"Pros: Location and wi-fi. If I were the owner of a big apartment located this close to Bayterek, I would have spent some money improving or at least maintaining it. We would gladly pay twice as much for this apartment, if only it was in a better condition. But that's the Westerners' perspective, locals are obviously not that picky, considering the score here.
Cons: There is A LOT that needs to be done in Astana and this apartment specifically, in order to make it tourist-friendly. The huge living room turned into a bedroom features only a bed, sofas at the opposite sides of the room, and a wardrobe, no nightstands or a table/sitting area, but... an ironing board. Kitchen is very shabby and old, wobbly chairs, another sofa?! but not even basic things other than some plates, cups, cutlery and a dirty sponge. In the 2nd bedroom was so horrible, that we had to pull all available blankets in the apt on it to make it at least a bit comfy. The bathroom is just as shabby as the kitchen, hair dryer dirty and falling off the wall it was secured at. A very weird bathtub with no regular taps but some hard-to-turn buttons at the side. We hardly showered in the apt because of it and a short shower curtain: the whole floor was wet in a minute. Soviet style toilet paper like sanding paper. No transfer was possible (for the first time in our lives have I experienced something like this: we were asked by hosts if we had a Kazach number to call a taxi🙄 Obviously we didn't, otherwise we wouldn't have needed a transfer. Took a taxi from the airport paying around 15 times the regular price!!! The key (1 for 3 guests!) was given to some friend of a friend, because the hosts were out of town, but the contact info was sent while we were already on the plane. We didn't have roaming on arrival for some reason, so all this was quite challenging, at 3 am, mind you. The payment was supposed to be collected the next day, so we rushed to withdraw the money, but when we came back to the apt, we got a msg that the maid was not coming and we had to wait for the host's husband on another day. No airco, +32C, but with windows open no rest possible from 7 am because of the reparation works outside. 8 clothing hangers in total while the apt can host 6 people. I was born in Soviet Union and in this apt it looks like nothing has changed since..." ~Nataliia