Hotel Istiqiol was my worst experience in the whole of Uzbekistan for twice the price I paid at other places. I made the reservation through Hotels.com because it was convenient to be able to pre-pay with my credit card. But the hotel refused to accept the booking, said it didn't work with Hotels.com and made me pay in cash, leaving me now to try to sort the pre-payment out. This has never happened to me before. Apart from that the hotel is generally pretty dire. The room I had would not have been out of place in a penitentiary. It was advertised as non-smoking but had an ash tray and a lingering smell of cigarettes. The bed was the hardest I've ever slept in even in Uzbekistan which generally has pretty hard beds. I had to ask for a top sheet (the duvet had no cover) and the controls for the heating didn't work, so it was miserably hot all night. Nothing on the very limited breakfast buffet looked like it was fresh and indeed some of the meat looked old and was dry and curled up. Not a pleasant experience. They were helpful in organizing me a car for the next leg of my trip however.
