It’s really not fair to call this hotel “the hotel from hell” and perhaps we were naive thinking that it really would be a 3 star hotel (Bulgarian stars that is), with hot and cold running water, room service, a restaurant, etc. especially out of season.  But it’s frustrating that they advertise themselves as open but then are not able to offer the services they advertise.

Apart from the owner lady the staff were friendly (those that we met – just 4 of them).  We were the only guests and actually felt that we were putting them out by being there (and guilty because we were not there every day and didn’t eat there at all after the second morning).

The night porter Mr Plumaar was a real hero for finding us hot (boiled) water so we could make a cup of tea at 6.30am!!

The grounds are very lovely – on the edge of a wood that is the site of an Orthodox Monastery – it wasn’t open at any of the times we were around, but we would go back to visit it during it’s open season.

Here’s what we wrote for the TripAdvisor.com website:

“We booked in a long time in advance for an early spring visit (March/April). When we arrived the owner was surprised, like she had not expected us. She spoke no English (and our Bulgarian is rubbish) so she could not communicate at all. They did not have the rooms we had booked so instead of two double rooms we had to accept two twin bedded rooms 😦

Anyway, we chose to eat in the restaurant the first night (error) – the menu is in English but the owner didn’t know what it was and 90% of the menu items were not available (maybe an out of season thing) – we ordered some things by pictures and got something else. We ordered a Bulgarian traditional salad (Shopska Salata) and ours contained frozen veg! Awful.

We had breakfast the first two mornings – very minimal. We met the one English speaking young waitress but feel guilty cos we were so chatty we think she got fired after that – anyway, we never ate there again during our visit, we either ate out or got a takeaway and ate in the room – we bought yoghourt, fresh fruit, bread, cheese and cold meats for breakfast from the excellent Billa supermarket in Svishtov.

The rooms were nicely decorated (really nicely) but no attention to detail; the sink tap broke on day one, the smell from the drains was overpowering unless the shower extractor fan had been on for 15 minutes, and on day two we had to ask for the beds to be made, towels changed and rubbish to be emptied. Really not good at all.

HOWEVER THE BEDS WERE FANTASTIC!! Slept like a log every night. Also the surroundings were fantastic, silence, birds, trees – gorgeous. Svishtov is a nice little town.

We’d love to go visit the hotel again in the summer to see the woods and the monastery grouds – they will be awesome!  But the hotel should have been closed in the off-season instead of being open, with rubbish service, no restaurant, etc.

Link to the hotel website HERE.

Link to their listing on Booking.com.

Link to their entry on Trip Advisor