I rarely give a negative review of a hotel. I book dozens of hotels every year and do my research well, so I rarely get blindsided with poor choice. Also, I'm always willing to give a property the benefit of the doubt if it's not up to my expectations. So it is not a light matter for me to give A Hotel Amur Bay a less that stellar recommendation.
Strike 1: I found the hotel to be somewhat deceptive in it's depiction of itself. The photo on the listing is at least a decade old because the exterior of the building and the grounds are seriously degraded. Also, the photo seems to imply that this is a very large hotel (that one would assume has good services). This is not the case. It's in a decaying apartment building that the hotel has a couple of floors in. There is no signage on the outside, either in Russian or English, indicating that the hotel is there. There is a small sign in Russian by the elevator that says the reception is on the 7th floor.
Strike 2: I arrived on an early train prior to check in time. The desk clerk said that they had rooms ready, but an early check in would cost me double the room rate. That's a bit excessive considering that even if they checked me in right then I would be there less than 24 hours anyhow.
Strike 3: I had booked an additional night for my return from Petropavlovsk. I asked if I could leave one bag in their luggage storage until my return and they said no. So I cancelled my second reservation and book elsewhere