Second trip in Almaty, I stayed at the hotel Kazakhstan, and the Ambassador. I'd rather forget about those two, asap.
I booked a standard Queen. The room is spacious, the whole hotel seem to have been recently refurnished, wooden furniture, large & comfy bed, carpet is fine, no stains (wasn't the case for the other hotels!).
Restaurant: Spacious, clean.
Breakfast OK, would be nice to have a a real Continental break fast. Fruits lack some freshness.
Diner. A little bit expensive for the city.
Spa : Great, brand new, solarium, pristine clean.
Fitness center: did not use it, but seemed very good with new stuff and AC.
Internet: fine, wifi.
Overall : good hotel for business travelers. class Intermediate between Crowne plaza & Hyatt.

Stayed one night in March. Hotel, by international standards is average, but by Kaz standards above average. It has been completely refurbished and has a new feel to it.

Usually stay at Hyatt or Intercon which are more luxurious and have better service.

Check in is ok, but a bit old fashioned. Rooms are small, but functional. I would recommend finding somewhere else to eat. There is a Sports Bar almost next door called San Siro where you can get something inexpensive.

I did not use spa facilities, but understand that these are good.

Breakfast is not that good, but acceptable.

This is a great hotel. The rooms are large (larger than other comparable hotels in the city I am told). The breakfast buffet is lovely-with just about anything you could want. As was mentioned earlier, the location is excellent and you can walk to grocery stores, restaurants and shopping.

When I was staying there, there were some problems with heat in some of the rooms. Fortunately, I was not in one of those rooms, and the management did supply portable heaters.

I did not find the elevator to be slow and there are stairs one could use that are adjacent to the elevator.

The Spa on the lower level is lavish and impressive.