Novotel Budapest City & Budapest Congress Center — Hotel in Budapest

"The guest services representative” of this four-star hotel — or rather, the young man at the reception (same as on photo) — handed me the key card without any of the usual “have a nice stay” or similar pleasantries. And of course, without pointing out where the elevators are or explaining that you can’t even reach your floor without inserting the card (for “my safety”); no information about breakfast time or location; no Wi-Fi details; no mention of the gym or the pool or anything else.||Instead, €38.60 was frozen on my credit card — just in case I used the “laundry service” or other amenities. My reservation clearly stated only €10.20 in taxes. When I asked for clarification, the receptionist handed me an A4 paper with the hotel manager’s signature and told me to “read Hungarian laws on Google” which supposedly allow hotels to freeze any amount they choose at their own discretion.||I hoped to find the information on amenities in the room, but there was absolutely nothing.||The pool wasn’t working. That would be a minor issue, but the air conditioning in the room was also out of order, which made staying in the sun-heated room nearly unbearable. After I complained, an employee (against a signature — presumably so I don’t jump out the window) unlocked it and brought in a fan. Such “courtesy”, however, raised the question: are there any rooms here with functioning air conditioning? Wouldn’t be surprising — the shower had visible mold, hastily smeared over with silicone in a laughable attempt to hide it.||I eventually managed to fall asleep despite the relentless traffic from two nearby main roads. But at 3:40 a.m., I was woken by a police or ambulance siren I shut the window, but sleep was out of reach — the sirens kept returning, and the tram noise still cuts through even closed windows. And then, there’s the “little” detail: two mattresses awkwardly shoved together to fake a double bed, leaving a gap in the middle. Hardly worth mentioning at this point.||||However there is one good thing - a breakfast.||--------||Off to the conference and reception now. It’s going to be a...

I’ve booked this hotel because was a good price for 3 days with the breakfast included. Location itself okay, close by bus stops. It takes around 15 mins by bus to get to the city centre. Swimming pool, sauna and breakfast were good. Apart of that can’t say anything else that was good about this hotel. The rooms here are dated, it doesn’t look like a 4* hotel at all. Good that I didn’t pay much for it, because it’s not worth it. Check in was very quick but I could get into my room only after 20-25 mins. Key didn’t work on the room, I came down to the reception. With another key been given I came back to discover that it’s also not working. For the 2nd time one of the reception went upstairs with me to reset the battery. I entered the room finally just to discover that they gave me twin room with 2 separate beds instead of 1double. So I went back to the reception. The guy from the reception took my key and said that will have a look, after 5 mins he came back saying that I’ve been upgraded 🙄because this room has a sofa bed. How can you call this an upgrade if I’ve got 2 small beds instead of 1 big?? I told him that I want the bed I have booked. He wasn’t satisfied with that but asked me to have a sit and wait. I was waiting for like 10 minutes, once he came back to me he said that for that night he can’t change it, but for the next 2 he gonna fix it. He sent then housekeeper to put the beds together, but in fact what she did wasn’t helpful at all. Was very uncomfortable to sleep. Next morning I went for the breakfast, and because I’ve planned to go out for the whole day I went to the desk to check when can I move to another room. And found out that no one know anything about that🤷‍♀️ The lady at the desk asked me why I need to move to another room.. After I’ve told her finally I’ve been moved to a room I have booked. So for the rest of my stay I was annoyed, from the checkin time, the way staff treated me. Just because they have a swimming pool, I don’t think I’ll book this hotel next time. With the...

The rooms are good. The place is kid friendly and staff are very attentive. It is very accessible to the city as there is a bus stop and tram station right in front of the hotel. There is a paid bar and bowling alley which is 10000 HUF to bowl. The pool however is indoor and small and very cold. There is a sauna and salt room but you have to ask reception for them to come with the key and turn on the sauna. The showers in the sauna area are clean. When it comes to the rooms the toilet seat is in a different tiny compact room than the shower and washbasin. Neither doors lock so there is no privacy. The beds are nice and big however they are two single beds pushed into one. The tvs are good, a lot of channels, good for watching euros. Breakfast is average to good and there are not a lot of options. The only downside of this hotel are the elevators, they are horrible. The elevator closed on my friend twice and we saw 3 other people get stuck between the elevator doors where the elevator is acting like it has no sensors. The worst time the elevator closed on someone was when we were inside and a man came with his kid. The elevator doors were about to close when he put his hand it to stop it from closing but this didn’t stop the elevator, it shut right on his hand and we panicked, from inside we could only see his hand and his fingers moving, the elevator was starting to move and we somehow hit the stop or else the guys hand would have been crushed...