Courtyard by Marriott Moscow City Center

As with most hotels in Moscow, get ready to be soaked when it comes to price. Your room would be half this price in Chicago or New York. Most rooms start at $400, and you need to request non-smoking if you don't want to stay in a room that smells like a bar. We had a nice room, though there were only 4 English language channels, 3 news and 1 sports. Internet was about $20 for the first hour and over $30 for 24 hours. Annoying was the tea service which, for $5 to $10, you could have a cup of tea in the lobby. It was free earlier in the morning. Well, at least the former Soviets have a grasp of capitalism, painful though it may be on the wallet. By the way, in room coffee service was free for the asking.

We liked the US style shower, the bed was incredibly comfortable, and the view from the 7th floor faced the Kremlin (a 10 minute walk). There's a grocery store around the corner (go right out the front door and take another right at the corner across from the Citibank branch. It's 3 doors down from the flower shop and has everything you need. There's a mall "hidden" between the Sbarro and the McDonalds across from Red Square - it must have 150 shops in it (if you are walking across an open area and see huge skylights at chest level, that's the mall - underground). For high end, try the GYM (gum) store at Red Square across from Lenin's tomb.

The Flat Iron Grill left much to be desired as they halfheartedly tried to copy US cuisine. Polite suggestions for improvement were ignored (the wings came on a plate with the celery next to them - so I had steamed celery with my wings - I suggested a cold plate and got the cold shoulder instead).

The decor and general quality of room makes this a 3 star hotel wrapped in a 4-5 star Marriott label. While the rooms are clean, bathrooms are pretty basic and decor is bland. Beds as other people have said are like sleeping on plywood board - but I would also add that underneath that board is a totally bouncy set of springs, so you cannot really say it is a firm mattress. I would suggest adjectives like cheap and crap would be better suited to describe the mattress. On that basis alone, I would not be too keen on staying here again. Positives - breakfast was good (but expensive), location is good. Other negatives - reception service was surly when I pointed out that I had clicked for 1 hour use on internet (at 10am when I checked out 11am) and it had registered 24 hours. Response was completely disbelieving and was totally condescending - "in future.. do not do this as we have to change the bill".

Das Dekor und die Qualität des Zimmers machen dies zu einem 3-Sterne-Hotel, das sich unter dem Marriott Namen als 4-5-Sterne-Hotel ausgibt. Die Zimmer sind sauber, das Bad ist recht einfach und das Dekor ist langweilig. Wie andere Leute hier schon erwähnt haben, fühlen sich die Betten so hart wie Stein an - aber darunter befinden sich viele Sprungfedern und so kann man nicht behaupten, dass die Matratze fest wäre. "Billig" und "schäbig" sind zwei Adjektive, die diese Matratze gut beschreiben. Allein deswegen würde ich hier nicht wieder übernachten wollen.

Das Frühstück war aber gut (und teuer) und die Lage war auch gut.

Weitere negative Aspekte: Der Service am Empfang war säuerlich als ich erklärte, dass man mir ungerechtfertigterweise eine Stunde Internetbenutzung auf die Rechnung gesetzt hatte. Bis 10 Uhr wo ich um 11 Uhr auscheckte und es zeigte 24 Stunden an. Man glaubte mir nicht und war herablassend als man bemerkte "machen Sie das in Zukunft nicht noch einmal, wir müssen dann nämlich die Rechnung ändern".

The best thing about the hotel is location: it is 5 minutes walk from the Red Square, located on a small street (not much noise from traffic). It is a new property, the only reason it became a Courtyard instead of the regular Marriott is due to its location away from the main street (main street location is the corporate condition for branding the hotel a full service Marriott). So it is indistringuishable from the full service Marriott in any other respect. Now, the negatives: prices are outrageous - $40 parking; $35 internet access; $10 cup of tea, .... Welcome to Moscow. However, hotel is an unbelievable bargain if you pay with Marriott points: it is a Category 3 (most hotels in major cities like Paris, New York, and London are Category 7) so it does not take too many Marriott points to stay there. The best thing is that the points cover the VAT (18%). If you are stuck paying cash, this hotel is not a great deal (in line with other Moscow hotels). In addition, if you are the unlucky holder of US Pesos, the prices are even higher as the US currency dropped in value dramatically. One disappointment is the beds: when we sat down on it, I thought they mistakenly left a piece of plywood on top of the mattress but alas, it turned out that the mattress is just that hard! A response to the previous comment: in Marriott lingo Deluxe room is the cheapest room in the hotel (aka regular).

Service was generally very good. Just do not expect too many smiles when you are in Russia (this is a cultural difference, might be difficult to adjust if you are an American). If people do not smile, it does NOT mean they hate you!

