Originally Posted by
yyzgigi
As I used the hotel for my invitation letter I'm pretty much committed to the property for my early August stay so if nothing else I will share my experience after that. For the invitation letter they were very responsive. I had the letter within the day of the request and had no problem with my visa.
I have personally been in contact with the Crowne Plaza St Petersburg, Russia by email as I am planning a trip there and thought it would be helpful to clarify what they can and can't do in terms of the "invitation letter".
1. The hotel will issue a
Tourist voucher and
Tourist confirmation which are the 2 documents you need to apply for
TOURIST visa at the Russian consulate in your country of residence.
2. The hotel will issue these documents free of charge (on request by you) within a day or two only
AFTER you have a confirmed reservation at their hotel.
3. The hotel will charge you 2000 Russian roubles if after they have issued the documents you cancel the reservation or don't turn up. (I'm guessing this includes if you are denied the visa as well.)
4. The hotel by law can only issue the 2 documents for the
exact dates you are in their hotel. Not one day before or after.
Point 4 is really important. It means that the day you land or cross the border must be same day you check in and the day you check out must be the day you leave the country, UNLESS you have another set of vouchers/invitations to cover days where you are not in their hotel.
If your planning on visiting any other city/town/village etc in Russia (or simply hotel-hopping in the same city) you will need this documentation from every other hotel you stay at. So basically you need to know in advance where you will be on every single day. So, if for instance if you need to buy a train ticket from St Petersburg to Moscow because you have a hotel booked there and the train is full you have a problem.
The dates on all your vouchers/invitations MUST cover the same days on your visa application and the dates on the visa itself.
I would recommend getting an invitation from another source. Many Russian travel agencies provide invitations/vouchers for up to 30 days for a small fee. In this case, you're not getting it free but don't have the hassle of needing paperwork in advance from every hotel. Also, you can have a more flexible itineray and not need to book all your accomodation in advance.