Originally Posted by
krazykanuck
I find it curious that this property is less expensive than the Ritz on points for my trip to BP in August, but pricier on cash. Last time I stayed at the Parisi Udvar, which is basically across the street from here. Was hoping to find more reviews in this thread... if anybody has experience with breakfast, SNAs, etc. looking to hear it. Still not sure what kind of stay I'm looking for on my upcoming trip.
I can shed some light on these questions. I just completed a 2 night stay here booked with points. SNAs were cleared at the 5 day mark into the highest available category (corner suite).
Location: I thought it was well located in or near the center of the city, but take this with a grain of salt as this was my first time in Budapest. We were there for sightseeing and were able to walk to everything on our list save for the thermal baths, and even those we were within reasonable walking distance if the weather had been better.
Room: They gave us a room on the second floor, although not of the river and nearby bridge. The room was nice--high ceilings, comfortable bed, big TVs, a small balcony, and a spacious bathroom with rain shower and tub. I can post a few pictures if you're curious. One interesting thing about the suite category we got, although I'm not sure it's the same for all categories, was that all snacks and drinks (including sparkling water, beers, wine, spirits) in the minbars--yes, there were two fully stocked minibars--were consumable free of charge. We had a few drinks but did not go crazy, they may not have appreciated if we had completely cleaned out the minibars.
Food: Platinum breakfast was served in Spago, the restaurant downstairs. We were allowed to order a la carte off the standard menu with only alcohol being extra charge. As with the minibars, we did not try to test the limits of what we could get for free and stuck with a starter and main, along with coffees and juice. Food was quite good for a hotel breakfast, in fact I preferred this system to the buffet we were offered at a very nice property in Venice earlier in the week. We also ordered a good albeit expensive room service meal.
Only negative was we were not allowed 4 pm checkout; I did not feel like pressing since we planned on being out and about all day anyway.
Finally, as a small point of comparison we preferred this hotel to the Parisi Udvar, but at the latter we only had a standard room and no breakfast. I don't think you can go wrong with either hotel. I chose this over the Ritz, sight unseen, because of the lack of SNA and breakfast at the Ritz and am glad I did.