lewinr

I might need to go to Budapest and looking at hotel options. I could not find any reviews of this new hotel.

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...otel-budapest/

Has anybody stayed there?

Wondering how it compares to the Budapest Marriott, Hilton Budapest, and the Hyatt Parisi Udvar.

thanks

WilcoRoger

It is brand new, opened in July. I saw it in June, looked very upscale, beats both the Hilton or the Marriott easily. It mIght be about on par with the P�risi Udvar, but I haven't seen rooms in either hotel. Soft product might be the decisive factor, but one must stay at both to compare.

lewinr

there are just two reviews so far on tripadvisor. Both are positive but one mentions " If there is a catch, it is only that the river views are not as good as those of some others as the hotel is set back from the river facing a bridge. But the zillion positives easily won me over."

Nevertheless would be great to hear from an FTer who stays there, to know about elite recognition and lounge (if any).

WilcoRoger

I'll have two nights ("points saver" 55k/night) next month - looking forward to it! SNA request put in, fingers crossed!

As for the Danube view - you just cannot beat the Marriott or the IC for that. FS Gresham is a close contender, though.

EDIT: after the 29/March change the points saver cost went down to 40k/night, so

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.

gogata

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.

WilcoRoger

Currently staying at the Matild (moved here from the Marriott)

SNA went through at both hotels, so The Marriott didn't have the suite we were upgraded to, so got us one better, corner executive, the Matild gave us what was confirmed, corner, city view.

Aside from the view (the Marriott corner suite gets you basically the best view in Budapest you can get), the Matild is way above the Marriott (which can be seen also in the cash rates, which are well over double)

Location: if you want to move around town, this is as good as it gets. On a main artery, with bunch of public transport options, incl. subway. Don't be shy, Bp public transport is safe, wide and cheap (unlimited week-pass 4550 HUF, that's 12€)

Room: very nice. Incredible height, my guess is 6-7m (!) Given the location and being low floor, I had some reservation re external noise - but none, once the windows are closed. With the suite comes unlimited free minibar (actually two, as the bedroom has another one, similarly stocked as the one in the sitting room)

Food: the downstairs Spago is an excellent restaurant (Michelin 2021 mention) Their Easter menu is very traditional on paper, anything but on the plate! Same restaurant is used for breakfast, very good quality (and free for plat) The breakfast is peaceful (as opposed to the Marriott, where it is very crowded - it seems that a lot of river cruises use the MArriott as pre-/post cruise hotel)

Staff: friendly and attentive staff

The going rate for the basic room was 450€ or so (corner suite: ca. 2k€/night), so at 40k points + SNA/night I consider this an excellent redemption 0,05€/point (that's close to 6�/point for you Americans). The rate dropped from 55k to 40k after 29/March.

Very interested to see, how its twin sister across the road under the St Regis brand will perform, once it's open!

PS - the building the hotel is situated in is actually called Klotild, not Matild The twin buildings are called the Klotild Palaces (named after a Saxe-Coburg-Gotha princess) but locals started to call this one "Matild" a century ago, because it made "no sense" to have two buildings bearing the same name

cbellero

I have made a booking for this hotel using points (50k points. I then submitted a SNA request for a suite. I noticed that all rooms have free minibar for water and soft drinks. All of the rooms with the word "suite" in their names have alcoholic beverages also included. My stay will be tomorrow, so I will do a review with pictures and post it here.

Although this one was 2k more expensive than the RC I chose this one because it just seems more historic and iconic. I was tempted by the club lounge offer for 68k points at the RC, but decided in the end against it because I want to spend most of my time outside the hotel on a one night stay.

DealAddict

I am also staying here from Thursday to Tuesday : ) Picked it over RC for the same reason

cbellero

r0m8470

CBellero has some good pictures - and my review do not have any pictures - too lazy to sort out from my phone.

Here's our experience - cheers.

Context:
4-night stay, using a mix of points, certificates, and paid rate, thanks to Bonvoy customize payment feature, as part of our 3-week Europe late Spring vacation. Currently, holding Bonvoy Platinum status.

Pre-check in:
Emailed to make sure that there is enough bottled waters in the room, dental kits, slippers and shaving kits. We also had email correspondence regarding laundry services since we were traveling light. 5 days prior to check in, our Suite night award cleared and we've got confirmation of upgrade to a corner 1 bedroom suite.

