Hotel Alibaba

In 2002 when we visited Slovakia we reserved hotel rooms in the only hotel in Humenne, Hotel Chemes. It was a bit worn, an old Communist feel to it, but the price was right.


When we visited Europe last month we used the wealth of internet resources to find hotels and B&B's to stay in (especially booking.com). But for Humenne information was very scarce. There is a new Best Western in town, but it was booked, and also expensive (by Slovak standards). We couldn't find the Hotel Chemes, but there was a Hotel Alibaba. Through further research we determined it was at the same location as the Hotel Chemes, so must have been renamed. There were no customer reviews to rely on, so we took another chance and reserved a room

This time we were pleasantly surprised. Though the exterior, lobby, and elevator were pretty tired, the top floor of rooms where we stayed was newly renovated. And we had great views of Humenne out our windows.

Can't quite see it in this photo--maybe just a bit bottom left--but the final step down to the pavement is quite high, so you have to pay attention when stepping down.

A wonderful and spacious room!

Here is a side view showing the debris dropped down from ongoing renovation.

We must have taken this picture the first day, because subsequent photos show an entire floor gutted and the exterior windows gone (4th floor down from the top).

I hope they keep renovating so our next stay will be even nicer. I asked them the history of the hotel, and they said it was previously Hotel Chemes and was originally used as a dormitory for workers building a nearby factory.

The lady at the hotel reception was so helpful and spoke enough English to translate for Suzanne's relatives who showed up soon after our arrival. We wrote up a nice review of the hotel on an internet travel site so future researchers would have some info.

In a previous post I mentioned how we were concerned about car theft in Eastern Europe on our recent trip to Slovakia. This is what I asked Hotel Alibaba via email:

"Is there secure parking nearby? Has there been car theft in Humenne?"

Here is the email reply I received:

"Parking is next-door hotel.Car us not just yet shake."

Huh? We got a good laugh out of that and tried to surmise what Slovak/English dictionary words might have been used to arrive at the result. Thankfully, our car survived two nights just fine outside the hotel.