I love this guesthouse. While others might find it threadbare, I find it homey. Rooms are large and airy with good window light and comfortable furniture. Amenities serve expat/UN workers well: coffee pot, mini fridge, sink, ironing board, internet, TV/DVD player and exceptionally friendly and helpful staff. If you are here for a while, be sure to ask the manager about recommendations for local tour guides who will take you into the stunning nearby mountains for hikes. picnics, etc. I travel for work constantly and only wish I had everywhere the kind of relationship with hotel staff that I have here.

As others said, this is a good hotel with spacious rooms (at least the deluxe one I was in), helpful staff, very clean rooms and a good location. The facilities in the room (fridge, air conditioning, kettle, safe) made my stay comfortable. I can only remark that the breakfast is not enticing, at least to my western taste, and that the Internet connection is capped at 100MB per day. One last thing: the breakfast room/restaurant is in the basement, which is rather melancholic.

I stayed 4 nights at the Silk Road Lodge, having been recommended it by UN staff. It is certainly the best accommodation I have used in Bishkek in the five times I have been here. It does have its quirks including a rickety lift (elevator, for Americans) and a rather greasy and very limited offering for breakfast. However, the airport pick-up and drop-off is excellent; the rooms, especially the de luxe one I had, are large and very comfortable; tea and coffee and fridge in the room; and very good room service. the staff were friendly and very helpful. Wireless internet access is Euro4 a day and a very helpful woman from the business centre comes to your room to set up your laptop. Internet speed is fine - actually I am using it now to write this review. Perhaps the best point is the location. At first look, it seems to be in an isolated side road, but is in fact only two blocks from Chui Prospect, the main thoroughfare through Bishkek. So it is only 10 minutes walk from UN House; a little less to Beta Stores where you can buy almost anything you want. Just around teh corner are some excellent Kyrgyz restaurants, such as the Azul. I was charged Euro105 for the room - good value, and certainly far better than the big hotels. you can find cheaper, but you have to suffer Soviet style service and dreadful rooms. I liked it and will use it again. Warning: it is pretty heavily booked and only has 25 or so rooms.

I stayed for one night at the Silk Road Lodge on my way back to UK. It is also worth saying that Bishkek is actually quite interesting to wander round for a day and is really quite a delightful city. I hadn't planned a stay and the Hyatt was too expensive so I turned up without a booking and was welcomed by a delightful woman at reception who spoke excellent English. On the night I stayed the Hyatt was going to be US$280 and the Silk Road was Euro 105 for a single room - so it's not exactly CHEAP but my experience there does merit the four stars. The single room really is that - a single bed, but it was a large room with a separate sink, kettle and Earl Grey teabags (!) and a TV that to my surprise did have BBC World. Lots of hot water, a good phone connection and I was very happy. The internet in the "business center" was not free, but in fact as good as, because I was on there on 3 separate occasions for about an hour in total and it was about Euro1.50. My mobile wasn't working so I had to make a few calls on the line in the room and was pretty worried about how much they would cost - but it was not a lot. There was free transfer to the airport, which at 2.30am was a blessing and I was in a really nice large comfortable van. I only had lunch in the restaurant in the basement, but despite my misgivings on looking at the rather-too-long menu it turned out to be fantastic - not just good basic home cooking, but actually done by a proper CHEF with a sense of panache - never have I had such a good Greek Salad, Tomato Soup and Potato Cakes! I made a point of thanking the reception staff as I really could not have been happier with the way that I was treated at this hotel. So, don't expect glamour, and don't expect the US$150 to buy you the room you might find elsewhere in the world, but I think the rest of the good points of the place more than make up for this.