The building is a nice, old one, dating back to the 1820's. The street is being worked at, so there was a lot of dirt and smog in front of the hotel. The staff was friendly. As to the rooms, I expected much more. The furniture looks cheap, the bathroom is nothing special at all. I was expected more from "one of the best hotels of Odessa" ...

This is a beautiful hotel within a minute of the Potemkin Steps and overlooking the Black Sea. The buildings in the area are probably the only ones in Odessa looked after- including the magnificent opera house which is a 2-minute walk The entrance hall is beautiful as is the main staircase and amazing stained glass. I can see why everyone here has written so much about the rooms- I had a superior room (booked through expedia) and it was more like an apartment: large entrance hall with wardrobe, coat rack and door leading into a long bathroom and another into the living room/bed room. There's a desk, TV, mini bar, table and chairs and sofa then a separate area, which can be curtained off, where the bed is. Very nicely decorated and excellent price- in November at any rate. The expedia rate, however, did not include the 20% tax which was added onto the bill on departure (expedia website does say may or may not include tax). Two negatives: there is in fact no internet in the room- there's wifi in the lobby or you can use the business centre. So there are always businessmen in the lobby connected up to laptops and skyping- which is what I had to do. Second negative- smoking is endemic- it was nice to go outdoors to get some fresh air! Breakfast was fine- slightly disappointing. I ordered room service one evening and food was delicious. Taxi between airport and hotel was 120 UHA although I was offered 100 by a "private taxi" but, as a woman on my own, didn't want to take the risk. I met up with a Ukranian colleague who told me it wasn't a problem and, in fact, we got around by him seemingly flagging down any car, and getting in! Much much cheaper than the airport taxis

Stayed at the Hotel for 3 nights. Request a superior room or better. Massage in the spa was wonderfull and very reasonable. A great city to visit and a great hotel with real history

As the Odessa hotel had priced itself out of the market (USD350 per room - I don't think so!), we decided to try the Londonskaya for our third visit to Odessa. We booked superior rooms for about USD200. The location is excellent and we had no problems parking right outside the hotel. We arrived slightly too early to check in but were given free tea and coffee while we waited 10 minutes or so for the rooms to be ready. The lobby area is amazing,complete with chandelier, stained glass window and high ceiling. The rooms looked as if someone had checked what an upmarket hotel should have and then copied it slightly wrongly. Yes there were bathrobes, but they were bright gold. There was satellite TV of a sort, internet access via a dodgy-looking cable etc. They were a reasonable size though and very clean. We had the breakfast both mornings; not anything to get excited about but enough fruit, yoghurt and pastries to keep you going til lunch. Not easy to get tea or coffee though as there were very few staff around. The reception staff were very good. Our neighbours the second night decided to have either a fight or a party (whatever, it was very loud!) but we were moved to another room with a minimum of difficulty. We were impressed that one of the friends we travelled with found a bottle of wine and box of chocolates on the bed when the staff realised it was her birthday. We'll stay here again. It's got way more history and character than the Odessa, is closer to the bars and restaurants and is much better value. Odessa itself is just excellent.

We stayed here for 3 nights in May, for approx £120 a night. We'd booked a superior room but they upgraded us to a junior suite from what i can work out. We caught a taxi from the station to the hotel which was about $10 (they take US currency in a lot of places, not sure how legal it is though!). The hotel is on a cobbled treelined road overlooking the sea (a short walk from the Potemkin Steps), the trees are strung with coloured fairy lights and the beautiful people of Odessa come and sit amongst them at night, strumming guitars and sipping beers. I've never seen such a peaceful setting outside a hotel before, it was lovely. Our room had a massive balcony so we could sit out and watch all of this, whilst drinking bottles of vodka from the cheapest minibar in the world in our room. The room itself was spectacular - not that modern, but spectacular. It was split over two floors - first floor toilets, massive cloak room, hall, lounge and dining area. Upstairs we had a big bedroom, dressing area, large bathroom and a sauna - yes, a sauna! Which worked and everything! You could have got some friends in it with you too. Outside our room was a photo of Chekov saying that he had stayed in our room, very impressive. The public areas are beautiful, there's a casino (which we didn't use) and a bar which was ok. Breakfast was fine, a small selection of hot and cold dishes, juices, horrid cereals and a lot of cakes. Reception staff were really friendly, security on the door was less imposing than that of the Russian hotels we'd stayed in. There are several good restaurants and bars just down the street, and a convenience store about 5 mins walk away. The hotel had an atm in the foyer. A gym was advertised but when my boyfriend asked about it, he had to be led down an underground corridor, given the key to a room, which he unlocked and switched onthe two pieces of equipment that were in there himself! Guess it doesn't get used much. Seemed to be a lot of Americans staying here, the couple that we spoke to clearly adored the hotel as well, they were taking photos in the corridors and stairs. We spotted a few ladies that were working girls in the foyer and bar a couple of times but they weren't approaching people, just hanging about, so it was fairly discreet. I found the hotel great, Odessa perfect and the Ukraine in general very friendly, a lot cheaper than Russia as well. What was dismaying was the sight of a lot of young women being courted in the restaurants by foreign old men, but I guess that's their choice and who am I to judge other people?!