MEININGER Budapest Great Market Hall — Hotel in Budapest

I’ll start off with the few things I think need to be tweaked then get to the good stuff.

There was a strange smell of sewage and then cigarettes occasionally coming from the aircon. It came and then went but I think it should be checked. It would be nice to have a little table and two chairs on the balcony to sit and eat and drink things from the market with the view. Seems a waste to not. There is no privacy on the private balcony and also if our curtain is open. We couldn’t sleep with the window open as a result. Which was a big downer. The guests seemed lovely but the large groups of school kid teenagers are too loud and made it seem like we were staying in a strange hostel. They also made noise on the public balcony and woke us up at 2 am which was not cool. They need to be contained to one floor far from normal guests. A few tiny holes here and there in the curtains not a big deal just thought it could be dealt with.

Now the stuff that will make us return here and definitely try out all your other locations.

Price point. Is really great. Everything we need. Location. Surprisingly quiet (except aforementioned teenagers lying with their duvets on the public balcony and coming in and out slamming the door). Really centra and the best in terms of access by bus to the airport. Really amazing. The bedroom compact but lovely. We REALLY appreciate details like the WiFi playlist in the shower. It’s the little touches that really made us love it. Lovely decor. Modern but kinda homey and kinda familiar. A super cool and up and coming neighborhood. We felt very safe walking at night. We didn’t eat the breakfast but it looked great. Buying experience was super swift and easy. The staff were amazing. I emailed ahead of time and Nejma responded very swiftly with a very detailed list of how to get there and to not worry someone would be at reception waiting (it’s open 24/7). . Alex welcomed us like old friends late at night after our flight. The next morning we spoke to the amazing Szabolcs. What a lovely lovely lovely man! So helpful and just so lovely. We adored him. We also spoke a length with Eurico. So so so professional. MEININGER needs to keep hold of him as he is a real credit to the company. So professional so gracious and lovely and we wish we’d have gotten to speak to him earlier than on our before last day as he is full of non touristy insights which is how we like to travel, he is an amazing asset to the hotel.

The staff are what make this place magic. And we will be returning without hesitation to our new home away from home.

Thanks...

Prior to my arrival at the hotel I have looked on their website at finding more information about the hotel and if they had a service in transferring you from the airport. I found no emails on their website believe it or not. So, I decided to call them. Only two options I could choose from booking for more that 11 or less than 11 people. I felt I was a coach of a team. I have choosen one of the two to go further and talk to the operator if possible and I am still waiting for an answer...their telephone system kept on taking me back to the initial options.

Check in - I arrived at the hotel around 2.30p.m. and they kept me waiting in front of them for 10 minutes with 2 kids and my wife before they even talk to me. It was a shift change you see and I couldn't bother them. After a while they said check in is at 3p.m. and had to wait. Only one nice lady brought some white paper and pencils to my kids for painting until it was time to enter the rooms. I also realised that the manager was giving a small training / meeting to the rest of the team while people were queing. I felt like a robot waiting instructions. Hospitality ZERO.

Cleaning - I stayed at the hotel for 6 nights. The first day they cleaned allright, second day nobody cleaned and went to the reception to complain. They gave me 2 towels instead of them taking the towels upstairs. The manager told me he would look for the cleaners and if not he will ask them to give extra cleaning the next day? What is that? It's not my house it's your hotel not even giving standard service. At least after an hour at about 7.00pm somebody came to clean but I had to move out. The third day again someone came to clean in the evening and I still had to move out so I only took a couple of towels. The fourth day again nobody came to clean and compained for a third time. Three days in a row no service...isn't that unbelievable?

Bunk beds for kids - the upper bed had a big opening on the side letting my kid fall down at night. You guys are lucky he didn't got hurt because I was going to sue you. It's OK for teenagers but not for kids.

Sharp corners on the beds - it's not friendly for kids. Colour paintings of the rooms does not make it friendly. Safety comes first.

Breakfast - only the basics.

Kettle, Fridge, Wardrobe in the rooms - families do not need these only paying extra is needed / paying full service.

I wouldn't recommend this hotel to anyone and especially to families. The only good thing about the hotel is location if you want to be...

The location is very good, very close to the center, the hotel itself is clean, but there are some big minuses, issues that you get to know only when you actually arrive/stay there. There is no parking around and even if the hotel says it has parking spots available, this is a semi-lie. They have limited spots in an underground parking close-by, but these spots are not actually theirs, LOL. They just have a little discount compared to what these spots would cost if you would access them out of their system. Parking there, as a hotel guest, costs 20€. That is absolutely expensive and I find it insulting to find this out only at arrival. As a vegan, their breakfast is almost equal to zero. Besides some vegetal milk options and mushroom spread, there are literally NO other vegan options - and that costs 9€/person. After the first morning there, of course I gave up spending my money on nothing and didn't have breakfast there again. Overall, they keep this hipsterish, modern marketing image, online and also at their front desk - but it's just an image. For this image that they try to keep at the surface, the rooms are also absolutely basic - no refrigerator inside, the shower room smelling pretty bad, a rotten cheese smell coming from the vent was quite overwhelming when entering the room. Services - the last night of our visit was Friday. These guys literally threw a big, noisy party in the lobby without any prior notice for their guests. The sound and the annoying bass could be heard from the floor where our room was - 4th floor. I can only imagine how happy the people from 1st floor were. When I asked the staff at the reception what is that about, the answer was "it's permitted in the lobby", even though there were signs at the entrance asking people to "Keep quiet". Another aspect of this is that when I went downstairs to smoke a cigarette at the designated smoking area, there were complete strangers wandering around, trying to enter this hell of a party - I didn't feel safe at all. Some of them were homeless people which I feel bad for, but they didn't have a friendly approach at all and I just find this totally inappropriate. As I said before, their only pluses are the location and the cleanliness. Which, yes, are not little things, but the spot is absolutely overrated in my opinion - and the group I visited with...