Originally Posted by
craz
Its not so easy and free. I stayed at the W in St Pete last yr and they made it known that once they issue the Invite if you end up CXing the res you owe $xx for them having issued the Invite, and they will charge the CC you used when making the res.
Im sure not all hotels follow suit but its something one should look into before booking and asking the hotel to set up your invite
I was talking about getting an invite thru one of the $20 invite mills on the internet, not the hotel directly. For that you have to put down some hotels on your 'application'
We used gotorussia, and they were great, offered to keep reissuing and amending the invite until it satisfied the consulate.
If the consulate requests prepaid reservation for those hotels, just book the hotel, and cancel after your visa is issued
Once in Russia, noone actually cares where you stay.