Hotel Aro Palace — Hotel in Zona Metropolitană Brașov

Well, let me start by saying this hotel is NOT a 5* hotel in terms of services provided. I mean it's worse than 3* hotels I've experienced in secluded parts of the world where electricity is a luxury. I'm going to be thorough because I was so annoyed with the overall experience that I feel the need to spread the love, really.

While I can understand free parking is a "luxury" in Brasov, I would say it should be FREE at a 5 star hotel, especially since you wanted to make it "special" and decided to book a steep 160E suite. But no, you need to pay an additional 15E/day if you fancy having your car parked on the hotel premises - no, no valet there - just a regular parking.

Moving on, you enter the huge lobby with terrible looking furniture (again, for a 5* hotel) and nobody's there to say either Hi or Piss-off! Drag yourself to the Concierge while perpexledly watching other people not wearing masks although compulsory and check in to be amazed.

In the meantime, you will find out there's no room service at all because, well, probably Covid-19 but you will shut up because it sort of makes sense. The website advertises SPA services as well but those were not available either because of the same situation.

The room was spacious and pretty clean, there was no balcony - again the website clearly says there is, but that 20 cm ledge you can easily kill yourself from, it's not a freaking balcony!

You have an espresso machine (YAY!) but why bother actually leaving some coffee capsules for the guests when they can easily choose the adventurous way of looking for the cleaning lady's cart and "borrow" the coffee capsules from there?! Don't expect to get free water, pillow chocolates or anything! You have a sad minibar with a very lonely bottle of beer, a bottle of water and 3 or 4 super-expensive miniatures.

You also have electrical outlets by the bed, according to them. Yes, you do - but you'll have to move the furniture around to get to them and you'll also need to unplug the lamps to use them. I mean - that's accurate and smart thinking at the same time.

The matress was really shite and I mean it! No freaking way any random 3-4 star hotels would ever use those blocks of marble as matresses. Pillows were okay.

Make sure you bring a pen because you won't find one in the luxurious room - just in case you need to take note of how the Aro Palace system works to replicate it elsewhere.

The joinery is ridiculous in every possible way - it looks like it was taken from a hospital and glued together in the fancy-wannabe-room.

If you had the patience to read through all this, I thank you and I'll share the best tip and final point - the staff excels at being obsolete and useless, avoid at all costs. Starting from top to bottom, they are not hotel staff, 5* or less - maybe the blonde nice-looking lady from the reception was - she seemed concerned about my troubles and actually said she was sorry.

The bartender, a tiny very tired middle-aged sweaty man will be quite annoyed if you ask for drinks at 9pm. The pit boss can't really be bothered because he' on the phone booking barbecue with family and friends for the day after. The nice looking granny joggling empty bottles and glasses won't be able to help you because well, she's not a bartender. So yeah, it's quite ridiculous to ask for drinks in the hotel bar at 9pm, I get it and I apologise for the audacity, I'm sorry, okay?!

The lush breakfast buffet was just like a country fair but with less food. Just get it elsewhere for half the price - not worth the trouble but a true feast for the eyes - if you're the person that enjoys silly circumstances and situational comedy in general.

All in all a one time visit to this pseudo-hotel, to be fair I would be hesitant to visit again even if it were for free. On the other hand, i might just be an asshole who got used to better services for these prices, that's all.

Thanks for the...

The hotel is definetely worth the money although is a bit expensive for some people. The room is big, clean and cozy. It has almost everything you need except for a shaving kit (It has a robe, quality slippers, sewing kit, seif, fridge, shower gel, body lotion, a bag for dirty laundry etc). You are welcomed with a fresh fruit basket. The view is nice, especially on the mountain side, but is good on the other side too because you can see Cetatuia. The fridge has vine, chocolate, cola and others. The balcony is very small but it isnt that important. The bed is big and confortable. The temperature is good and if you dont like it you can change it, unlike in many other hotels the air conditioner really works. The TV is medium size, with good signal, and good quality image, and on the TV you can acces a lot of functions like wake up call, get info for Brasov, navigate on Youtube or screen mirroring (I used this last funcion myself with a Huawei, although the TV is Samsung). The lobby is big and very nice, with lots of places where you can stay and wait, with flowers and a piano. It even has a kids corner. The minus is the place for smokers which is just a garbage box, no chairs. The location us just fine, 5-10 minutes walk from The Black Church, with the streets and atmosphere of the Old Brasov right next to you. The breakfast was very good, very diversified and of good quality cofee. The minus is that you can only get esspresso with 2 euros each. The inside pool is the jewel of this place. The water temperature is just good, not to warm and not too cold. I think around 25 degrees C. It has a sauna and a separate pool for children with warmer water. It also has sunbeds where you can rest. The most beautifull thing regarding the pool is the ceiling, which is made of glass and where you can see the sky during the day or the pool during night. You really feel good and relaxed floating, and looking trough the glass of the ceiling. The minus is that it hasnt got a jacuzzi. The gym is really a gym not just some fitness apparel trown in a room just to say the hotel has a gym, it has lots of threadmills and guality fitness gear, and is clean. In has 2 restaurants, one near the lobby and one at the 8th floor (last floor). The one at the last floor is the one I tried: It has a panoramic view over the city and over the mountain. The prices are not so high (like 2 euros a good salad or 11 euros a stake with potatoes)and the personell is a ten plus, very kind and very attentive. You really enjoy sitting there in the evening. The minus is that it hasnt got any pool tables like is written in the info paper frim the room. So in conclusion I say again that this hotel is definetely worth it, for some extra money you get lots of extra confort and lots of quality time for you and the ones you are...

Ugh Do not come here !!! Palace it sure is not. Read the many reviews here about the rooms with the smell of stinky socks !!! One of the worst service and reception I have received at the hotel especially that we booked 4 rooms at an exorbitant price for a hotel that probably gave itself the stars. There is no regulation in Romania regarding stars? We took 3 rooms and a suite "suite" not really suitable as a definition for a shabby, outdated 2-star hotel from where I come from. Shower with mold. We asked to change rooms due to the bad smell and were offered a regular room instead of the suite for the same price. They asked us to add 36 euros for an extra bed for our 12 year old girl per night even though we booked a suite for a couple plus a child. Turns out it's a regular trick they do, I read on several sites that this is what they do for a couple with kids on a regular basis and offer you to cancel the room if you want but no money back. When we asked why they think we booked a suite for a couple plus a girl and where she is supposed to sleep then they answered that she can sleep with us in bed. Unkind, degrading service, staff well trained to steal from the tourist, disgusting and aggressive response. The air conditioner did not work for two days in one of the rooms and made the stay impossible. Parking at an exorbitant price. Do not get close Go ahead on 2 stars From the experiences that ruin the vacation and it comes from those who are supposed to understand the vacations. Communist service, a staff that behaves like military personnel in a boarding school. The advantage is that they do not understand that everything was filmed on the phone and will be used to prove the claim that it is a permanent trick. To all those who have written reviews here, I will comfort you that I did not give in and The team will also personally sue each and every one of them for their degrading behavior towards us. Too bad you can't take a picture...