Ok i know the hotel has changed much since one year ago.. But when i was there for 7days which seemed to a life time almost.. There was only the first two floors renovated up again.. I was half way up of the hotel ( cant remeber number of floor). The view was totally excellent! best i had for ages to be honest, as it was looking of the main sqaure and shopping area.. Well that was the only good thing really. The window was stuffed with foam and tape so i am not sure if that was to keep the window from falling out or the the cold out?..The staff was hard work as they did not know much English at all close to none really.. The front desk could not smile and even say enjoy your stay!..Mind you that would of been a joke in its self really.. The room is the worse i ever stayed in.. God i was in shock!.. The room was dity/dusty.. The bed was stained and not enough covers as it was very cold..The heating only came on for a few hours! which was normally when no one was in the hotel rooms.. There was a key lady on each floor to hand the keys as you went in and out. Problem was she was never there and if you left the key anyone could pick it up after if you left it on the desk.. I decide to keep my key all times.. This did not go down well with the key lady at all the fasle smile turned to anger!.. Every night people tried to enter my room but i always leave in the key in the door for safely, that made me nervous a little at night time... The bathroom was not fit to use at all..The toilet was not clean with a dirty plastic seat on it.. The tiles was mouldy with no plus in bath or sink..The towels felt rough and most of them was stained even when clean!. I felt sick using the bathroom.. The food i did not try after the rest of the hotel, i always went out ot eat which was great!... The city was good and great to see thou... Hotel was bad! i hope now things have improved as it could be a great hotel!

Previous reviews all seem fairly reliable but my own impression was less negative than some. Although there is indeed a (rotating?) "key lady" at every floor, the ones we saw were much less unfriendly than others we met in (more pricey) Moscow hotels. Getting a shy smile out of them did not take any huge effort. My bathroom was decent - it could use some refreshment. The room itself was large and clean, with a great view, notably at night. The location is near perfect and, quite frankly, this is no small asset, Kiev being a much more attractive city than pictures can tell. The Khreshchatyk avenue nearby offers a singularly enticing mix of great style and cosy, relaxed atmosphere. In a nutshell, I would say this: if you expect an international atmosphere with no-nonsense luxury, head elsewhere. If your open-mindedness also extends to accommodation and you can bear some minor setbacks, then culturally this is not a bad experience at all, breakfast included. I might even come back again on a next trip.

The room was ok for size and had a great view over the square, it was reasobaly up to date and fairly clean. The hotel is being updated and so there is noise from builders and a strange diesel like odours on some floors. Some of the rooms I looked in were very old fashioned and group members mentioned poor quality bathrooms, dirty tiling, mould, etc. The concepts of customer service, or that of smiling staff are yet to land here, or much of Ukraine as we discovered. The hotel has an eccentric key system typical of the former Soviet Union. Reception give you a piece of paper, eventually, and this you take to the floor of your bedroom, there at a desl sits another member of staff who provides the key and this happens every time you enter of leave your room. Only the unsmiling harridan is usually elsewhere, so you have to go and find her. The dining room is elderly and infirm and the breakfast was entirely missable, even though it contained a chocolate bar !

We went to Kiev for New Years Eve. Kiev is developing rapidly. Reviews and tips are likely out of date (including lonely planet). This includes reviews for this hotel. Hotel Ukraina has started to renovate its rooms, floors 6 and 7 are done, we booked a renovated room and were surprised, it's similar to Europe high standards. The location is great and the admosphere of the hotel is typically Ukrainian. I really recommend this hotel (the renovated part). Note that if you are looking for a top end business hotel in Kiev, the Hyatt has opened 3 months ago, a superb hotel, better than SAS.

In short: * You can`t get a better location, as central as possible * Not recommended for allergics and astmathics. Bring your inhalator! The rooms has heavy curtains and carpets. Visible dust under closets * Ok bathroom * Ok staff, lack in english-knowledge, but polite * Unforgettable breakfasts. So diciplined, so structured and unbeliviable expensive! We arrived early morning, withouth payed breakfast, and decided to check it out, without checking the price. We arrived at the end of the breakfast-time, and were met by a stressed chap showing us to the table. The questions fell like a machin-gun: Omelette, meat or fried egg? We didn`t get anything extra. A certain amount of bread, a certain amount of ham and cheese. We got each a glass of semi-hot orange juice, and we got an idea of how expensive it was when I asked for one more glass. 5 rhyvna! When all was over we were told the whole meal costed 150 rhyvna, a horrendes price, when we the day before, in Odessa, had eaten a full dinner for two for the same price. The following days we had pre-payed breakfasts, and it was a fairytale each day, to watch the staff bring out the food on trolleys, like in a hospital. I mean it, don`t skip breakfast, you will get a memory for life!