Aquaworld Resort Budapest — Hotel in Budapest

Update: I've received an email from the hotel's guest relations team, apologizing and taking accountability for most of my points below, also confirming that the observations have been forwarded to management.

I've stayed at the hotel with my partner and my parents in two connecting rooms for 3 nights (New Year's Eve included) and we left with quite an unpleasant experience. I understand that we were only 4 of the many guests, but for us it was a ~1M HUF experience that fell short on the following aspects:

1. It felt childish to be asked to pay at arrival. All other 4-star hotels where I stayed (in Hungary as well) accept payment at departure, after all additional expenses have been added to the room.

2. When we arrived in the rooms, we noticed the carpets were full of stains and one of the doors had violence marks on it --- we live with 3 cats at home so we don't expect 100% clean, but this was way worse than perfect.

3. In one of the rooms, we were unable to open the window and we asked at the reception if they could send someone up to double-check and solve the problem. We never heard back and the window could not be opened during our stay. We didn't expect anyone to actually repair it on the 31st December, but it would have been nice to get a 'sorry' from the staff.

4. On 2 nights of the 3, we were supposed to have dinner in the restaurant with the 'general population', but on both nights we were sent to the 1st floor AFTER HAVING SAID OUR ROOM NUMBERS. It felt like we were being discriminated against, especially because the food variety was unsatisfactory there and we needed to be looking for the waiter to ask for something to drink, they barely noticed us. On one of the nights, the waiter only approached us when we were already leaving.

5. At the New Year's Eve exclusive party, we were seated at a table of 8 with another family of 4 (2 young children). We were not asked in advance if we know any other guests at the hotel who we want to be seated with, nor were we asked about tables with children. It was quite uncomfortable and we don't understand why the 4 of us were not seated at a separate smaller table.

The following 2 aspects are the worst and they are the main reason I WILL NOT be recommending the hotel:

6. At the New Year's Eve exclusive party, there was a 30-minute dance show which we watched from near the dance floor. I did not leave the room, I watched and danced near the dance floor. When we got back to the table, it had been cleared of our plates and glasses (that had champagne and water in them!), our belongings were left on the table. What kind of waiter doesn't realize that we are IN THE ROOM and clears the table, while noticing our belongings on it?!

7. When I paid on the night before our departure, the receptionist asked if everything was ok and I spent some time explaining all these points, but he seemed totally uninterested and simply said he would pass it on. He didn't take notes (there are 6 big points), didn't ask any follow-up questions or details and I doubt he would ever pass it on simply because of the complexity of the information. He didn't seem to be sorry for our experience on behalf of the hotel and didn't give the impression that our problems will be looked after to prevent other guests from having a similar experience. This is NOT what the behaviour of a receptionist should be like.

All in all, we enjoyed the wellness part, but the 7 things above simply marked the experience as 'inadequate' for a 4-star hotel in Hungary. We've been to multiple 4-star places across the country where our experience has been close to 5-star perfect, but unfortunately we can't say the same about Aquaworld.

We hope this review will be taken seriously as we haven't heard back from the hotel after feedback submission on their...

