Giselle Vintage Doubles — Hotel in Budapest

I booked 2 nights on Agoda for 24 & 25 December. On the arrival, I was told to give them some time to arrange the room for me because I have two separate bookings so they have to merge the bookings for me in order to stay in the same room for 2 nights without having to move (despite booking the same room type. |During check in, the lady (blonde with spectacles) at the reception told us that they have merged the bookings for us and we will be staying in the same room for two nights, the check out will be on 26 December and charged us EUR 2.85 for the city tax. ||After checked in, we noticed that the heater and air conditioner in our room weren’t working. So we went to the reception and inform the lady about at 7.40pm before we head out for dinner and we were told that she will send someone to our room to check/fix it. |When we got back to our room from dinner, we noticed that no one came to our room to check/fix the heater and we had to go down to the reception again at 10pm. However, the lady was no longer there and another guy (with spectacles and piercing) had to bring a portable heater to our room. When he came to our room to check on the heater, he said he had to check from the central system and for the air conditioner, he only said “hmmm, this is interesting”, that’s it, no follow ups at all. ||Left alone the heater and air conditioner issue, what really pissed us off was what happened on the second day. We went out early in the morning for sightseeing and came back to the hotel at 2.30pm to realise that the housekeeping moved ALL of our belongings to their storage room and stick a paper on the room door informing us that we have past our check out time, thus they have no choice but to empty the room! We went down to the reception to ask them why did they move our belongings and the receptionist (another lady) told us we booked separate bookings thus we were supposed to check out at 11am and check in again to another room. Also, the lady said to us that they have the rights to do so because we only paid 1 night of the city tax. This is ridiculous because we paid exactly how much they asked us to pay without knowing that it is only for 1 night. When we questioned them why did they empty our room despite promising us that they have ‘merged’ our bookings to avoid moving, they said “I think it’s a miscommunication from our staff and your room is reserved for another guest, thus we have no choice but to move your stuff and let your check in to another room that is reserved for you. In the end, we moved from room 418 to room 420, not only the 420 is so much smaller than 418, the bed is smaller and the mattress is sagging on one side! What’s even more funnier is that despite them telling us that room 420 is originally reserved for us for 25 December, we came in to this room to a welcome card addressing to another guest (the welcome card in 418 has our name written on it). ||Overall, please DO NOT book this hotel due to their lousy arrangements, communication, service...

I booked 2 nights on Agoda for 24 & 25 December. On the arrival, I was told to give them some time to arrange the room for me because I have two separate bookings so they have to merge the bookings for me in order to stay in the same room for 2 nights without having to move (despite booking the same room type. During check in, the lady (blonde with spectacles) at the reception told us that they have merged the bookings for us and we will be staying in the same room for two nights, the check out will be on 26 December and charged us EUR 2.85 for the city tax.

After checked in, we noticed that the heater and air conditioner in our room weren’t working. So we went to the reception and inform the lady about at 7.40pm before we head out for dinner and we were told that she will send someone to our room to check/fix it. When we got back to our room from dinner, we noticed that no one came to our room to check/fix the heater and we had to go down to the reception again at 10pm. However, the lady was no longer there and another guy (with spectacles and piercing) had to bring a portable heater to our room. When he came to our room to check on the heater, he said he had to check from the central system and for the air conditioner, he only said “hmmm, this is interesting”, that’s it, no follow ups at all.

Left alone the heater and air conditioner issue, what really pissed us off was what happened on the second day. We went out early in the morning for sightseeing and came back to the hotel at 2.30pm to realise that the housekeeping moved ALL of our belongings to their storage room and stick a paper on the room door informing us that we have past our check out time, thus they have no choice but to empty the room! We went down to the reception to ask them why did they move our belongings and the receptionist (another lady) told us we booked separate bookings thus we were supposed to check out at 11am and check in again to another room. Also, the lady said to us that they have the rights to do so because we only paid 1 night of the city tax. This is ridiculous because we paid exactly how much they asked us to pay without knowing that it is only for 1 night. When we questioned them why did they empty our room despite promising us that they have ‘merged’ our bookings to avoid moving, they said “I think it’s a miscommunication from our staff and your room is reserved for another guest, thus we have no choice but to move your stuff and let your check in to another room that is reserved for you. In the end, we moved from room 418 to room 420, not only the 420 is so much smaller than 418, the bed is smaller and the mattress is sagging on one side! What’s even more funnier is that despite them telling us that room 420 is originally reserved for us for 25 December, we came in to this room to a welcome card addressing to another guest (the welcome card in 418 has our name written on it).

Overall, please DO NOT book this hotel due to their lousy arrangements, communication, service...

I'd advise all Australians and all travellers to stay away from this hotel. After we left our room to go for breakfast a cleaner entered the room and claimed there was a stain on the bedsheets. On the basis of this management disabled our swipe cards denying us all access to passports and cash which were in the room until we paid an extra. We had no recourse to dispute this charge, which was the cleaner's opinion only, until we paid extra money. This hotel held our passports and money for several hours during which time all cleaning staff and management had access to our documents. We left after paying extra money as we had no choice. We were not given a refund for the extra nights we did not stay, but could not risk our passports being withheld again. We are experienced travellers and know that this is illegal; and this has never happened to us before, where a hotel locked us out of our rooms over a cleaning fee and withheld passports until we paid extra. I have reported the hotel management to the Australian Consulate in Vienna. Advise all travellers to stay away from this place.

In addition to the dishonest management, the premises was filthy. I heard some other guest complaining of bed-bugs. I didn't experience bed-bugs but they may have been preferable to the low life of the management and the cleaning staff. Also as we left a disgruntled guest, -- most likely someone who was also denied access to passports and cash until they paid extra money for a bogus charge smashed one of the plate glass doors at the main entrance. While I don't condone violence and vandalism, I understand the frustration of having passports and money withheld. After the door was smashed the hotel management left huge shards of glass scattered dangerously all over the foyer for most of the next day, adding to the general filth and lack of professionalism of the whole establishment. We booked this hotel through an agency called info@revngo.com and I'd advise all to avoid using this...