ajamieson

Great review, thank you

cbellero

I had a reservation to stay here over the weekend. I must strongly recommend that during winter you should first contact the hotel to make sure that the road is open to get there. There is only one road to get there and it goes through Gudauri. The road to Gudauri is well maintained even when it is snowing. After Gudauri to Stepansminda, this does not always seem to be the case. This is also the road that goes to Russia, and south of Gudauri there were lengthy parked queues of commercial trucks.

The road was not only blocked by the police, But they even built a wall of snow to prevent people from going further. I guess at night, the police might want to actually just go to sleep.

I really could not believe they could not plow the road further, particularly given the economic impact. I even suggested to the hotel that they should provide the service at least to their hotel. I was particularly concerned for the guests that wanted to leave the hotel. It would not be possible. The response I received from the hotel was:"Please, kindly be informed, that Kobi-Gudauri pass is located in the mountainous area and has very complex landscape, that’s why sometimes it is closed by Road Department of Georgia because of the weather related reasons such as: heavy snow, avalanche danger and etc."

I understand from locals that this road is often closed. I did not see it, but perhaps it is so poorly designed that avalanches are always an issue. No idea.

Good thing is that they canceled my pre-paid reservation without any penalty.

I do look forward to visiting the property in summer to see this road. In the end we booked a nice property in Gudauri and made the best of it.

khabah

This hotel is no longer listed on Marriott's directory, and its Marriott page was taken down. Still listed as a Design Hotels property, but like Tbilisi, it appears to have stopped participating in the loyalty program.

khabah