IC Budapest
Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Extremely happy ^
Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked a two night stay, King Danube view non-smoking. Received a corner suite, room 810. It is located at the front end of the building and there are views from the back and front. The large living room has an incredible view of The Danube/Chain bridge/Buda hills/Marget Island and so many wonderful sights. The bedroom was down a long hallway and had a view onto the street and Roosevelt ter.
How are the rooms?
The room as described above was just great. The bathroom was average size with bath and a very powerful shower. We cleaned out the minibar daily
It consisted of 1.5L evian , 0.75 evain, 2 x fruit juice, 2 x half bottles of Hungarian wine, 1 x same of HU sparkling, 2 beers, 2 x whiskey, vodka, bacardi, etc, chips, nuts, soft drinks and chocolates. The welcome gift was 1/2 bottle of local red wine and fruit basket. Poor TV options, but who needs them with this view. Beds not too hard, tv's in both rooms, couch and recliner in living room with desk and chair. Large closet in the hall to the bedroom.
How is the exec. lounge?
The lounge was not busy anytime that we visited. Happy hour was 6-8pm for drinks and warm/cold snacks. Juice, pop, water, limited cold snacks/fruit and sparkling wine were available all day. Breakfast buffet from 6:30-10:30?. Mostly cheese's, cold meats, cereals, breads, yogurt. Good coffee machine and large selection of teas. With lounge access you also get the breakfast buffet in the restaurant buffet downstairs which is much better, with all the hot and cold selections. The view from the lounge is just spectacular, Chain bridge etc. Free wifi in lounge and 2 pc's with fast internet and printer.
What was good and what was bad?
Nothing bad. Good gym (again a great view) with small pool. Very friendly staff and great location for business or nightlife in pest or walk across the bridge to the Buda hills. The # 2 tram has a stop outside the from door. Deak Ter is a 5 minute walk where the 3 metro lines intersect. Vaci utca for shopping/casino/Gerbaud cafe/Varosmarty/restaurants and bars, it is all close by.
Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
We stayed 2 nights, made 2 prepaid reservations and used a $250 anyhotel card for each night. The 2 nights came to $225 USD/each and were charged to each card before arrival. I redeemed 59k PC points for these two cards and still have $25 left on each plus I earned 4k PC per night for the stay. From the hotels point of view, it was a paid stay. For me it cost 51K as opposed 80k for an award stay. Room 810 is directly below 910, which is the presidental suite. The view was the same as the photo posted by FTer Czech28 in post #1243 of this thread (see link below). From the airport, I used Zona taxi, they have a fixed rate of 4100HUF (20 Euro) to the IC. Same rate as earlier this year from BUD to Hilton westend. Yes, I will definitely be back. Great value for money.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1062/...4141fd.jpg?v=0
Video below: Crossing Chain bridge from the Buda hills to Pest. Four seasons is at the end of the bridge, Sofitel is after the turn and the camera points the the IC at (believe me it's there) at the end of the clip.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mJqdZLkyTiE