RichardInSF

IC Budapest

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?

I booked the second highest category, the Executive Suite, and got no upgrade since apparently there was only one higher room, the Presidential Suite, which was occupied. This appears to be the truth. So I grumbled about it and eventually they agreed to lower my room rate by E100 a night which, I regard as a very fair resolution.

How are the rooms?

If this is the second highest category, I don't want to be any lower. It is about 40sqmt in size, divided into a living room, a bedroom, and the world's smallest bathroom. You literally cannot close the bathroom door if you are sitting on the throne. This is really small for a suite, by the way.

The room is decently kept but has a dated east block look. We had to call numerous times to get all the things I expect in a good hotel room, but they did provide them eventually, sort of. The room comes with two towel sets, period, by default, one bar of soap, and so on, sort of like a baseline Holiday Inn Express. But there were largish bottles of conditioner and shampoo because this was a suite, I guess.

How is the exec. lounge?

Decent, good food offerings but all the hot offerings were really old and stale, pretty much inedible. Cold offerings were sandwiches. Multiple ones could be combined into one nice one. The room itself however is quite spacious and welcoming. It wasn't crowded the few times I was there. I haven't felt the need to use it much.

What was good and what was bad?

Good:
Location on the Danube is really pretty if your room faces it. Service was cheerful and accommodating but they didn't volunteer much and they do make mistakes in some recommendations. The concierges are pretty good generally, however.

Bad:
Definitely overdue for renovation. There was a conference on one day I was here and they reserved half the elevators for the participants, meaning long waits for hotel guests. Most of the time the reserved lifts just stood empty on the ground floor, guarded by staff to keep us unimportant hotel customers out. Not very nice.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?

Unclear. I like nice hotels, and while I am sure many would like this hotel, for me it was at best borderline.