Qazaq Auyl Eco Hotel

The lodge is cute and has nice views. It is nearby the ski lift which overlooks the city. It is also near the Auyl Restaurant, which is well worth a visit. A nice place to chill and do some day hiking. The service was very good, and breakfast was great.

We went to Shymbulak Resort for skiing, and stayed at the hotel for 2 nights. Let's start with the positives: The infrastructure of the hotel is nice, as seen in pictures. Another positive was that they provided a private shuttle service to & from Shymbulak, which was convenient (we had just finished night skiing, and we had gotten a shuttle even at around 11:30PM). Despite these positives, we didn't have a positive experience here. Two major reasons for this: the service was really bad, and the hotel didn't have any noteworthy amenities. I paid $250 a night for this hotel solely because I love staying at nice hotels, especially in the mountains. When I am paying $250 a night, especially in a place like Kazakasthan which is considered to be a budget friendly destination, I expect a luxury experience. This was anything but that. Small lapses in service just added up: When we had finally reached the hotel after a long & tiring journey, we asked for some water at the reception, which was unavailable. Furthermore, we asked to use the restroom, which they pointed us to. When we told them that the washrooms were closed, they just simply ignored us and gave no response or solution. Another instance was that we had just finished skiing and were very hungry. Since it was our first day, I tried reaching out to the hotel to understand what options were available. I couldn't reach them for about 20 minutes, and when I finally got through to them, they asked me to text them on WhatsApp and they cut the call. When I texted them on WhatsApp, their response was super unhelpful and left us in the dark. These were just some instances out of the many that we faced, but it was a clear indication that there was a systemic lapse in service. When it comes to amenities, I was very disappointed. Breakfast was delivered in the room in paper bags, giving a very non-luxury experience. The hotel didn't have a spa, and had one restaurant which we didn't get to try as it was hard to get a reservation. Moreover, there was no access to food at night. No room service, no open restaurants, no supermarkets, nothing. When we had come back from night skiing at 11:30PM, we starved ourselves to sleep as no food options were available. I have stayed at other ski destinations, where options are much broader and have 24/7 supermarkets. It seemed more like an AirBnB than a hotel.

We had a wonderful time at Qazaq Auyl, it is a really beautiful place and the cabins are extremely modern, clean and comfortable. There is an excellent restaurant on site (which gets busy) and very close to Medeu skate rink, lift to Shymbulak