My husband and I just returned from 2 nights here and would never go back. We were to be booked into a deluxe room and if what they gave us truly was a deluxe room I would hate to see the regular rooms. Basically there was only room for the bed and the matress was so hard that it was difficult to sleep.

It was frustrating to have to continually ask for things that were supossed to be included in our package. We were even told that certain things were not included even though the print out of our booking clearly showed we had paid for them.

We ordered room service for breakfast and even though the woman repeated everything I had ordered, NOTHING was right. It was pretty shocking to pay that much for a hotel and have so many problems with the level of service.

For people who choose to stay here the location is good and the breakfast buffet was nice but be sure to get breakfast included in your stay or you will be paying about 26 euro for it.

I will be delighted when the Ritz-Carlton opens as great service is a sure thing at that establishment while the Marriott flounders in this respect.

Stayed at this hotel in August of 2006. Nice location in the Center of Moscow on a quite street, very friendly staff. Hotel is only one year old and therefore looks very fresh and clean. My room had about 5 English language channels.

The down side for this hotel includes expensive breakfast - you will be better off to walk just across the street and have a breakfast at the nearest cafe for half the price. Also, when reserve the room over the internet be prepared to pay about 20% premium of what you've been quoted. For some reason, this hotel uses some misterious currency called units, which is about 20% higher than a USD. So, if your reservation says that your hotel room is going to cost you $200/night, be prepared to pay about $240/night plus taxes.

Do not also use hotel's taxi service - just grab a yellow pages in your room and call a regular taxi - will save you a lot of money. Hotel service offered me a taxi ride to the airport for about $80, the taxi service that I found in yellow pages charged me only $25.

Overall, though the staff was very nice and helpful and rooms were clean and comfortable, I found this hotel very expensive. I think I will stay somewhere else next time I visit Moscow.

good hotel. beds are like sleeping on plywood-very hard. hotel hard to find from the main street. no continental breakfast. very high price service if you need to go to the airport-was a lot cheaper to use metro and shuttle bus at the end to the metro line.

Very nice hotel just within a 10-minute walk to Red Square. Nice and quiet surroundings. Rooms are clean and well maintained.

First things first, set your mind at ease, you are not going back in time. Moscow has every thing that a regular major European Cosmopolitan City has. There are ATM's, banks, cell phones, shopping centers etc... Everywhere. Now let's get to the hotel, it is very expensive, this seems to be a Moscow conspiracy for all hotel prices in the city center. Once you get over the initial sticker shock, the hotel is situated in a very quite and very nice neighborhood in the city center (the music district). You can comfortably walk to Red Square/Kremlin/Arabat/subways easily within ten minutes. There are literally hundreds of restaurants, cafes and grocery shops in the area. The hotel staff speaks perfect English and will go the extra mile to make your stay enjoyable. You can book tours etc.. From the hotel also. Make sure you get breakfast (traditional Marriott stuff) with your room rate, as it will cost you $26 USD if you do not. The rooms are super quite and comfortable and have a really a nice channel selection. Okay some other stuff a tourist like me wants to know:



1. A taxi from the airport to the hotel is going to start @ a set minimum $50 and you can pay them in USD or Euros so you can exchange your money later in the city when you are relaxed and can think straight. I fought and haggled with over 10 different cab drivers and they would not budge under that price, they all said it was the fixed airport set rate. Once you sit in traffic for 1 and 1/2 hours to go 30K (18 Miles) you will understand why. Going back to the airport from the Marriott, the hotel will arrange transportation for you to the airport for about $90. Forget that, make some other arrangements with some cab drivers in the area about an hour before you leave. Make sure you allow 1-2 hours for your cab ride each way.

2. If you are going to ride the subway you should study up on the Russian alphabet. There was not one word in English on the entire system and it is very confusing especially the interchanges, transfers, exits etc... I have ridden subways all over the world and this one takes the grand prize for being totally confusing. It is clean and fast though, once you decipher where you are going.

3. Carry your passport and you little registration form that you will get at the airport with you at all times. You will need these for exchanging money or if you are randomly checked by the police (they are everywhere!!!, but they only asked me for my stuff once out of a thousand times seeng them, and they were nice and spoke good English).

4. Make sure you get to the major tourist sites before they open, the lines will be very long if you wait for later in the day. Things opened at 10 when I was there. Have a great time.

I liked the hotel, the service, the central position near the conservatorium. I disliked to pay 19 units (rate between Dollar and Euro) for one Bushmills (Standard) Whiskey. It was not possible to open the window, however aircondition/heating was fine.

Check for special rates, like company-rate. As the hotel is very new, important price-differences seem to exist.