Hotel Zoo Sofia

Hotels.com sold me a standard room with a free upgrade. I was given a basic room or could pay £60 per night for the free upgrade and was told they only have a few rooms they give free upgrades on. Eventually, the next day, got moved. However, the room then wasn’t serviced, I had to ask for some clean towels. The next day I was promised housekeeping but not till after lunch. At 4:30, still not done so had to have another conversation. Was very disappointed. Breakfast, cool instead of hot cooked breakfast, just in tin trays with no lids, the rest was bland. The coffee was ok. One of the bar staff was ok. One of the receptionists was ok. Location, in the middle of nowhere. The bathroom was tiny and would benefit from a refresh.

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It was perfect for us, we travel with a little dog. It has a great courtyard, with fruits (apples, pears, grapes, nuts, quince) and also a large playground for kids. The parking is very safe. The rooms are large and comfortable, you have everything you need, the towels are a real treat. Breakfast was good, but what we ordered at dinner was excellent, congratulations to the chef! The personnel is kind and helpful. I write this review after our third stay, so we really enjoyed it and recommended it to our friends.

Very clean and comfortable place to stay. The rooms are spacious and renovated, good breakfast, the parking lot is behind the hotel very convenient.

We stayed at room 309. We have booked a double room with balcony. It was an unleasant surprise that the room itself has a balcony, but it was locked! We complained at the Reception desk where at work that night was a boy who smelled storngly like alcochol. He promised to unlock it. But the balcony was not unlocked for the two nights we stayed - probably because it is a shared balcony with the next room - and probably there were guests in the next room too - nobody explained us why. We also had an issue with the heating - the aircondition in the room was too loud at night and you couldn't stop it - the device that controls it in the room didn't work. We also complaint and the reception desk, a guy came, heard the noice, agreed with us that it wwas noisy but he said he cannot do anything about it. We were not offered another room during the stay eventhough the hotel didn't seem full of guests. This is not our first stay at the hotel. We have been guests here quite a lot of times. We love the location and the hotel itself. But this is our first total disappointment.The level of service has dropped seriously down.

I was fascinated by my recent stay at Hotel Zoo Sofia! The staff welcomed us so warmly. The room was spacious, with a super comfy bed and a great view of the parks around us. We also loved the food: rich breakfast and a modern restaurant menu. The hotel is renovated, stylish and cozy at the same time. I recommend it to everyone who wants to enjoy their future accommodation in Sofia. 

Hotel Zoo is advertised as a 4 star hotel, but unfortunately our experience here was disappointing. The hotel has been remodeled, the rooms were clean, the food was good - that was the good part and the reason this is not a one star review. The primary cause for our negative experience had to do with the basics: - We checked in and the room we were first given smelled like someone had just been smoking inside. We asked for a new room. My parents were given a room that was occupied! So they too had to ask for a new room. - The new room we were given was a suite, which we appreciated given the initial mess with checking in. But that too had issues - one set of towels and no soap for the entire suite! I had to ask for extra towels so my spouse could dry herself after taking a shower. - In any 4 star hotel (or even a 2 star hotel for that matter), the basic expectation is for housekeeping to visit the room every day, take out the trash, see if we need new towels or soap and tidy up. We didn’t get our room cleaned for three days! I’m not talking about changing the sheets - the housekeeper didn’t visit the room at all. Empty bottles of water piled up, trash in the bathroom trash can piled up, towels in dire need of replacement piled up! Eventually I gave up and I had to ask for another set of clean towels and soap. Again. - We had just returned from a trip and had dirty clothes we wanted washed. My spouse and I literally had one pair of clean underwear and t-shirts left. I was told it would take a day to have our laundry ready, then around 5pm the next day once we’d been waiting all day for the laundry, had to call and check status. I was then told the clothes would be ready the NEXT day. Only after complaining did I get them to expedite the laundry so that we could have clean clothes to wear. I expect I wasn’t even going to be notified of the delay, had I not called to ask. The worst part is that all these problems one after another caused my mother to get embarrassed for choosing this hotel for our visit. Bulgarian hospitality dictates that the host would go above and beyond to ensure guests have a pleasant experience, and while none of the issues were my mother’s fault, she ended up embarrassed because we did not have a good time here at all.

This is not a 4* hotel, it’s 3* on a good day. I needed to work remotely so i booked the exec apartment because I was looking for extra space, good broadband, kitchen facilities etc. What I got was cold water for my shower, limited or no housekeeping, cold and limited breakfast, and a kitchen with no crockery or utensils (making it pretty much useless). Working was a challenge with multiple Wi-fi problems, which the staff did make some effort to resolve, but never got fully fixed. Staffing levels were so low that often no one was on reception, phones went unanswered. The staff who were there seemed overstretched and pretty demotivated. One further word of warning to anyone who stays here and needs a PCR test to travel. I had my test organised by the hotel, which was not accepted by the airline when I tried to use it for travel to the UK. It was a complete waste of money and caused a lot of unnecessary stress.

The hotel is very nice, quiet and very clean. The staff was kind and friendly even accepted to check-in earlier than mentioned on the booking.

Very nice hotel,clean room,very friendly and welcoming staff.