Check in:
Very smooth. We were offered welcome drinks. Agents explained everything, then a very lovely Sophie took us to the room and gave us a short room tour. She also explained the benefit of topping off the minibar daily.

Room:
Corner 1 bedroom suite on the 4th floor. Room has a large living room, with 2 windows. 1 window facing Kossuth Lajos avenue. The bedroom is good sized, with a King bed and really beautiful headboard piece. The bathroom is very nice, with modern smart automated bidet toilet, separate tub and shower and the tub has very ornate blue and gold tile accents. Very tastefully done. Power curtains and sheers, and light control panels for both living room and bedroom.

Plenty of USB port and power ports. Two large flat screens, the one in the living room is embedded to the wall. Minibar is extremely well stocked, with snacks and drinks. Nice couch and working desk in the living room, easy chair in the bedroom too. Very high ceiling throughout. Bathroom amenities are from Aqua Di Parma.

Breakfast:
Comped as Platinum bonvoy as part of the welcome gift benefit. Two restaurants on the premise - Cafe Matilda and Spago - and breakfast is served at Spago. Great selection, very nice traditional Hungarian sausage, pastries, cereals, cold cuts, hot items options and we can order anything off the menu. We ordered french toast, eggs, truffle omelettes every day. We had options to sit inside or outside every day, we chose to say inside though. Breakfast staff are all wonderful.

Rooftop bar:
The hotel has a super hip rooftop bar called the Duchess. This is where all the cool, young and hip folks are letting loose I guess. We visited actually during the day where the bar was still closed but they kept the area unlocked and open so we just roamed free and took tons of pictures. We got great view of Pest and its rooftop and the Buda hill.

Dining:
We ate dinner at Spago one time when we were there. Food and staff were fantastic. It was pricey, hey it is a Spago after all - but as a splurge, we think it was great.

Cafe Matilda was having its first day of service the 2nd day we were there. We took a look around but did not try. The cakes in the cafe look awesome though. The decor of the cafe itself, I think, would make it worth your while to spend some time for a coffee there.

Gym and spa:
Very modern and well equipped. We were given a tour of the spa as well, but did not partake on any service - no time, with the beautiful city of Budapest and its many attractions and sights.

Hotel property itself:
The hotel is a Unesco world heritage site, beautifully restored. It is 1 of the twin palace buildings. The other one across the street - Klotild palace - is being restored and will open as a St Regis hotel sometime next year. The building has a grand Belle Epoque architecture. The lobby is vibrant with tasteful decorations mixing classical elements and modern architectural touches. This is one of the most beautiful hotel that we have ever stayed at and certainly the most memorable and the most architecturally stunning. The hotel team supposedly took five years to restore this palace, and it was five years really well spent.

Staff:
The hotel has security people continously patrolling the outside - you can tell them from the crowd - and an army of staffers taking care of customers needs inside. Front desk, concierge, bell staff ~ all are great.

Negative:
Only one - and we were not sure why. We bought some cakes from a cukrazsda, and kept them in the fridge. Within like 30 min, we start seeing ants coming out of the baseboard, not going to the fridge, but they're out and looking for something. We asked housekeeping to come out, and came they did. They sprayed some ant spray, and the ants did not come back. The lady housekeeping supervisor suspected that our cakes are the culprit, so we ate them and get rid of the packaging right away.

Bonus:
When we had dinner, we met Herr Wolfgang Puck himself! He was visiting this property and his latest outpost, and he made rounds on every table. Our server actually learning that we were done with our meal, and Herr Puck was still a few tables away, asked him to come to our table. What a treat! We got a restaurant recommendation from him for our then-next week visit to Vienna and got to chat with him and took pictures with him.

Summary:
The hotel stay is definitely one of the highlight of our trip to Europe this time. This is easily among the best hotel that we've stayed at. Everything about the hotel screams really high quality and high standard of service. We will be back, and it made us a believer of the Luxury Collection brand. Meeting Herr Puck is also an extra delightful treat!

vivrant

Great reviews. Looking forward to our stay here end of July for the Formula 1.

vivrant

Btw anyone have an email address for the concierge? Would like to correspond ahead of our upcoming trip and arrange some reservations and tours.

ehud

[email protected]

r0m8470

What he said.
This address works too:
Matild Palace Guest Experience<[email protected]>

I corresponded w/ that mailbox to confirm suite upgrade, and asked for dental kits and extra slippers prior to arrival.