Orient Star Khiva Hotel- Madrasah Muhammad Aminkhan 1855

Located in the heart of the old town, this accommodation offers easy access to major attractions. Guests appreciate the varied and abundant breakfast served in a beautiful, tranquil area.

This is my second stay at the Orient Star in Khiva. I would choose this hotel over and over again mainly because of the location; it has the best location in Khiva. The facilities are basic but you will still have a very comfortable stay for 2 or 3 nights. The breakfast is pretty average but it’s not the worst out there. I did experience something unexpected from the staff members at this hotel though: We had a private tour scheduled to start from this hotel at 10:00am. (The hotel did not organize this) Our guide was late by 10 minutes which is extremely unusual in my experience of doing private guided tours. Our tour guide looked flushed and she explained she was in a meeting with hotel manager and another lady (let’s call her D), and so she got delayed. Once our tour guide started the tours she was INTERRUPTED by the hotels receptionist, not once but multiple times. He could clearly see our tour guide busy in explanation but he just stood there, insisting her to stop and go to him. It was SO awkward and ill-mannered of the hotel receptionist to do this. When the guide completed her introductory explanations, we were heading towards the hotel’s courtyard to learn about it’s history. Before we could get there, an extremely RUDE and tactless lady opened an office door and aggressively called our tour guide into her office- USING HER INDEX FINGER and raising her voice! I could understand enough that our guide told her to lower her voice and that she’s with tourists; that she can’t leave the tour. This rude lady D started shouting our guide to enter her office. The manager was also there and did nothing to diffuse the situation. In order not to cause more drama, our guide went to ont he office and rude lady D banged the door shut without any apology to us. We could hear them both screaming for atleast 10 minutes. When they both existed, our tour guide apologised profusely but lady D just walked passed with a sour face. I ended up going to the police station to file a witness report- my guides wanted to file a complaint against ride Lady D, who apparently assaulted my guide behind closed doors. I simply went to provide a statement of what I saw exactly as described above. The hotel staff or manager did nothing accommodate nor apologize for this inconvenience to any witnesses. They had zero regard for our time.