The hotel is nice, but not spectacular. Single rooms are very small and more reminiscent of a school dorm than a Luxury Collection hotel. Bed is great...provided you like it very soft. Work desk is not a serious proposition--too small to hold a computer and some papers. If you want to excape to the public areas of the hotel to do some work, there are not many.....and they are all noisy.

The gym, which I was told was very nice is anything but. It is a closet in the back end of the hotel with very poor equipment. No personnal TVs. Sauna/Steam rooms are shared. And the locker room is a very small.

The free wifi throughout is, however, very good. And there are smoking and non-smoking areas...a luxury from what I have seen of Moscow.

Bottom line though....if you have the cash, stay at the Ritz Carleton next door. It's facilities are deserving of the price.

Located close to the Red Square, this hotel is beautiful. My room had an beautiful view of the Kremlin. The room was large, comfortable and well appointed with antique furniture and classical decor. The Bolshoi opera is located close by. The metro station is across the hotel, thereby making connectivity across Moscow.The staff is warm and hospitable and went out of their way to make my stay comfortable.

I can't decide what I think of the National Hotel ? There are some charming old World luxuries but mostly it seems like an old lady hotel that you might expect to find your great aunt staying at.

The entire staff through out the hotel is very pleasant, knowledgeable and super helpful, which in this city is not something to be taken for granted even at these prices. The location is smack dab center of town, with a fantatic view of Red Square from the breakfast room and tons of high end shops a stone through away (not that I would ever chose to buy designer duds in one of the most expensive and over inflated cities on earth, but I guess someone must ?)

The hotel is now a part of the Starwood Luxury collection but somehow it seems really dated. The classic styling could use a bit of a face life. It just seems old fashioned and kinda frumpy where it could be elegant it sort of misses the mark. It would be wonderful to see Starwood bring in some amazing design team that would keep the classic Russian stately charm but infuse the place with a rich modern elegance (like the Grammarcy renovation in NYC).

Until that happens, if ever, you won't be uncomfortable and you will be well looked after at the National and hey, you might even find your aunt Else and her bridge group sipping tea on the brocade love seats under the chandelier.

My wife and I stayed at the Hotel National 1/15 through 1/21. We enjoyed our stay; the hotel is literally across the road from the Kremlin and Red Square as well as the Okhotny Ryad Shopping Center which has over 100 stores and lots of dining options, most of which have English menus.

Our room was nice and the bed was excellent; if it's not the best bed I've ever slept on it would be close. A couple of small glitches with our room included fluctuating shower temperatures, (especially true if showering at peak times and less obvious at other times) and an inability to shut off the radiator in our room no matter where we set the thermostat. Since we had a very quiet courtyard room on the 3rd floor we simply slept with the window cracked open to solve the room temperature problem.

We learned that Moscow is not an early morning city, and the only place we could find that was open for breakfast at 7am was McDonalds across the road at the mall and our excellent but very expensive hotel restaurants. The breakfast buffet was priced at 1750 rubles per guest (roughly $ 55 USD per guest) and the continental breakfast was 600 rubles per guest (roughly $ 20 USD). The buffet was very good and it was also very convenient and boasted an excellent view over Red Square and the Kremlin. Honestly the selection was no better or more diverse than any reasonable breakfast buffet option near our hometown in southern Middle Tennessee and it was many times the price. To be fair most restaurant meals in Moscow are extremely expensive, especially by small town Midwestern/Midsouth USA standards and I was shocked at the price of many foods in the grocery store when I visited.

We'd definitely stay at the National again, and we may get the chance later on this year.