What I liked
1) free bedroom slippers (the in-room guide stated that we have to pay a fee, but a check with reception assured us they are complimentary)
2) good sized kettle and sachets of tea and coffee
3) ironing board and iron provided
4) separate blankets for each person even on the double bed, and they were effectively warm for the winter
5) room was warm despite the low temperatures outside
6) walkable (about 1km) to a big shopping mall (Spice) where there were eateries, a supermarket and various other shops, and a taxi rank (important for getting back to the hotel if you are buying lots of stuff)
7) most of the staff speak good English
8) you can ask for breakfast to be packed (you get a cold sandwich – either ham or cheese, a bottle of mineral water, fruit, yoghurt) if you are not able to take it in the hotel
What can be improved:
1) “double bed” was simply 2 single beds connected together - not comfortable.
2) the notice (to put on the doorknob) for informing housekeeping whether to clean the room or not keeps dropping every time you open the door
3) on one of the days, they did not clean the room despite us putting the notice on our doorknob requesting that they do so
4) the toilet door is close to the room door. So the room door will knock into the toilet door if the latter is open.
5) laundry:
(a) we had to ask many times for laundry bags and price list as there were none in our room but we needed to send our clothes for washing
(b) limited hours during which to send laundry items: listed as between 8am to 5pm.
Thankfully, some of the receptionists on duty in the early morning (before 8am as we had to go somewhere early) did take our laundry bags cheerfully for passing onto housekeeping
(c) strangely, unlike in other hotels, they do not provide a list where you can state your laundry items. I wrote them on the bag instead, along with the room number. One of our items was not returned on the day it was sent out. We enquired about it at reception and managed to get it back, but it would not have “gone missing” to begin with, if there had been a list.
6) in one of our rooms, a wet patch formed on the carpet outside the toilet. Someone from reception came to take a look and could not fathom the cause. He promised to get the technician to come by the next morning. But by then it had dried up. Not sure if the technician ever turned up (we were out); the problem surfaced again the next day, but as we had a packed schedule and were checking out in a couple of days, we did not bother to bring up the issue again.
7) temperature in room was fixed and could not be adjusted
8) Breakfast (starts at 7am on weekdays, 7.30am on weekends): Limited choices at the buffet which remained the same each day; we have had a better breakfast buffet at another Riga hotel. Breakfast seating area outside of the main breakfast room was a bit chilly.