5 Elements SPA — Attraction in Budapest

BEWARE. A SCAM PLACE! These scammers owns multiple places and clearly games the review system. I honestly don't know how they manage to get so many five-star reviews. If I could give it a zero or minus, I would. This is such a sad place run by some seriously shady people. DON'T GO

A friend and I went for 2 hour massages with additional 45 mins of face massage. From the get go it didn't seem like a professional place; the towel they put on me was damp, heavy with saturated oil that wasn't washed clean.

Ordered a 60 min Kalari massage -- I had elsewhere before and liked the therapeutic effects -- which they kept trying to talk me out of (already a warning sign). The room they had was not properly equiped, and staff also not professionally trained. She basically spent half the time kicking my back with one callused foot then another, half the time massaging randomly with hands; was nothing close to the professional treatments I had elsewhere. Worse yet, they don't even place proper support to protect your neck and spine for the treatment; I was quite thankful that for the most part she more or less was kicking my back with one of her foot rather than actually putting her weight on my back. Nevertheless, I ended up with quite the back pain for the second hour of the massage, she rushed out to get some ointment to put on my lower back; seemed to me that wasn't the first time it happened.

I thought my friend might have had a better experience but, the first thing she said was, "I've never wanted so badly for the 'massage' to end, it was so annoying!" There were no method or skills, nor knowledge of the acupressure points or human anatomy.

As if things couldn't get worse, they then overcharged me by a huge margin. We were so eager to get out of there, we paid without checking the bill! As we walked out the door, the SMS from card company showed the actual amount. We turned right back in to asked about it. We were informed then they raised the prices the day before, and they were charging the new much higher price without informing us; even though they had called us twice the previous day regarding changes in treatment and time -- they first said they didn't have room to do Kalari at the same time, then call us again to say it was ok -- WITHOUT TELLING US IT WAS GOING TO BE MUCH HIGHER PRICES! When we tries to reason with them, the man on the phone first claimed that they couldn't refund because we unfortunately paid with credit card, then two women start shouting over each other saying that we should've check the website to see the price change -- but who does that AFTER making an appointment!? If they had a price change, they should've told us about it on the phone when they called us the previous day before our appointment!

Anyway, on top of being such a sad unclean and unprofessional place, it was absolutely pathetic how they try to make money by...

Rude and disrespectful staff. Very horrible experience. I booked a 90 min facial online through their website . Went and asked the provider 2 questions. Which brand face products do they use and the steps. She rudely answered “Don’t know, may be some chinese cream. If you had questions you should ask on phone, why come?”. I ask this question to every facial service provider i go to for 2 reasons, for awareness and what to expect since every provider has a different style and steps/process and in case i like the product and would like to buy. Second question, I was wearing a white dress and asked if she has a robe i can change into, her again angry answer “its facial, why would your dress get dirty”. Usually in facials people also sometimes massage the neck area so i wanted to know if there is chance that might stain my dress. I think my questions were legit, polite, respectful and didn’t need a response that was “ if you have questions and doubts why you come? Do you want facial or not”. What a horrible place. I should have listened to other reviews about this place and staff. So...

I am writing to complaint about the bad experience I had during my massage here. First, when I tell the reception lady that I want to have a 4-hand massage she was freaked out and saying loudly like:” four hands???”, I don’t know why she react like this. I booked my treatment in advance.

Second, the two staffs were talking and even laugh during the treatment. It doesn’t seem professional to me at all.

Third, one of the stuff is just rough and careless. She massaged me with too much force, causing me to bruise several times. I asked her to soften but she didn’t listen. And when she helped me turn over, she was extremely rough and didn't properly tuck in the blanket for me. I was so disturbed and feeling disgusted. She even accidentally touched my private part a few time which is unnecessary.

I feel regret to come here and pay for 2...