Marco Polo Ho (s) tel — Hotel in Budapest

I was supposed to stay for three nights at the MP Hostel in Budapest; but left a couple of hours after I checked in. ||||I arrived in the hostel before the check-in time; thus requested to leave my suitcase while awaiting check-in. Receptionist David just told me, "You can put it in the storage room." He did not even show me where the storage room is. I had to find the room myself. Mind you, David was not busy at that time. He was just chatting with a friend in the reception area. ||||When I finally checked in the hostel late afternoon and went to my room, I noticed that the room was very cold. I opened the heater knob; and waited for more than an hour. No changes; it was still very cold. ||||I then went to the reception; and informed receptionist David about this. He was in the reception, indeed, just talking to another hostel staff Daniel who is apparently the hostel F&B manager. ||||He casually told me, "Open the heater valve." ||||To which I replied, "I did that more than an hour ago; but it's still very cold. Perhaps you can accompany me to the room; and we can both check the heater." ||||David answered, "It's not my job. I'm the receptionist; not the technician... and the technician is not here. Wait for your room to get warm." ||||I said, "It's been more than an hour since I opened the heater; but the room never got warm at all. If it's not your job to address the heater problem, then who can help me fix this? Can you at least transfer me to another room with a working heating system?" ||||After David called up someone and checked the available rooms, he finally agreed to move me to another room. ||||While I was at the reception waiting for my new room to be ready, I was talking to a friend on the phone to express my disappointment. When David said that my room was ready, I hung my phone up right away; and was surprised when he said, "I"M A FCKING RECEPTIONIST. THE HOSTEL MANAGEMENT PLACED ME HERE BECAUSE I SPEAK ENGLISH. CHECKING THE ROOM OR THE HEATER IS NOT MY JOB." ||||I replied, " Where did the 'FCKING RECEPTIONIST' words come from? To be clear, I never addressed you a 'FCKING RECEPTIONIST.' " I said these sentences at least twice, to reiterate my point. ||||Without knowing the context of the conversation because he (Daniel) was playing a video game on his phone, F&B manager Daniel suddenly charged at me, kept on pointing his right index finger at me, and raised his voice, "Don't you dare disrespect my friend and call him 'FCKING RECEPTIONIST' OR ELSE..." I then said, "I didn't even call David a 'F*CKING RECEPTIONIST.' Go ask him." ||||When David agreed that I did not call him that, I then went inside my new room which was still very cold. Heater in the new room was not working. Again. ||||After all the negative experience at MP Hostel Budapest, I decided to leave right away; and found another private room in a hostel nearby. ||||Zero customer service. Aggressive. Threatening. ||||I hope the hostel will improve on its customer service, and...

This is a simple hostel that is basic with a good location. The service from staff ranges to ok to fairly good (the guy with the longer black hair was the best and most helpful staff I interacted with). The breakfast buffet does leave something to be desired. Would be improved if staff could keep flies off the food (use a plastic cover?). I appreciated access to the kitchen and eating utensils. The hostel could use a bit of an upgrade at least in terms of color scheme. Just a coat of fresh paint in more contemporary colors (ditch the sea green), some wall art and modern (even if second hand) furniture could refresh the look.

My main gripe is unfortunately I have to report that the place does have bed bugs. On my second night/third morning, I woke up with several bites on my ankle, thigh and arm. I started reacting very strongly to the bites that continued to develop into major rashes and itching that left my skin extremely tender. There was a sign in the elevator that mentioned that "maintenance spraying" would take place in a few days, so I don't think this is the hostels first encounter with this issue.

My recommendation would be to remove the old, ugly "headboards" for each bed that are secured to the wall. Because they are so old, there are thin gaps between the boards and the wall, but because they are permanently adhered to the wall, spraying and checking for pests can't be done. The bugs are probably hiding back there because I didn't see evidence of them on the mattress (which was covered with a mattress protector). FYI, mattress protectors do not prevent bed bugs, they prevent infestation of the mattress by bed bugs, which will just hide elsewhere.

Housekeeping needs to also vacuum every room at every turnover EVERY TIME to get any eggs. Finally, get rid of the old soft, upholstered furniture and get some hard plastic furniture, even it it's cheap. No doubt bugs were hiding in the cracks of those cushions. The chair in my room was ragged, dusty and at least 10 years old. It looked like free furniture you find on a street curb. Hope the hostel resolves this issue. It was otherwise ok...

Writing this review while sited on one of MP Hostel’s beds and I really cannot understand some of these positive reviews. Firstly, let’s start with the positive, the location, not much to say, it is indeed good, as it is very central, and that’s it for the positives. Now the negatives, everything else, it starts with the building itself, it is 100 years old, nothing inside this building is less than 20 years old and it was never remodeled or updated with the idea of it being an hostel. The rooms are terrible, you have uncomfortable mattresses, shaking beds, non fitted/stained sheets, outlets across the room, no individual lighting, the cheapest wc you can have, where you can’t even fit in the shower, the shower curtain is too small, so you end up making a mess in the bathroom. They don’t give you any towels, besides the ones for the shower, so you end up with a puddle in the middle of the bathroom and you have nowhere to dry your hands/face. The most significant problem, which is the heat dilemma, you can choose between sleeping on a 35°C room or sleeping in a 28°C with the windows open, I can tell you there are no correct answer, because you either sweat heavily until the morning or you slightly sweat, but with all the bugs and street noises. In all the hostels I’ve slept, this was truly the first one, where I was really unhappy to return too. Other negative things, in two nights, I’ve killed 3 spiders on my bed, I have a black/red stain in my pillow, there is zero social interactions and only one common space, which is always empty. Even the suggested laundromat by the hostel was terrible and me and my friends said “we won’t enter there”, so yeah really happy to be leaving tomorrow and to never return here. Do not trust the...