City Hostel Shymkent

Staying at Guesthouse Ak Ilbirs was one of the unexpected pleasures of my time in Kyrgyzstan. The space is extremely cozy and welcoming with a large garden space and comfy swinging chairs to relax in. Breakfast was excellent, the dormitory bed was comfortable, there was karaoke on busy nights and the beach is easily accessible. The staff were so accommodating and really made me feel like part of the family during my stay. My entire stay here was utter bliss. Thank you!

One side effect of being so close to the beach is the guesthouse is further away from the main town of Bokonbaevo, making it harder to get supplies. However, the guesthouse did arrange taxis anytime I wanted to go into town and they have a fridge with drinks for sale and a small shop (run by the owner's adorable daughter) with snacks and trinkets.

Hostel is super hygienic Value for money And the location, everything is easily accessible Bar, restaurant, super market The staff is also very polite ( Ayana)

Nothing

Everything was great. The 2 Bed dorms that start with number 5 are exceptionally comfortable and fantastic value for the price. My bed was very comfortable and I had back to back nights of the best sleep that I've had in all of central Asia because it was very quiet. The premises, like everyone else has described, is massive. And the staff keeps it spotlessly clean. All the amenities in the room worked flawlessly. The toilets have a bidet, which is rare to find in budget accommodations. There's free drinking water, tea and coffee. The staff at reception is very efficient and courteous, and each one speaks enough English to get by. Bang in the centre of everything, pretty much anything one could need is immediately around. Including starbucks, a local coffee chain (Global - very good) and the top rated local bar (Auster) are all in the same building complex. Multiple pharmacies, grocery stores, salons and even affordable restaurants very close by (there's a buffet style food place right next to "Durum" one street away with really delicious and affordable local food). I had no trouble locating it. Just enter through the doors to the mall that are located right next to Auster bar. There's a sign that says "Hostel" even outside these doors.

The area to wash utensils is filthy and neglected. Though if you don't use the utensils, you'll never need to enter this space and it is well hidden away.

Huge complex, AC, plugs next to bed, big locker room works with code and even your luggage can get in, RFID entrance to the the room, awesome staff and this is the rating for their warm welcome and doing their best to help, towels in the locker and shower full with all necessary equipments

No WiFi in the room. Only at reception but seems like they cant afford having a few extra router while this place was part of the fancy hotel right next to it No windows in the rooms They talk about rules but no one cares. 20 kids running and screaming around till midnight and no one does anything. They accept everyone. Not only the wild noise outside is a reason to skip your sleep and also having creepy old people in the room with their blasting snoring habit is another factor. I left the room and tried to sleep in common room so no chance. They should have some criterias for their guests The metal panel of the bed had some dirt and I think cleaner lady should have done a few things to remove it Long story short; place has great potential if the people who run it cares about instead of letting the facility run itself