5 Things You Need To Know Before Booking An Accommodation In Russia

5 Things You Need To Know Before Booking An Accommodation In Russia

1. Check with the hotel/hostel about the invitation letter (also known as visa support by some hotels/hostels) application. In most cases, the hotels/hostels have their own agency providing the invitation letter to their guests. 

2. Every hotel/hostel has different invitation letter fees. From our experience, the fees per person ranges from as high as RUB 1,800 to as low as RUB 1,000. The average fees per person charged by most hostels come to about RUB 1,000 to RUB 1,500. Nevertheless, some hotels do provide the invitation letters free of charge. 

3. If you are staying at a hotel/hostel, you are eligible to purchase the invitation letter from the hotel/hostel itself. But, if you are booking your accommodation via Airbnb, you would need to get the invitation letter from a travel agency.

Note: Make sure that the agency is officially approved by the Russian Tourism. 

4. Without an invitation letter, you would not be allowed to proceed with the tourist visa application. 

5. When you are checking in at the hotel/hostel, remember to request the receptionist to register your visa with the relevant authorities and this usually costs a few hundred rubles per person depending on the hotel/hostel itself. For our case, we were charged RUB 250 and RUB 300 by 2 different hostels. Your passport is required during the visa registration process and you are only allowed to walk around the city after it has been approved.

Tip: One of the hostels told us that the visa registration fees could be cheaper if we have photocopies of our passport.

Note: Please note that this information is applicable to Malaysians. These are our actual experiences as well as guidelines by the Consular Section of the Embassy of the Russian Federation. It would be advisable to check with your hotel/hostel or Embassy of the Russian Federation for the latest procedure.

We booked all our accommodation via booking.com due to their variety of choices in both Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Most importantly, booking.com is one of the booking websites approved by the Russia Tourism. We shortlisted a few hostels as well as some hotels which satisfied our standard of cleanliness, safety, location convenience and price by reading through the guest reviews. Then, we emailed each and every shortlisted hotels/hostels to inquire about their invitation letter and visa registration fees. 

Finally, here are our accommodation experiences in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Let’s start off with Hostel Netizen in Moscow which we spent 3 days 2 nights followed by Bigland Hostel in Saint Petersburg for another 3 days 2 nights as well. 

#1 Hostel Netizen, Moscow 

Firstly, we were very satisfied with their friendly and prompt reply to our queries regarding the room, invitation letter, etc. Compared to others, their website has an online chat feature which answered our questions immediately and most importantly, they are able to communicate in English! When we arrived at the hostel, we were glad that the receptionists speak fluent English (they even told us the location of the nearest supermarket and places of attractions). So, language barrier is certainly not an issue for them!

The other reason of choosing them is their beautiful hostel design. The simple, modern and colorful design of their lobby, rooms and bathrooms create a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere. We made a booking of their 6-beds dormitory with shared bathroom. Besides being clean and quiet, the room comes with clothes hangers and a large locker (to store your luggage) for each bed! If your concern is about the bathroom since it is shared with others, don’t worry. We didn’t have any issues with the shower facilities, design and cleanliness. It is all good 😃

Location-wise, it is considered the city center though it isn’t a walking distance to the major attractions. However, Hostel Netizen is just 2 minutes of walking away from Rimskaya metro station. So, it is really convenient to go anywhere you want. 

Lastly, the rates are really cheap as our 6-bed dormitory with shared bathroom only cost us RUB 9498 (about MYR 707.47 @ 13.425) which comes to approximately MYR 71 per person per night. The room also comes with yummy breakfast, fast WiFi, clean towels and bed linens! Since there are only 5 of us, we were actually paying for an additional bed space just to store our stuffs. If there are 6 of you, the average price would definitely be cheaper. 

We really enjoyed the simple and wonderful breakfast which consist of milk, juice, coffee, bread, jam, cheese, yogurt, sausages, eggs, cereals, etc. These are more than enough to energize our tired body to start our Russia journey! As a side note, Hostel Netizen charged RUB 1,500 for each invitation letter and RUB 300 for each visa registration. 

The only drawback is the absence of a kitchen if you wish to cook your own meals. Nevertheless, simple appliances such as toaster, egg cooker and microwave are available at the dining area! Hostel Netizen also sells snacks and simple meals next to their receptionist area. Since the food in Moscow isn’t expensive, you can easily get a nice local meal at affordable prices (similar to Malaysia’s prices) nearby the hostel. 

#2 Bigland Hostel, Saint Petersburg

Bigland Hostel is a small and cozy hostel located in the heart of Saint Petersburg with just a minute walking distance to the busy and lively main street (Nevsky Prospect). We screened through so many hostels and hotels and our final decision was to stay near to the “happening” area to experience the vibrant atmosphere. In this sense, we could say Saint Petersburg is so much different compared to Moscow. Of course, the other reason of choosing this hostel is its location being near to some attractions (eg. 5-6 minutes walking distance to Kazan Cathedral). If you don’t mind walking, you can actually walk to the Winter Palace, Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, Church of the Savior on Blood, etc. It may look far from the map but we didn’t feel tired since there were so much to see, eat and shop along the journey! You will never get bored but you just need to plan it well 😃

We booked a family room (4 beds) with private bathroom plus an additional bed at RUB 2,000 which sums up to a total of RUB 12,500 (about MYR 940.75) for 2 nights translated into approximately MYR 94 per pax per night. It is definitely a good deal since it is basically in the middle of the city. The room is spacious, clean and comfortable while the bathroom is alright in terms of its cleanliness. Take note that shoes aren’t allowed within the hostel area (there is a shoe rack to keep your shoes once you entered the hostel). 

Bigland Hostel does not provide breakfast but they do have a kitchen with basic cooking utensils for you to use freely. There is a supermarket for grocery shopping about 2 minutes down the street. Of course, there are also many eateries, restaurants and food carts around the area. You don’t need to worry much about your meals. 

The hostel is conveniently located about 5 minutes of walking distance from the metro station and about 10 minutes waking distance from the intercity train station (high speed train from Moscow). Besides surrounded by plenty of eateries, you could easily spot some pharmacies or souvenir stores nearby.

During our 2 nights stay, we were pretty satisfied with Bigland Hostel not only for their location and room rates but also for their attentive and helpful services. The receptionist even told us where to get some food when we arrived very late on our first day in addition to sharing some information about the places of attraction and bargaining tricks to get a cheaper price. Again, we have no issues communicating with them regarding the room arrangement (adding an extra bed) since they can speak English fluently. A side note, we paid RUB 1,000 for each invitation letter and RUB 250 for each visa registration fees. It was actually cheaper than Hostel Netizen and the receptionist also told us that we were allowed to wander around without waiting for the approval of our visa registration. We guessed the capital, Moscow, may have stricter rules and regulations about this visa registration. 

We hope our experience as well as accommodation review and booking tricks in Moscow and Saint Petersburg could help you with your trip planning. Feel free to let us know if you have any question and we will try our very best to answer you. 

If you would like to know more about the invitation letter for tourist visa application, procedures, payment and any other queries regarding Russia tourist visa application, check out our separate blog post about it here.