Just showing up at a Russian hotel
 

I'm heading to Russia in a couple weeks and just read in Lonely Planet (LP) that most Russian hotels will not accept walk in guests like me (US citizen) and I have to use a travel agent to get a reservation. This LP book is 5 years old. Is this still the policy?
I have already booked 2 nights on Hostelworld.com with nyet problem.

We never had a problem at hotels in Russia. We spent a bit over a week north of the Caucuses. Save all the random papers they stamp. Russians love stamps, especially officials & border guards. Ask your first hotel to register you.

I would suggest the LP book was out of date when it was written.

I certainly had no problems walking in and booking a room, anywhere in Russia, when I visited six years ago.

I rode from the UK across Russia crossing at the Latvian boarder and the on into Siberia a couple of years ago. Stayed in many hotels and also camped wild. There were never any issues when arriving at hotels, although prices varied quite a lot.
Russia is an amazing place to visit, I loved the place and it's people. Take care on the road as their driving is pretty wild especially in the cities. The Moscow ring road is shear lunacy.
Go for it and don't worry about hotels.

I'm sure you don't have to have reservations via a travel agent. We didn't in 2011. Hotels in the centre of Moscow are very expensive. A Moscovite friend identified a good-value hotel for us, met us on the way into Moscow, and escorted us there (as we would have got lost). We were traveling on British rather than US passports, but there were no issues at all ... other than an hour or so's wait in the Foyer, while they processed our paperwork!

We stayed at the Bega Hotel. It was quite a way out from the centre, but right next to a good metro station (which should have been a tourist attraction in its own right).

Thanks every one. Lonely Planet is frequently wrong from my experiences with using their guide books in the last 5 countries I've been to.
Kind of like The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.