When I was researching Saturday's post about The Frog Princess, I got a rude awakening to just how much things have changed in Russia since my first adoption: I checked up on the Hotel Vladivostok, only to discover that its top rooms now go for more than $300 a night!

In December 1999, my room at the Hotel Vladivostok was $33 a night. It was small, with space only for a bed, a portable crib and a small television whose sole English-language channel was, inexplicably, ESPN. It had a lovely view of Amursky Bay, but heat was spotty and the cold air outside seemed to blow right through the big picture windows. One night, the temperature inside the room dropped to 55 degrees.

Of course, in December 1999, the Hotel Vladivostok didn’t have its own Web site, or a listing on Yahoo! Travel, complete with guest reviews. (I found the latter very amusing, by the way, because they talked about the friendly, English-speaking staff. In 1999, the staff was still stuck in Soviet mode--no eye contact, and questions, if they were answered at all, were answered in Russian.)

There seem to be many more hotels now in Vladivostok than there were in 1999. Then, the Hotel Vladivostok, the Hyundai Hotel and the curiously named Vlad Motor Inn (anyone for a drive across Russia?) were pretty much it. But 1999 was still close to the nadir of the collapse of Russia's then newly liberated economy.

Now the city has its own chain of "Best Eastern" hotels. And the Hotel Vladivostok, judging by the photos on its Web site, has undergone a pretty spiffy makeover. Its advertising things like a pool, a casino and a tanning salon. I'm guessing that hotel management probably finally reclaimed some of the wasted space on each floor landing that was once reserved for the dezhurnaya, the sour-faced woman who was the floor's de facto hall monitor. (It was another Soviet holdover. The dezhurnaya kept close tabs on the guests, and reported back to the authorities.)

No, not all the hotel rooms in Vlad now are in the triple digits. A check of the Internet shows rooms in fairly modern looking places with amenities at $75. The smallest rooms in the Hotel Vladivostok come in at about that price too. And if you are working with an experienced agency, they will know the city and know where the deals are to be found.