Flow Spaces — Hotel in Budapest

A fabulous hostel to stay in! Having gone to quite a few around Europe, I know what to look out for. The location is excellent, around a 6-8 minute walk to the nearest Metro station, and well situated to other public transport including Buses and Trams. 30 seconds away is a Tesco Express which stays open quite late, although this gets busy. The access itself is granted by a keycard so that you can access the property 24/7. It is on the 2nd floor (with no lift) so do be prepared for the cardio to get there (and if you're going to have lots of heavy bags, consider this)! The staff themselves were lovely, spoke excellent English (as well as many other languages) and helped show me around. The room itself (female, 8-bedroom) is very spacious. Each bunk bed has 2 EU plugs, a personal lamp, and (which I rarely have seen in other properties) a privacy curtain that does well to block out the light. Inside the bunk, they also have a small lockable 'safe'/cupboard, which could fit 1 small backpack's worth of stuff. You do need to bring your own padlock for this (or they have ones to rent for a small fee). Each person also gets a 'trunk' stored underneath the bunk beds, which can store lots of large luggage items. For me, it could fit 2 hiking backpacks filled. This again requires a padlock. In the shared room there is a (very) small ensuite, with a shower, toilet, sink and mirror. The shower is powerful and has very good hot water. It was also one of the larger showers I've seen in an ensuite. Uniquely, the property also has 2 huge shared bathrooms, accessible to everyone. These shared bathrooms have 3-4 private cubicle showers, and 3-4 private cubicle toilets, as well as a large area with sinks and mirrors. This was great for when the room's ensuite was being used, or you wanted a bit more space to clean yourself up. I was lucky enough that this was just next door to my shared room. There is also a games area and a large kitchen for residents, though I did not use this. The bathroom inside a shared (female, 8-bed) room was very small. You definitely need flip-flops when using the bathroom, as I found it did not drain very well, and so as soon as someone has a shower, the entire ensuite is damp. My socks found this out the hard way. This, however, is not a big issue, as there are excellent, large shared bathrooms with the other residents (with private cubicle showers and toilets), so other than having to leave your room, this was not a major problem for me. The rooms come with a small hairdryer, however, you have to hold in a button to keep it running, and it was not powerful, so if you have longer hair, it'll take about an hour to try (so consider bringing your own hairdryer if you can). I did have a bottom bunk, so this wasn't an issue for me, but the other girls in my room struggled to get up/down the bunk bed stairs, and they were also quite high up. If this will be a struggle for you, message the property ahead to assign you a bottom bunk...

A short summary of below: Good price, even for the more private dorm rooms. Great staff, helpful and friendly with 24 front desk. Very clean. Hired cleaners in there every day. Good location if you're not there to exclusively party. Not situated amongst all the bars, but still walkable to everything. Also on a quieter side street so you can actually sleep. NOT a party hostel. Hostel-goers were still college age, friendly, and social, but there were no group drinking games and atmosphere was very laid back. Whether this is a pro or con is up to you.

Longer version: Staff were friendly and happy to help, with 24hr front desk - definitely check out their recommendation board for close places to get food/coffee. The place was amazingly clean - independent cleaning staff were in every day doing beds, common areas and washrooms. Quiet time started about 10pm and everyone was considerate of that (although that'll depend on the other occupants you get of course). Location was, while not in the dead centre of the bar district, still very convenient. Maybe a 15 minute walk to the edge of the Jewish Quarter, and less than that to the cafes/restaurants/shops along the Danube - perfect if you want to be close, but also actually want to be able to sleep. Also less than 5 minute walk from an airport bus pick up/drop off point.

I'll add this comment because a lot of people use hostels as launching points for party nights and should be aware of the following fact, but for me this wasn't actually a negative: this hostel is low key. Like I mentioned before the staff are very friendly and helpful, but they're there to help when you ask them and don't run a social/party game schedule. I also want to be clear that the clientele was almost entirely college-age and were also very friendly and open to chatting, and would play cards and drink a bit as usual before heading out for the night (so don't worry that the place is full of creepy and/or antisocial folks, because it's definitely not). However, what I want to be clear about is that this is NOT a party hostel - there were no group activities, no drinking games, no big pre-drinking party, etc. For me this was perfect. Just a heads up in case this doesn't sound perfect for you.

Overall I definitely recommend staying...

Atmosphere The hostel offers an interesting atmosphere, starting from the way you enter the hostel which on the one hand adds security and on the other hand allows for an element of surprise into the complex, the hostel does not create a vibe of social energy but also does not fall on the other side of the scale. (i.e. balanced)

Location The location is excellent, close to Kelvin tér metro station from which you can easily reach a central station that connects to other metro stations. Close to Fovam tér tram station. Close to Liberty Bridge.

Hospitality The rooms are very cold, bring something long with you (when you are staying in the summer), the beds upstairs are not comfortable, sometimes it is really difficult to get down and it makes it very difficult to travel, and also the access to the lockers is problematic.

Price Price is good, some times very affordable

Lockers, and Security The security is excellent, 2 doors are required to enter the hostel and then the room door. The lockers are bad, it is not convenient to open and close since it is under the bed and you have to take out a drawer every time and then open it.

Additional info or notes I do recommend the hostel despite what has been said, since the kitchen is sufficiently equipped, and the hostel may occasionally surprise you, such as free pancakes, the atmosphere is quiet so you can, for example, work or study or just rest, and the price is sometimes really good, but this is not the best hostel I have been to in terms of value for money, or in general...