England team’s £95-a-night 4-star guest house
World Cup base is far cry from spa hotels players normally enjoy
ENGLAND’S footballers are set to stay in secluded £95-a-night lodgings likened by one former guest to a “transit hotel in Poland” during next year’s World Cup finals in Russia.
Manager Gareth Southgate has selected the four-star ForRestMix hotel as a base for the squad, who could seal their qualification with a win over Slovenia at Wembley tonight.
The club, 19 miles from St Petersburg, appears a far cry from the opulent £500-a-night Auberge du Jeu de Paume, the five-star bolthole in France where the team stayed for Euro 2016.
It is understood Southgate has already flown in to inspect the facilities and may have selected the resort in part for its remoteness, on the Gulf of Finland an hour from the nearest airport.
The location could be a gamble for Southgate, with players having complained in the past of feeling bored and isolated at tournaments. In contrast to last year’s hotel, which had a restaurant with two Michelin stars and links to French a r i s t o c ra c y, rooms at ForRestMix are available for around 7,290 to 14,670 roubles a night (£95 to £192). It has received 85 reviews on website Trip- Advisor, 73 of which rated “excellent” or “very good”.
However, one reviewer described it as “like a transit hotel in Poland for the price of luxury accommodation” and complained of a “poor swimming pool with lots of chemicals” and “dirty hammam with disgusting steam”.
In another review, titled “worst holi-
it either day in my life”, a guest described dark decor and modest furnishings while complaining about a “creepy” hairdryer which “looks like an old vacuum cleaner”.
Another said “breakfast is simply tasteless”, adding: “Waiting in a line for the one and only coffee machine in the world? Maintenance is below standard.” They also complained that on the third floor there was “only one lift”.
However, the most recent TripAdvisor post is “Very good hotel, could be perfect with a couple of improvements”. The 107-room guest house sits in a pine forest in the village of Repin, close to the Baltic Sea with an indoor gymnasium, spa, a pool, three restaurants and a helicopter pad.
England will set up their training camp six miles along the coast in the village of Zelenogorsk.