Amberton Cathedral Square Hotel Vilnius

Far from a 4 star hotel experience, more like a 2-3 star hotel. The room we’ve got does not look at all as in the photos, the lights were blinking, ventilation system was very loud, bed uncomfortable and not properly made. Noise from outside, can be heard in the rooms. When we addressed the issue, we were told that no other room can be provided, as they are fully booked, but we have been offered free breakfast. After check out, we have been charged an additional amount from the mini bar, even if we have used nothing from there. Overall, really poor experience and no actions taken to solve any of our issues. Would not recommend.

Very disappointing for a 4-star hotel. We booked a 4-star property because we expected a certain level of service, but instead we had to do a self check-in, carry and store your luggage in the storage room by yourself, and the Wi-Fi was so poor that it was practically unusable. These are very basic things for a hotel at this level. The overall experience felt far below what you would expect from a 4-star hotel, and definitely not worth the rating. UPDATE: Unfortunately, the experience has become even worse. Yesterday I paid the city tax as requested, but today the hotel changed our entrance code because they said I had only paid for one day. If I needed to pay separately for the remaining days, why wasn’t I told when I paid yesterday? The Wi-Fi is also still practically unusable. I had to spend the entire day working from a café because I simply couldn’t work from the hotel. The lack of communication and unreliable basic services！

I booked and paid for parking in advance, 40eu in central Vilnius, but instead of getting clear instructions by text, I had to stop at the hotel and waste at least 15 minutes figuring out where to go and then 15 minutes again in front of gates. The staff were indifferent and unhelpful. We waited past check-in, got a room with no working air conditioning, were moved to another room with the same issue, and then the door codes and key cards kept failing. No one on site, long waits just to get inside. The only bright spot was the tasty breakfast. Everything else was a frustrating mess, and the “parking” they charged for is basically a tiny, hard-to-navigate space that can fit maybe five cars. Not worth it.

First the good things. The hotel has a great location if one wants to explore central Vilnius, and the old town is gorgeous. Our room was also clean. Sadly, everything was not good. Some hours before arrival, we received an email, via the booking agency, asking us to confirm the reservation by clicking at a link and entering our credit card number at some site. This is a well known trick by scammers who manages to hack into the booking agency’s messaging service. So obviously I didn’t do that. To my surprise, at arrival, the reception staff said that it was indeed them asking for this, and that this is their standard practice. They do this to charge city tax and to start allocating the rooms. When I told them that I thought this is a bad idea, the two girls in the reception looked at me as if they had no idea what I was talking about. I don’t know if the failure to enter my credit card on a strange site was why we were allocated a bad room. We payed for parking. It cost almost half the price of the room (40 euros for one night). It was probably the most cramped parking garage I’ve ever seen. Getting up from the garage with the lift took 10 minutes, since it was constantly people using it from the lobby, and the lift was programmed to handle that first. The check-in was very confusing. There were two girls in the reception, both looking very bored. One didn’t even look at me, except very briefly (see above). The other one seemed to speak good English, but failed to answer simple questions, such as “may we offload the car at the curb?”, “how do we get to the parking garage?”. Eventually, she gave instructions for the parking, which were not quite accurate. All this without a hint of a smile. The hotel has an inside courtyard, with rooms on the outside. However, we were given one of the very few room that faces inside, with no outside windows. With the curtains open, there is zero privacy, closed it gets quite claustrophobic. There was a minibar, but not even the water was free. The breakfast was correct, as far as the selection of food is concerned. Pretty standard, although the choice of fresh bread a bit disappointing. When we came down to breakfast at 07.30, there was not a single table free, so we had to wait. The area where the buffet is is very cramped, but it’s offset of the eating area being spacious and nice. The check out was at 11.00. But since we wanted have lunch in the city, I asked a guy at the reception in the morning if we could leave our car in the garage until 13.00, or at least 12.00 (considering how expensive it was). He simply said “checkout is at 11”. I said I know, but could we leave the car just one or two hours more. Then he just frowned, and said in a sharp voice “checkout is at eleven so your car should be out at eleven”. Details matter, and attitude matters. This hotel has good potential, considering its great location, and the breakfast is not bad. But the professionalism of the staff, and some routines, sadly leave a bit to be desired.