I'll start by saying that the hotel as a general is great, and i will definitely return if i have the chance. We traveled with a couple of friends and their kids, total of 4 kids ages of: 1.5, 3, 6 (two of them).|Lets start with the good things:|1. The room in the apartments was huge, clean and well kept, at some point we had a leaking air conditioner and it got fixed in not time, the beds are comfy, and the small kitchen with a fridge is great.|2. The water park is awesome for kids of all ages, slides and areas for everyone, the kids enjoyed it very much, and the fact that a big part of it is indoors allowed us to visit it even when it was raining in the last day.|3. There is a nice childrens place for them to run and play, the bigger ones could even be left there alone for some time and they had a great time, the staff in the kids room was very friendly to the kids.|4. The breakfast and dinner is good, tasty, enough options for the kids and the parents, every breakfast had some sort of porridge for the kids and baby food in cans.|5. The spa is good, the massages are good and at a decent price.||And now to the bad things:|1. Isn't directly related to the hotel as is, but it's far from the city center, if you want to go around Budapest you'll have to take a taxi which takes around 25 minutes and cost a pretty penny, or ride the bus which is a hassle with a family and small kids.|2. There aren't much "active" kids activities, especially in the evening. During the day there are a couple of activities which feel blend in the water park, and the last activity is a 20 minutes mini disco at 20:00 sharp (same every day), and after that the kids have nothing to do, and the fact that it's far from the center like mentioned in #1 they got bored at this point.|3. There is a carpet in the dining room, which is really hard to keep clean as there are tons of kids and food drops on the floor a lot, so it was dirty a lot of the time, also the baby/kids sits weren't clean a lot of the times between uses, so we had to clean them ourselves when using them.|4. This point is the weakest part of this hotel: The service in the dining room and the bars (the dining room was the main issue). Most of the waiters crew (mostly the older ones) are very unpleasent and even rude at some points, here are a couple of examples:|a. My wife came into the dining room with the child on her hands and asked for a baby sit, the waiter just told her to go get it herself.|b. Every time something dropped on the floor you'll get a mad stare from the waiters as if you killed someone, in the end those are kids and we picked up what we could but not everything is possible.|c. The number of times our plates/cofee got picked up off the table without asking when we were still eating is beyond count, and if you caught it in time and told them you are still eating there were a couple of times that they just slammed it on the table.|d. If you ask for a pitcher of water they give you a look as if you asked them to go get the water from the river.|e. Most of them never smile and give out a very negative vibe, and when they have to clean or do something they mumble something in Hungarian which feels like it was directed to us.||In conclusion, a great hotel as a whole, a very poor service in the dining room that leaves a bad feeling, if this will be fixed it will be as close to perfect for me...

The resort is worth 5* when everything is up and running. We arrived on Sunday, being a weekend we understood that Aquaworld would be busy and while it was, everything was open. So while busy, it didn’t feel overly crowded. However, come Monday and subsequent weekdays, it seems like many things were shut for maintenance including the main large thermal pool in the spa area, atleast half of the saunas, many of the slides too were closed. So while the weekdays were considerably quieter, you wouldn’t have been able to get the full benefit of the facilities.

That being said, all of the pools are lovely and warm. The pools are heated well in that the outdoor pool even when mild outside feel very toasty and nice indeed. This was one of the main reasons we chose this resort as many warmer countries simply do not heat their pools or do a poor job of it. No issues of that here!

The facilities although dated in parts and in need of refurbishment in areas, are excellent and exhaustive. Multiple pools, slides, jets, jacuzzis of all sizes. Lots of facilities like wave pools, motion pools that are fun and the facilities really can be enjoyed by all ages from babies through to pensioners.

The sauna facilities are great when working and I have never seen so many saunas in one facility. Awesome to try these.

The facilities could be accessed and things such as food and drink could be expensed to a fob you are provided with. The food and drinks in the restaurant were poor value for money and not great in quality but we understand you pay a premium for drinking and dining on location.

As for the hotel itself, the rooms were modern and spacious although showed some signs of wear. The rooms were comfortable with towels provided for the room and for you to use in Aquaworld.

While many people in reviews seem to rate the breakfast and dinner we thought it was lacking and did a poor job catering to anyone with dietary needs (vegetarian, halal etc). The food is perfectly edible but not anything that was standout or anything you’d be rushing back too!

The location is far from Budapest centre and requires a taxi (7-10k forint to Westend Shopping Centre) which can add up if you plan multiple trips. There is a bus that goes into the centre multiples times a day available at a cost of around 1 euro per person and while much slower than taking a taxi is definitely much better value. Be careful to observe the schedule as while it depart on the hour there is a large gap early afternoon if you are intend on heading...