool with sun loungers, and the grounds are well-maintained (clean, mowed lawn, planted flowers). However, the pool water is very cold! Breakfasts were tasty; although a bit repetitive, you could easily mix and match different options. I was especially delighted by the local strawberries and the coffee from the machine at breakfast. 🥰 There's a beautiful restaurant on the top floor, but be aware that on weekends, there's loud music from evening until 11 PM. After 11 PM, it gets noticeably quieter and doesn't disturb sleep.

The hotel's location is fantastic, right next to the train station, just a two to three-minute walk away. The room was spacious, and the bed was very comfortable. The bathroom, however, was a bit cramped. If you're catching a train the next day and want to make things easy, this is a good option. Breakfast was pretty standard. Now, about the front desk. The woman in the headscarf at the front desk was absolutely terrible. When I checked in, I told her I booked through Ctrip and handed her my passport. She fiddled around for five minutes, looking everywhere but at the right place, then asked if I'd booked through ***********. Eventually, she gave me a room card for 104, but when I went up, the room hadn't even been cleaned. She then said, 'This is how it is,' and gave me another card for 106, which also hadn't been cleaned. It was already 1 PM, so even if the rooms weren't ready, why put me through all that back and forth? Couldn't she have just told me to store my luggage and go grab lunch first? Both room numbers she gave me were uncleaned. I suggested she could perhaps get one cleaned quickly, but she very firmly said, 'No, it must be 2 PM.' Okay, 2 PM is fine, but why didn't she say so earlier? What was the point of making me drag my luggage back and forth? When I returned at 4 PM, I was given yet another room, 206, and was told they had made a mistake with the rooms! Separately, the city tax at this hotel is also very strange. The two previous hotels I stayed at in Samarkand charged 41,200, but this one insisted on charging 62,000. Is the city tax different within the same city? I'd like Ctrip to investigate this and clarify the correct amount. Can't they just be transparent with their pricing?

The service and cleanliness were both absolutely appalling. In a brand new room, I found a fresh sanitary pad in the bathroom trash and a plastic bag in the room's wastebasket. How can anyone have confidence in the cleanliness after that? It was truly disgusting. Since I was checking in late at night and only staying for one night, I didn't bother going back to the front desk, especially since the guy working there was also terrible. First, I had already provided my reservation details, and even after he confirmed them, he insisted on seeing my reservation confirmation. In all my travels to so many countries and hotels, I've never encountered this before. If I had booked for my non-English speaking parents, checking in late at night would have been a real struggle. And if that wasn't absurd enough, the front desk didn't even know if my booking included breakfast and asked me to check my reservation confirmation again. The front desk also didn't know the check-out time for the room, saying he wasn't sure and that I needed to check my reservation confirmation. If you don't know anything, I don't understand why the hotel pays you. Why not just let guests self-check-in? With such terrible hygiene and service, this hotel is a lost cause.

Great location, just about 100 meters from the train station. The room decor is stylish, and the breakfast spread is excellent.

Everything was great!