Nevsky 78 Aparthotel

It was really hard to find the hotel. The room which we got (I think it's called economy) was teeny tiny, but had everything we needed. Great location with easy access to restaurants and see sites. Rooms are new and clean. Overall pleasant experience.

We had a party of 7 (friends/family) stay at Nevsky 78 Aparthotel. The purpose of our trip was to attend a family wedding and to see Saint Petersburg. I read some unfavourable reviews prior to booking the room and thought I would take my chances as it was a bit cheaper than other hotels and couldn't be all that bad.We had a Russian family pick us up at the airport and located the side entryway of the hotel and helped us check in. I booked 5 reservations online and 1 of them was not listed in their system even though [...]. The hotel was booked solid, so we found another hotel for that 1 person. Not sure where the gliche occurred. The admin office is located 1/4 mile away and temporarily fixed us up with a dual room, but it was still an inconvience as we had to move rooms and find another hotel for that 1 person's last night. The hotel entryway is shared with a Hostel and other apartments. Entryway was dark, smelled of urine, smelled of smoke, had homeless people sleeping on the stairway landings and food/garbage everywhere. There is a locked irongate on the 4th floor separating the hotel with cameras. I would be concerned for personal safety if by myself. But we had no trouble during our stay. We did get a phone call at 3am and said it was the police at the front door. We ignored it and did not further investigate it for fear of being ambushed at the doorway in the middle of the night. Having no lifts did not bother us as we were all physically capable of lifting our luggages. The rooms were basic and small, but clean enough. Beds are okay. The hotel is on a busy street, so it was noisy all night. My sister ended up rebooking at another hotel that cost $20USD more, but had breakfast, elevator, felt safer and no dark entries. If by myself, I would have stayed elsewhere also.The hotel is walking distance to restaurants, museums, shopping and other tourist attractions. The front desk people were nice and tries to help out. Kitchens were basic, but nice to have. They do not clean daily and have to pay extra for cleaning service. We stayed 8 nights and could have used cleaning inbetween. We definitely got some local flavour staying there.